“How many more are left?” asks Miyamoto Musashi (Tak Sakaguchi), pausing for breath about 15 minutes into the epic set piece that comprises the heart of Yuji Shimomura’s “Crazy Samurai Musashi.” The answer is: a lot, though it depends on how carefully you’re counting.
Shimomura’s film depicts a famous 17th-century feud waged by Japan’s most legendary swordsman, though the body count is hiked up by a few orders of magnitude. Its main selling point is an audacious continuous shot that lasts for 77 minutes, during which cult action star Sakaguchi slashes his way through a seemingly endless supply of bodies.
This frenzied feat was actually filmed nine years ago, and it’s awe-inspiring to read about, if rather less so to watch. Sakaguchi broke a finger during the first five minutes of shooting, and later managed to snap a couple of ribs and shatter his molars. By the time the sequence was done, he’d vanquished a total of 588 adversaries, by his count — and vowed to retire.