Alive (2002)

After survivng his own execution, Tenshu choses to be subjected to the bizarre experiments of the prison officials.

Director:

Ryûhei Kitamura

Writers:

Tsutomu Takahashi (comic book), Ryûhei Kitamura (screenplay),

Stars:

Hideo Sakaki, Ryô, Koyuki

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Hideo Sakaki	...	Tenshu Yashiro
Ryô	...	Yurika Saegusa
Koyuki	...	Asuka Saegusa
Shun Sugata	...	Matsuda
Erika Oda	...	Misako Hara
Tak Sakaguchi	...	Zeros
Jun Kunimura	...	Kojima
Ryûshi Mizukami	...	Warden 1
Keita Kimura	...	Warden 2
Minoru Aoki	...	Warden 3
Yôji Tanaka	...	Hair Cut Guard (as Boba)
Takanori Hamachika	...	Guard 1
Makato Kitami	...	Guard 2
Seki Watanabe	...	Guard 3
Suenari Matsubara	...	Guard 4

Storyline

Tenshu is imprisoned and sentenced to death for murdering the men who raped his girlfriend. However, he manages to survive his execution and is presented with an option: face another execution attempt or subject himself to their bizarre and dangerous experiments. He choses the latter and is put in a cell with a rapist and a woman who's infected with a taint that transports from person to person during extreme anger. The taint is transferred to Tenshu and he must now deal with the military who has interrupted the experiment to obtain it.

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Plot Keywords:

prison | monitor | broken bottle | suicide | parasite | 

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Taglines:

A life worse than death.

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

26 October 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

Alive - Der Tod ist die bessere Alternative

Company Credits

Production Co:

Suplex, napalm FiLMS

Technical Specs

Runtime:

119 min 119 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

When Takutake shoots Zeros after he is defeated, you can clearly hear the sound of a shell casing of a pistol hitting the ground. As Takutake is using a revolver, which does not eject spent shells after each shot, this would make no sense.

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Connections

References Versus (2000)

User Reviews

OK idea with deadly pacing

I really tried to like this movie but in the end it just didn't work for me. I have seen most of Kitamura's output and have found it to be very variable. Alive, like all of his films has an interesting plot, some nifty sequences and a fair amount of creativity. However, these qualities are in painfully short supply in Alive. The plot is cool if not all that original and could have made for a pretty ace film. Unfortunately, the pacing is painfully slow and the film takes an age to get going, before reaching fairly predictable places. The action is just about passable, with the final fight pretty cool, and the earlier one about OK. The earlier one is also marred by overspeedy camera-work, making for less coherency. There are some neat visual effects and some interesting ideas floating around in the dialogue but the film still drags badly. The characters are neither well fleshed out nor well acted and the setting and general color scheme is drab and boring. The film is not completely terrible and has some points of interest, perhaps judicious use of the fast forward button could improve it. With about twenty minutes taken off the run time this could be a pretty decent sci fi thriller. But the full length film is dull. Only recommended to very patient and determined Kitumura fans.