Vital (2004)

After a tragic car accident where his girlfriend Ryôko Ooyama (Nami Tsukamoto) died, Hiroshi Takagi (Tadanobu Asano) suffers amnesia with his memories completely blanked. When he sees a ... See full summary »

Director:

Shin'ya Tsukamoto

Writer:

Shin'ya Tsukamoto

Stars:

Tadanobu Asano, Nami Tsukamoto, Kiki

5 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Credited 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:
Takashi Akiba
Toshiki Ayata
Kazuko Emura
Asako Endô
Kuniko Fukuda
Takashi Furuya

Storyline

After a tragic car accident where his girlfriend Ryôko Ooyama (Nami Tsukamoto) died, Hiroshi Takagi (Tadanobu Asano) suffers amnesia with his memories completely blanked. When he sees a book about dissection, he decides to join the medical school with the support of his parents. In the dissection class, his group participates of the autopsy of a young woman, and while cutting apart the tissue, he partially recalls his accident. Later, when he sees a tattoo in the arm of the corpse, he discloses that she was his girlfriend and becomes obsessed to go further in the examination of the body.

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Plot Keywords:

loneliness | dissection | tattoo | parents | autopsy | 

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Genres:

Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

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

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Japan]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

11 December 2004 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Vital: Autopsia di un amore

Company Credits

Production Co:

Kaijyu Theater

Technical Specs

Runtime:

86 min

Sound Mix:

DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Soundtracks

Blue Bird
Written by Cocco
Performed by Cocco

User Reviews

odd contemplation of life and death

I think whoever listed this as a "thriller" was going by the plot description rather than the actual film, in which an amnesiac medical student spends several months dissecting his ex-girlfriend at the University. The student is taciturn, is followed around by another, infatuated medical student, and because to have memories of his ex. And that's pretty much the movie. It is deliberately paced and at times purposely opaque.

The director has at times a film students fondness for meaningless composition, notably in an early scene in which the students parents stand perfectly still and converse. This sort of statues-holding-deadpan-conversations work well in Hal Hartley movies, but they feel a bit pretentious without Hartley's humor. The opening jittery camera-work also seems like something a film student would do. This sort of thing put me off, but the movie did generally keep my interest, becoming slightly more involving and less pretentious as it progressed, and in the end I feel okay about sitting through it, although I can't say I'd give it a strong recommendation.