Miyamoto Musashi e os 400 Samurais

Crazy Samurai: 400 vs. 1, also known as Crazy Samurai Musashi, is based upon writer, swordsman, strategist, ronin and philosopher Musashi Miyamoto who has inspired numerous legends. This low-budget movie shows how the titular hero confronts four hundred swordsmen when arriving to duel the disgraced Yoshioka dojo.

This movie can be separated into three scenes. The first scene is filled with atmosphere, context and tension as the members of the disgraced dojo expect the swordsman to arrive. They are planning on ambushing him but are obviously underestimating their enemy's wit.

The second scene has been filmed in one single take and lasts for seventy-seven minutes. Musashi Miyamoto confronts his enemies. They fight in a forest, on a field, in a house, in a court and later on in a small village. There are a few elements that offer some short breaks from the fight sequences such as the protagonist's brief monologues, the argument between two samurai and a peasant girl who betrays the hero.

The final scene takes place several years after the events portrayed before. It shows us what Musashi Miyamoto has become and what his foes are willing to do to murder him for once and for all.

The movie title already indicates exactly what you get here. This film is filled with fight scenes from start to finish. The stamina of lead actor Sakaguchi Taku is quite remarkable. The beautiful locations bring to life Japan in the early seventeenth century. Some of the fight scenes end up being a little bit repetitive. The visual effects look quite cheap but one gets used to them. The ending of the second scene felt a little bit unfinished in my opinion but didn't have an overall negative impact.

To keep it short, this movie is only interesting for martial arts enthusiasts and people who are interested in Japanese culture, history and legends. The movie has an unusual approach which makes it interesting to watch despite some repetition here and there. You should not expect witty dialogues, profound plot and unexpected twists here. Genre fans will get what they want and everyone else should simply ignore this film.

This is a Japanese movie? But calling it a movie is a stretch. Also apart from a exposition dump in the first 5 minutes there is about 10 lines so not that much Japanese in it. They spend over an hour with one samurai guy taking on an endless supply of stunt guys. Poor quality you could find better quality at a medieval fair show. To be fair they do slowly walk through a model Japanese village during it. It's boring what can I say how long does it take watching Japanese men struggling out of shot after being sliced then to immediately join the endless supply of grunts. It feels like a beat them up video game without any inputs and it's stuck in an endless cutscene which never ends.

Totally unrealistic.

95% of the actors who supposedly get killed either fall behind a tree/building, get concealed by a couple of other actors, or stumble out of the camera field of view. Only to reappear minutes later.

When the camera eventually pans around only 2-3 bodies are there instead of a pile of around 60+ corpses.

You end up watching the same repeated sequence over and over... one person at a time attacks, gets pommelled on the head, crawls off screen, and reappears a few minutes later.

I guess due to the lack of actors involved this was necessary, but this is child's playground fare in its execution. An army being represented by a dozen or so people constantly running around the cameraman is beyond acceptable.

Very cool to pull a "one shot" off, but man did it ever trade that for the things I expect in a hardcore samurai movie. Not even ONE decapitation. So sad...

Personally I enjoyed the movie, but to review this or recommend the movie, I would not.

I had no idea Tak was the leading actor, and I knew it would not disappoint. Though it let me down.

The opening of the movie felt like a real movie, the camera, cinematography, colour grading, blurring etc. As soon as someone gets killed and Musashi reveals himself, then the quality all of a sudden drops.

I was shocked that the movie did the action one take with no cuts, effects or cgi. However it got repetitive, which was the movie's downfall. Same moves, same attacks, same sequences. I can understand it would be hard to find 400 actors and 400 actors who can remember the choreography and cut time, so it's fine for me if the same actors where repeating.

The movie had little story, which was a downfall, we have no idea why Musashi is killing the clans or why they want to kill him (because he killed someone Sejuiro). The effects of the movie are actually quite good, blood is not over exaggerated, but believeable.

The one shot take was cool, but very boring. I was just surprised how Tak could go on and on, which was an impressive human feat, this should go on the Guinness Book of World Record. Music were good choice, there was lack of acting.

The ending fight scene felt better than all the 70mins 1shot take.

Would I recommend this movie? No.

But I would advise you to watch if you like Samurai, Tak or one shot takes.