Vital (2004)

dir Tsukamoto Shinya

The working title of the film was "Dissection Film Project," if that's any indication of what to expect here.

According to Shinya, his films study the relationship between humans and Tokyo. Human existence is seen as fading, the physical existence waning while the brain/mental capacity increases. As for his need to show us dead bodies in Vital, the intention is to wake us up to the fact of being alive and real, shaking us up from our dream-state, virtual-reality, sanitized, city-dwelling existences.

Asano Tadanobu, often described as a very natural actor, plays Hiroshi, a man with no memories who struggles to come to terms with the amnesia-inducing accident that caused his lover Ryoko's (Tsukamoto Nami) death. His stoicism works well, and though brooding and in turmoil, he plays this with a reticence that makes the role very convincing.

As in The Fountain, Vital's antihero is a practitioner of science and the medical arts who engages the techniques of the field to attempt to retrieve the departed lover. Vital's Hiroshi, fatefully tasked with the dissection of his lover's body, is based on Leonardo da Vinci, who conducted dissections in order to sketch the underlying structures to the surface that is skin. With his long hair and demonstrable sketching prowess, Hiroshi unflinchingly seeks the deeper knowledge that the brutal scrutiny and systematic taking apart and drawing of the body may give.

Like with Jodie Foster's character in Contact, Hiroshi undergoes a dreamlike sequence where he is allowed to spend time with his lost love from beyond the void of death. Super-thin dancer Ryoko flexes her skills in an over-the-top, beach dance number in which she flings her body around, throwing herself forcibly and repeatedly to the sand. Several moments of visual and aural cacophony occur, quite beautifully done, with a repetitive cymbal striking reminiscent of Japanese theatre.

When cool but pretentious med-student Ikumi (Kiki), who's into sexual asphyxiation, is unable to break though to Hiroshi, she complains to the point: "What about those of us still living?"

Check out this Tsukamoto Shinya interview by Mark Shilling on Vital.

This is the trailer:

Gohatto (1999)

aka Taboo
aka Tabou
dir: Oshima Nagisa

Symbolically summed up best at the end: "Sozaburo(Matsuda Ryuhei) was too beautiful. Men took advantage of him, He was possessed by evil." Then in one fell swoop the speaker, Captain Hijikata (Kitano "Bito" Takeshi), slices off the top of a young sakura tree in full bloom.

Samurai shudo was not unknown behavior in this time period. Rarely though does it ever does it become subject, incidental or otherwise, in this type of historical pic, with this one's genre bent towards mystery and intrigue. The gayness of the film shouldn't be seen as the sole focus though. 'Gohatto' translates into the "against the law" or "against the laws," and shudo isn't the thing out of bounds here. Perhaps it's the underlying, unspoken jealousies threatening to undo the male bonds that is in implied contention in the title.

Most conspicuous to the film is what's missing. The gay act itself, though not treated any less artistically, is displayed with a complete departure from the graphic form one may come to expect from Oshima. What we are left with are spectacularly built up moments, carefully constructed with Oshima's deft pacing; though simulations of gay sex are shown, they are secondary concerns compared to, say, when Sozaburo reaches for chaperone Heibei's (Matoba Koji) hand --truly one of those breathtaking instances encapsulating so much of the film's concerns: the hidden depths of male emotions and bonding.

It can't be understated the masculine, stoic beauty Asano Tadanobu represents in the character of Tashiro, early courter of Sozaburo in the wake of his freshly joining the close-knit social quarters of the all-male militia troops. Composer Sakamoto Ryuichi lends heavily to the tense tone.

Survive Style 5+ (2005)

dir: Sekiguchi Gen

An exercise in J-pop fluff, the movie has a strange sense of humor --standard Japanese quirkiness abounds, both in terms of story as well as look and feel. The candy coated sets are fun and kitchy, i.e. the feast of all breakfast feasts thrown artfully together into temporary glory, as it gets tackled by its intended recipient and one of many of the films' characters, Asano Tadanobu . The chef is his supernaturally gifted, ever-reincarnating, revenge seeking girlfriend whom a la Groundhog Day he sans explanation recurrently kills and buries. She comes back to get even, and he puts her back down, again, and again, and again.

For said quirkiness, the mood, while often light and airy, is tinged with underlying darkness, as in these aforementioned scenes in the woods at night, and as with the rest of characters and story-lines the film follows:

The three bumbling friends robbing houses, two of the bunch discovering more between them than just loot.

The ad saleswoman, oddly likable for being a cutthroat, sharky bitch, whose imagination is rife with silly, un-pitched ideas for unrealized products.

The oft-angry British hitman (Vinnie Jones) traveling inseparably from his translator, intently demanding of folks: What's your function?

Finally, there's the sympathetic family man/super dad who, while attending the TV taping of a talk show, gets hypnotized into thinking he's a duck.

Hilarity, naturally, ensues.

Of note: Sonny Chiba has a small role as an advertising company president.

Tokyo Zombie (2005)

dir: Sato Sakichi

To paraphrase Tadanobu himself --interview provided as part of the extras-- Tokyo Zombie is actually a love story between the bald guy --Mitsuo (Aikawa Show)-- and the afro guy --Fujio (Asano Tadanobu). Certainly there are elements of the master-apprentice relationship going on here beyond the repair-man trappings. These bushido-code loyal friends, grappling/jiu-jitsu aficionados/partners are undeniably something of soul mates.

A take on the Western buddy pic, perhaps, the movie's origin comes in the media of manga. The orginal work's [Tokyo Zonbi] author Hanakuma Yusaka, himself a fighting member of Ichibanbosi Grappling, co-wrote the screenplay with director Sato Sakichi, which picks up the tale of the two popular comic book characters, Afuro (Afro) and Hage (Baldie).

A surprisingly refreshing view, given the dystopian-future-set zombie comedy depicts future humans as (d)evolved with increased petty ego-ism, materialism, and a murderously ravenous appetite for entertainment, drawing parallels with human's thirst for blood-sport with that of the zombie's appetite for live flesh.

Done with panache and flair atypical of any of these genres taken individually, the film rises above the sum of its parts, drawing easy comparisons to the sense of humor in Stephen Chow's Kung Fu Hustle. With an open ending one can only hope a sequel is in the works.