Program Note
“Takuma Toshiro. You’re an actor. An action film actor, right?” The meaningful question is followed by an interview with a protagonist who is the embodiment of confidence. With his first starring role and a new martial arts director, he was about to become the messiah of live-action movies. Ten years later, the reality is one of despair. On the movie set, a newcomer, who claims to have worked out, makes fun of him, and his students start to leave. Grasping at straws, he heads to the set but encounter threat that could change his life forever. Sakaguchi Tak is an action hero as glib as Bruce Lee, a person who can’t be easily mimicked like in Tarantino’s film. His previous film, Crazy Samurai Musashi (2020), tired of swordplay through its 77-minute original one-cut, while in ONE-PERCENTER, Sakaguchi Tak captures the “top 1 percent” of realism action on camera, which was aim and proof of its existence in the Japanese film industry, where being too safe often stifles expression. Add to that a twist that would make spoilers criminal, and you’ve got the virtues of “Only in cinemas”. (HONG Sanghyun)