Vital
 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0417243/

Watched this last night and thought it was excellent. It's a Japanese movie about a medical student who comes out of a coma in a hospital after a car accident to discover that he has amnesia. At first he is unable to even recognise his parents, but slowly his memories being to return ...

With the various cues early on in the film, I was expecting a more complex narrative, but on reflection I'm kind of glad that it didn't turn out like that as it would have just ended up being too derivative. The film tends to get categorised as a horror, but it's not. More mystery, suspense and drama.

http://www.btinternet.com/~squirrel....les/7stars.png

Anyone else seen it? :)

I haven't seen the entire movie (for various reasons) but from what I've seen, it's a pretty well done movie with an interesting, fairly well done concept.

The only issue I had were the occasional artsy sequences, which is fine from time to time, but they tended to stand out. Though, that said, they're pretty typical of Shinya Tsukamoto.

I really loved the movie he did before Vital (A Snake of June) and hope to see the rest of Vital soon.

I enjoyed this, but all in all, it simply didn't coalesce together or resonate for me emotionally as much as I would have liked. I'll agree with RichC2's statement that the 'artsy' sequences may have been out of place, but they're practically a mandatory inclusion for Tsukamoto, although I found them to be fairly tame here compared to some of the other films in his oeuvre.

That said, an enjoyable 90 minutes nonetheless, as Tsukamoto's an always interesting talent, and Asano's an eminently watchable actor, even here, where the demands of his character essentially have him in a permanent somnambulistic state.

Not to threadcrap (but I will), any comments as to which is the best DVD version of this film?

I have the Tartan UK DVD and the image quality and DTS track were very nice indeed. DVDBeaver reckon the Tartan US DVD is the same.

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film/DVDRev...dvd_review.htm

I knew I should have checked there first. -ohbfrank- [at self] Thanks ..

I got this movie on a whim, and unlike most movies I pick up in said fashion, I really enjoyed it. It was mesmerizing to me. I am shocked it doesn't get more praise because from where I am sitting it was darn near perfect.

Somebody sent this to me months ago and I never got around to watching it. *slaps forehead* And I really like Tsukamoto, too.