Eleanor Yule, Martin Jones

Zombie Comedy and Cross – Cultural Narratives in One Cut of the Dead (Ueda, 2017) and Final Cut (Hazanavicius, 2022)

Liverpool John Moores University, UK

Although Japanese blockbuster, One Cut of the Dead (Ueda, 2017) and Cannes opening French adaptation, Final Cut (Hazanavicius, 2022) draw upon the cult American Zombie comedy genre, (Romero (1978), Landis (1981), O’Bannon (1981), the reflective metacinematic narrative at their centres directs the audience, “to exchange the pleasure of immersion with the awareness of artifice” (LaRocco, 2021), exposing the stylistic conventions and underlying doxas inherent within their own National Cinemas.

Final cut opens with a film-within-a-film metacinematic narrative adopted from the Japanese original showcasing a production teams’ final chaotic output; a hand-held, guerrilla style Zombie movie where the camera is an active participant in the diegesis (Rødje, 2017). In a dramatic change of style the second and third acts chart the behind-the-scenes crises that led to the final film. Consequently, Final Cut (and the Japanese original) fit loosely into the category of the poly-narrative found footage film (Jones, 2023), with the meta-filmic aspects of Final Cut, reflecting the Japanese original upon which it is based. One Cut of the Dead, is frequently referred to, and exists, within the diegesis of Final Cut in extended conversations about fidelity to the original’s script and the inclusion of Yoshiko Takehara, who reprises her role as the film’s producer, and whose interactions with the French creatives expose a clash in cultural values and stylistic preferences. The acknowledgement of the success of One Cut of the Dead and the constant demands to stick to the original script (along with the last-minute stipulation that French characters adopt the names of their Japanese counterparts) also establishes the superiority of the original which, again, prioritises questions of fidelity and the often-problematic relationship between the remake and the original. Finally, Final Cut also poses and makes transparent important considerations in terms of the role of cross-cultural adaptations and inherent national cinematic tropes.

Dr. Eleanor Yule is an award-winning writer and director and interdisciplinary Senior Lecturer at LJMU working across both Media and Film Studies at the Liverpool Screen School. She has written and produced over thirty films, including a UK BAFTA nominated short, a series of bespoke arts documentaries with ex – python Michael Palin and a critically acclaimed feature film, Blinded. Her screenwriting research includes a PhD on Medieval Film, a book publication on ‘Scottish Miserablism’ and the study of Pinter’s anachronic adapted screenplays. She is currently producing a documentary profile of a salvaged local archive, Tales from the Magic Attic.

Martin L. Jones is Coordinator and Tutor for the LJMU MA Short Film Festival and a PhD student at Liverpool John Moores University. He is currently working on a thesis that examines the found footage film with reference to narratology, moving beyond the traditional preoccupation with the visual distinctiveness of the genre. His work also explores the wealth of folklore influences across the genre and their influence on cultural and regional variations of the found footage film.