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

Kicks off great but falls off the edge

"Alive" is a dark dystopian science-fiction drama that convinces with some philosophic thoughts and some social criticism. There are a couple of intriguing mysteries surrounding the movie that keep a certain level of tension. This Japanese flick though lives especially from its dark and twisted dystopian atmosphere and a good graphic work. The acting performances of the two male prisoners and the strange witch are great enough to carry the movie on and have a classic and theatrical approach reminding me of Sartre's "No Exit".

Towards the end, the movie sadly shifts into a rather ordinary fantasy flick with some boring action scenes. I also feel that one could have developed some characters a little bit more and gone more into some details. While there are many interesting aspects, the movie doesn't go as it could have. As soon as the mysteries are solved or left untouched, the story shifts into emptiness and the whole structures gets somewhat overlong, pointless and even emotionless. Even the acting gets less addicting and one loses interest concerning the different characters. The dramatic turn of events in the ending can't save much anymore and leaves the viewers more or less untouched because the flick lost too much credit in its last third.

In the end, the movie is a mixed package with two third of the running time that is rather addicting, diversified and filled with tension, mystery and atmosphere while the last third is less intense and lacks of originality. This is a fairly interesting movie to rent or watch once but only of an average quality compared to many other contemporary Japanese movies and I wouldn't suggest you a blind purchase of this flick. After all, my rating is seven out of ten but I'm maybe still a little bit generous, so don't expect an outstanding movie in here but just some good entertainment with a few enjoyable qualities.