Vital (2004)

Director:

Shinya Tsukamoto

Writer:

Shinya Tsukamoto (writer)

Release Date:

11 December 2004 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama | Thriller

Plot:

After a tragic car accident where his girlfriend Ryôko Ooyama (Nami Tsukamoto) died, Hiroshi Takagi...

Plot Keywords:

Tattoo | Medical Student | Girlfriend | Dissection | Hallucination

Awards:

4 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Tadanobu Asano	...	Hiroshi Takagi
Nami Tsukamoto	...	Ryôko Ooyama
Kiki	...	Ikumi
Kazuyoshi Kushida	...	Hiroshi's father
Lily	...	Hiroshi's mother
Hana Kino	...	Mrs. Ooyama, Ryôko's mother
Gô Rijû	...	Dr. Nakai
Jun Kunimura	...	Mr. Ooyama, Ryôko's father
Ittoku Kishibe	...	Dr. Kashiwabuchi
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Masato Tsujioka

MPAA:

Rated R for some aberrant sexual behavior, disturbing images and brief language.

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS

Certification:

Germany:16 | Ireland:18 | Argentina:13 | Netherlands:12 | Singapore:NC-16 | USA:R | UK:18

Company:

Kaijyu Theater

Not Tsukamoto's best work, but still quite good

It's his least wild, though it does have a certain sense of weirdness to it. The story involves a medical student (Ichi the Killer's Tadanobu Asano) who experiences a bout of amnesia after a car accident. When he re-enrolls in school, he finds himself in a dissection class taking apart his former girlfriend, who was in the passenger seat during the accident. There's a subtext of necrophilia, which Tsukamoto explores in the film's first half. But he ends up veering away from any taboos and into more conventional drama. Actually, it's still pretty unconventional. It gets a bit too ponderous in the second half, and there are some scenes that drag. But Tsukamoto captures some brilliant images, and his infamous editing style pops up frequently, and is put to great use. There are some truly wonderful sequences. I especially loved all the sequences where the protagonist visits his dead lover in a fantasy landscape. The film ends beautifully. I really liked Asano's two female co-stars, Nami Tsukamoto (not sure if she's any relation to the director) and Kiki. Both are gorgeous, though each of them could eat the occasional burger. They're absolutely skeletal. Thank God for companies like Tartan Asian Extreme. This DVD is an especially nice edition with quite a few worthwhile extras.