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Survive Style 5+
This clever
story reminds me of some weird Guy Ritchie or Tarrantino film due to its
bizarre and clever content, thanks to five thoroughly enjoyable stories. Directed by Sekiguchi and
written by Tada, Survive Style 5+ is full of clever dialogue that will
have you in stitches, even though the film is subtitled. It's the little
attention to detail that makes Survive Style 5+ such as riotous
experience from start to finish as we watched these characters go about
their everyday lives with some unexpected results.
The first
story revolves around a man (Tadanobu Asano) who has killed his wife (Reika
Hashimoto), however when he returns home after disposing of the body,
she appears to be alive and healthy. Uh-oh! Needless to say, this woman
scorned seems more superhuman than supernatural... lots of payback
violence here.
Story number two
revolves around a director (Kyoko Koizumi) who considers themselves somewhat of
a professional comedian but when their partner (Hiroshi Abe) tells them
otherwise, the s*it really hits the fan. Story three is my favourite
story and when a family visit one of the world's most famed hypnotists,
the family are shocked to discover that their father (Ittoku Kishibe) is
still a bird after the hypnotists act gets disturbed.
Seeing the
reaction of his family, especially his wife Misa and their children is
quite frightfully entertaining. Story number four involves four small
time criminals (Kanji Tusda, Yoshiyuki Morishita, and Jai West) who
think they are the Mafia or Yakuza but in actual fact, they are only
fighting themselves as opposed to the world which they are trying to
swindle. These guys think they are the gangsters or rappers but in the
end, they are just obnoxious losers which brought a big fat smile to my
face to see how it all played out.
Lastly, we have story number 5
which stars Vinnie Jones as a hitman but what makes this story so
special is that he is reliant on his translator (Yoshiyoshi Arakawa)
that makes him more of a joke than a man to be feared. Needless to say,
Jimmy Funky Knife (Jones) is a treat to watch and not only does it
appear that he is out of his comfort zone, the character that is, it's
great to see how the characters react to him.
Video/Audio & Special Features
Presented in
16:9 widescreen, this presentation looks and sounds good. There is some
artifacting but overall, it's a cinema quality release. The only
drawback of this movie is the special features or lack of. The cinema
trailer is really bad for a special feature.
Although the stories are
really not interconnected, the wackiness and bizarre nature of this Japanese
release is a well worthy of a purchase with a touch of Hollywood and only
a cast of characters that only the Japanese could succeed with. |
