Customer Reviews

Survive Style 5+

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Fast-paced, with visuals that will BLOW your mind, multiple storylines- humorous, engaging, and VERY VERY WEIRD. This is one of my favorite movies, ever, and each time I watch it I only find more beauty and gain more visual appreciation for the incredible camera work.

This is NOT a film for everyone. Violence, sex, weird humor, and a plot line that loops around on itslef, eating it's own tail... regardless, you are guaranteed to have a truly unique experience with this film. It will leave you speechless and hungering for others to discuss it with.

Well, perhaps I exaggerate. However, the film is unique, and well worth a watch--or two or three. It is definitely an acquired taste, probably the kind of film someone would only enjoy if they also enjoy the complex interconnectedness of Guy Ritchie's films, the Vibrant colors of Speed Racer or Fuller's "Pushing Daisies", the dark humor of the Coen brothers, and moments of absolute absurdity a la Monty Python, mixed into a single, semi-cohesive, Japanese film. Even with that description, I feel I am merely dropping names and hardly doing the film justice.

It is quirky, odd, humorous, well-acted, and probably could only ever be made in Japan. If you're the kind of person who can appreciate all of those factors, then you would be doing yourself a favor to at least check this out; if not, you will likely stare blankly at the screen for two hours unless you give up before the end.

The art direction on this flic is great. Spectacular use of color. Beyond that, the various interwoven plots are eccentric and funny and scary and surprisingly fresh. Viva Friends. Asano's Feast. The Man Who Turns into a Bird. All good. It's all good. With all this, there is a sort of grace that accumulates when watching this strange film. Satisfaction guaranteed. This would make a great double bill with Miike's "Happiness of the Katakuri's" I must buy if you are interested in how the pop-vid style has influenced modern movies.

Survive Style 5+ has the feel the feel of a underground zine (perhaps from more of an 80s/90s zine scene, with its tendency towards novel bright fluorescent paper [mimicked by the bright pop style of movie,]) constantly playing with the absurd and still, through its semi-cohesive, semi-chaotic and yet allegorical plotline, it's able to be so much more.

This is not a 'pop' work, this is a philosophical work. Or, maybe, it's really one in the same. Fans of this movie may be attracted to the sight of arms shooting off of beautiful women like rockets, over-dramatic Japanese prattle, and the bright flashy sets (not to mention the ever wonderful presence of Vinnie Jones,) but hopefully they're leaving with a slightly heightened sense of what entertained them. This film truly crosses from the absurd to become absurdist, with all the heightened feelings that conveys.

Plus, Todanobu Asano is really, really just astoundingly hot in this movie.

Simply put, this film is a schizophrenic experience.

Based around 5 groups of people and how their lives interact with each other, Survive Style 5+ offers a mind bending experience. At times, the movie feels like Monty Python with a hint of Fight Club and National Lampoons Vacation series.

Keep in mind, this isn't a family film. At times, it can be a challenging yet very rewarding watch. Which really separates Survive Style 5+ from most films (and it's not pretentious about it). As much as I would like to divulge details about the films story, I highly recommend you avoid reading reviews before a first viewing. A lot of the film's appeal comes from it's spontaneity and surprising scenes. It's a great film for those wanting something different, compelling and raw.

The item pictured above is for the Premium Edition, which has a small booklet, footage from event screenings and extra interviews. There's also a Collector's Limited Edition (which has text on the box and a thick booklet), and a standard edition (only movie and cast features). All editions are spoken in 95% Japanese, 5% English dialogue and offer both languages in subtitle format.

*If you purchased this movie and can watch it on an American DVD player, you're edition is a bootleg and incomplete.

I'm not a person thats very big on the Japanese culture by any means, but this movie is awesome! Its a little bit like Crash in the sense that there are a lot of different stories that are in the movie and that they all intertwine together in the end. When this movie ended I wasn't really sure that I had watched, and I really had to think about it before I realized what the movie theme was about. If you like movies that are off the mainstream then this movie is for you!

It is an anime with real actors and real setting, it is a film with cartoon characters and cardboard settings. It is a Kaleidescope, where you watch people and places rather than shifting shapes.

It does not matter if the 5 stories merge or not. It does not matter if they all end or not. They are there, in your mind's eye, for days after you have watched this film which reaches towards the apex of filmography.

Do not watch this film if you like messages, morals, clearly defined good and bad guys, strong story lines, and if you can only reminisce in black and white. It is noone's reality, not even that of the Coen Brothers. It is a living coloring book with unreal and story book characters entering each page and leaving it as they wish, populated with an incredible collection of knick-knack and colored by a meticulous copy artist with the most amazing number of crayons, paints and brushes.

This DVD is great. It is subtitled, but it does take a few minutes to find the toggle for it in the menu.

I own the British DVD for this movie. Hopefully an American release will be available in the future, as this is a movie that deserves wider distribution.

The plot is made up of five different stories that are told pieces at a time and which converge with one another.

In one story, told in a Groundhog Day fashion, a man kills his wife every night, only to drive back to his house and find her there in a new outfit and with various supernatural abilities. She attempts to kill him; he manages to kill her; repeat...

Another concerns an advertising executive who thinks up weirder and weirder ad concepts ("A crab and a lobster mate: a new taste is born"). For example, after some unsatisfactory sex, she imagines an ad for high-speed internet where racers run an obstacle-course. The final station is a bed with a girl on it... the underdog wins the race because he can orgasm in three seconds.

In another, a father is hypnotized into thinking that he is a bird. His family has to come to terms with this, as the hypnotist is killed and they cannot find a way to "cure him".

Another story concerns three young thieves. Two of them, one good-looking and the other with bad teeth, begin to become more and more sexually attracted to each other, as the soundtrack plays "Come Baby, Come Come Baby)...

The final story is about a British hit man (Vinnie Jones), who asks everyone what their function in life is, and his Japanese translator.

The movie, besides being very humorous, is absolutely beautiful with amazing colors. The performances are all wonderful, especially Ittoku Kishibe, who plays the hypnotized father... I cannot imagine squatting like a bird take after take. If you get the opportunity to watch this, don't miss it! At the time of this review, the DVD is available on Amazon.co.uk for 4 pounds.