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Vital
 
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Vital (2004)

Starring: Tadanobu Asano, Nami Tsukamoto Director: Shinya Tsukamoto Rating: R (Restricted) Format: DVD
3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
List Price: $14.99
Price: $13.49 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
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Frequently Bought Together

Vital + A Snake of June + Nightmare Detective
Total List Price: $49.93
Price For All Three: $40.97

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  • This item: Vital DVD ~ Tadanobu Asano

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    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • A Snake of June DVD ~ Tomoroh Taguchi

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  • Nightmare Detective DVD ~ Ryuhei Matsuda

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Vital
64% buy the item featured on this page:
Vital 3.8 out of 5 stars (11)
$13.49
A Snake of June
10% buy
A Snake of June 4.5 out of 5 stars (2)
$13.49
Marebito
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Marebito 3.0 out of 5 stars (36)
$16.99
Nightmare Detective
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Product Details

  • Actors: Tadanobu Asano, Nami Tsukamoto, Kiki (IX), Kazuyoshi Kushida, Lily
  • Directors: Shinya Tsukamoto
  • Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
  • Language: Japanese (Dolby Digital 5.1), Japanese (DTS 5.1)
  • Subtitles: English
  • Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Rating: R (Restricted)
  • Studio: Tartan Video
  • DVD Release Date: January 24, 2006
  • Run Time: 86 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B000C65YMQ
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #54,572 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

    Popular in this category: (What's this?)

    #31 in  Movies & TV > Horror > J-Horror

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Hiroshi Takagi returns home to begin his new life after having his memory wiped away in an auto accident. Fascinated by a dusty dissection textbook, he enrolls in medical school where he catches the eye of Izumi, a beautiful fellow student who desires his attention. But its another beauty that becomes his obsessionthe dead woman on the cadaver table. Starting with the tattoo on her arm, patterns of recognition begin to return to Hiroshi and soon he is having visions of a life with this woman. The deeper he cuts into her flesh, the closer he gets to unlocking the dark memories of his forgotten past.

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Customer Reviews

11 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:    (0)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars First masterpece of 21 st century japanese cinema, January 25, 2006
By Milos Tomin (Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
The evolution of Shinya Tsukamoto from independent extremism of Tetsuo through his polished and festival acclaimed films like Gemini and A Snake of June, is an incredible phenomenon of a great talent developing right before a film fan's eyes.

Vital, at first glance is a dark and lurid tale of a brilliant young medical student suffering from amnesia after surviving a horrific car crash in which his girlfriend was killed.

After deciding to resume his studies and taking up an anatomy class in which dissection is performed on human cadavers his memories start coming back.
Hypnotized by the strange familiarity of the body before him the tale takes an unexpected twist and this film presents us with questions on the purpose of our bodies, memories and love.

Tadanobu Asano is perfectly cast in the role of the student supported by several other luminaries of current Japanese film industry.

Final revelation about the origin of body should come as no surprise to the attentive viewer but the thoughtful way in which this film deals with some very uncomfortable questions that seem to have been completely banished from the western cinema deserves a serious look even by those who might be put off by the subject matter.

I have never seen a film which completely transforms its story and subject matter from a taboo into bliss.
A cinematic experience to cherish!
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8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Profound and Moving, June 11, 2006
By Miguel B. Llora (Bay Point, California USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
From the director of Tetsuo - The Iron Man and A Snake in June comes a deeply challenging psycho drama.

Hiroshi (Tadanobu Asano) is a medical student bothered by memory loss after a road accident that killed his girlfriend Ryoko (Tsukamoto Nami). Coming home to his mom and dad's with his mind a tabula rasa, he exists through the days like a zombie. Finding an old anatomy textbook ignites/sparks his memories of his life as a medical student. Hiroshi recalls his girlfriend and things arduously begin to come back to him. He decides to re-enter medical school and take it from there - this is where the story really begins.

When the body in his dissection class turns out to be Ryoko, Hiroshi begins to unravel the shared past, in a way uncovering the "vitals" and piecing together the story of her death, but really more her life. Hiroshi rapidly regains his memory thereafter and surrounds himself in the escape of vanished love. For all intents and purposes, the viewer is allowed to share in an experience that is both profound and moving.

Miguel Llora
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars i liked it!, February 1, 2009
amazingly weird. weirdly amazing. i don't think it's exactly "horror." it is different. and for someone who has watched a bagillion movies, watching something different is a delight.

the acting and cinematography are excellent. just don't expect it to be a straight forward story that makes complete sense at the end.
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 		 Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars 3.5 Stars - subtle and moving, but not a masterpiece
If "Vital" fails to find an audience, we can put the blame squarely on its marketing. When a film that can only be described as serene and introspective gets released by Tartan as... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Steward Willons

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome movie
I am a big fan of the Tartan Asia Extreme videos. This one was not as scary as others, but had a lot of good psychological undertones. Read more
Published 16 months ago by CCSDAONE

2.0 out of 5 stars Overlauded
I am a fan of all Asian horror, and I was kind of disappointed in this film. It is a horror? Is it a romance? Read more
Published 19 months ago by W. Koenigsmann

4.0 out of 5 stars The Ghost of a Memory
"Vital" is not an easy film to enjoy. The pace is decidedly slow. The story is dense and obfuscated. The subject matter is bleak. Read more
Published on June 12, 2007 by Zack Davisson

4.0 out of 5 stars Shinya Tsukamoto rules.
Vital (Shinya Tsukamoto, 2004)

Shinya Tsukamoto began his career by quickly becoming, as All-Movie Guide calls him, "the master of body horror" with Tetsuo: The Iron... Read more
Published on May 11, 2007 by Robert P. Beveridge

5.0 out of 5 stars tsukamoto's masterpiece
i almost cried after watching this film for the first time. not because of the story so much as just the beauty of the film. Read more
Published on January 7, 2007 by Artos

1.0 out of 5 stars ::mumble mumble:: huh? wha? sucks? ::confused look::
I saw this at the Toronto film festival over a year ago, and most of the audience was fighting to stay awake, even those who later published glowing reviews about it. Read more
Published on June 27, 2006 by Evan Vella

2.0 out of 5 stars Former cinematic genius goes soft.
Back in the 90's Shinya Tsukamoto burst onto the scene with the explosive Tetsuo the Iron Man and the riveting study of ultraviolence Tokyo Fist. Read more
Published on February 27, 2006 by Jim Reed

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