Coventry Not being the biggest fan of Shinya Tsukamoto's acclaimed cult favorites "Tetsuo" & "Tetsuo II", I was rather careful with my anticipations towards "Vital"; of which the DVD-box announces it as the director's latest masterpiece. Well it ain't no masterpiece, but it's definitely a compelling and suspense-packed thriller that I liked a whole lot better than the boisterous Tetsuo-films. Especially the basic story ideas are very ingenious and even original! The plot centers on the young Hiroshi Takagi who slowly recovers from a dramatic car accident in which his lost his whole memory and youthful spirit. The sight of a book about surgery suddenly makes him decide to study medicines, where he becomes somewhat of a strange outcast but with a natural talent to dissect corpses. Bit by bit his memory returns and Hiroshi comes to the painful establishment that he's performing an autopsy on his former girlfriend Ryôko, who died in the same accident and put her body at the disposal of the medical faculty. My main problem with "Vital" was that it quickly got tedious once Hiroshi realizes whose corpse he hacks up and - especially near the end - Tsukamoto inserts a lot of irrelevant dream sequences and images of scenic beauty. It actually would be a lot more effective and horrific as a short movie, I think. It's a fairly short film now (86 min.) but it would have been so much better as a part of trilogy like, say, "Three…Extremes" and exclusively focusing on Hiroshi's amnesia. Tsukamoto is clearly a gifted director who also knows a thing or two about cinematography. "Vital" is often beautiful to look at and loaded with symbolism. Worth watching.

kmevy This film really gave me an impression and was for myself a very memorable experience.Like many others i was also quite surprised about the emotional and gentle character of this film. Before starting to watch i prepared myself for something extreme and uncompromising like i experienced in many Shinya Tsukamoto's films. But that is a good thing for this film; making it possible to reach a broader audience. And it definitely deserves it.Technically this film is superb. Lighting and camera were excellent .. and the colors ... Sound design and music weren't that demonstrative but still played, in a subtle way, an important role. Acting was also impressive. Tadanobu Asano, one of my favorite actor since Ichi the killer, was a perfect fit. Nami Tsukamoto was very scary, in a good way ;). But she doesn't have a record at IMDb yet. I wonder why .. her acting was very promising. And letting Kiki perform modern dance was for the atmosphere and art-style a very good idea.To sum the story up, by leaving all the artful details behind, you could say it is about the painful yearning for the loved one. This was extremely good implemented. Just everything, art, sound and acting supported the presentation of this yearning. This is one of those films you don't simply watch. You have to experience them.

Matthew Janovic Shinya Tsukamoto has to be one of the greatest living-directors of our time. He is absolutely uncompromising in his visions, and is one of the very few-directors who actually owns his films, rejecting most outside-financing. The results are always spectacular, and undiluted by the money people who constantly ruin the projects they fund. It must be a heavy-burden to shoulder all of the praise and the blame, as Tsukamoto often acts as producer, writer, actor, cinematographer (as with his "Bullet Ballet"), and even film-editor. The man is unstoppable, like many of his film-protagonists, and he is a testament to the power of discipline. Even Takashi Miike admits he's an admirer and will never top Tsukamoto.This tale was created entirely by Tsukamoto, and certainly has elements of autobiography to it, and he continues his theme of the desensitizing-nature of urban life in all its mind-numbing routines. Again, his characters are attempting to punch-through the drudgery to a more-fulfilling life. Sometimes they succeed. The story concerns a medical student named Hiroshi who has suffered amnesia in a car-accident. His lover was killed in this accident. He returns to live-with his parents, who he doesn't remember--in-fact, he has forgotten his past entirely. One day, he discovers one of his old anatomy-textbooks hidden-away, and decides to return to medical school. He also finds many drawings he did before the accident. Over-time, it becomes clear that he once wanted to be an artist, and felt-pressured by his parents to be a doctor. Returning to medical school, Hiroshi rapidly-excels and reaches the dissection-stage of his education. There is a problem--the cadaver is his lover...This is lyrical-art, nothing-less. The makeup of the cadavers is astonishing, and was done with plastic-molding and latex. It looks entirely-real. As Hiroshi delves-deeper into the body of his dead-lover, he remembers more-and-more of what happened before the accident. So, if you like grue and gore, you'll like THAT part of this film, just don't expect viscera and fluids everywhere. Vital is more cerebral than that, and this is not a gorefest, there is meaning to this. There is a confrontation-with-mortality here that Americans are incapable of creating in our culture, but it also says that the dead speak to us. We just never listen. If I tell you more, it will only ruin your curiosity and the viewing-experience, which is best experienced virginal. This is a story of discovery, and identity. It is the essence of being-human, and being empathetic and caring. It also celebrates the beauty of the human-body in ways I never imagined, a visual-feast.The Tartan DVD couldn't be any-better. The image-quality is superb, as is the audio (DTS, and stereo-versions are very-active). While this is a film that lasts a mere 80-minutes, it is a very full-experience, and the added-features on the DVD are great, including an audio-commentary by Miike and Tsukamotot-scholar, Tom Mes, interviews, and more. So, gorehounds, this is a beautiful film with some very deep-meaning about what it is to be human and caring. Correct, gorehounds will be bored, but who cares? This is high-art by a totally independent filmmaker, it doesn't get much-better than this.

therealmusashi I was mostly disappointed with this film. I'm a fan of Tsukamoto's other work, and while this film indicates his growth as a director, and has a strong cast, I felt it had issues with pacing, and a pretty dissatisfying ending.Asano Tadanobu, normally an engaging lead, seems to be coasting through this film, brooding, mainly. Of course, maybe that's how his character was written, but I found myself wondering when it would pick up in several places and unable to identify with him.Kunimura Jun is wonderfully powerful as Ryoko's father, and I wound up wishing he was more of a central character. I also felt Ittoku Kishibe, who can conjure a truly menacing screen presence, was rather wasted as Dr. Kashiwabuchi.There are some interesting philosophical questions raised, but they are never really addressed or explored fully. I guess I'm also getting tired of the "I don't know whether I'm dreaming or awake" cliché in many movies in this genre. Plus, it's a little ham-fisted to have a character just come out and say that.Vital contains a few interesting scenes involving a dance, and some of Tsukamoto's signature music video-style strangeness in a few places, but in summary, a slow, dark film with no real scares or thrills.