2004
Ken Sekiguchi
Ken Sekiguchi
‘Survive Style 5+’ takes five seeming disconnected stories
and slowly winds them together; Ishigaki (Tadanobu Asano) is man who finds himself repeatedly killing and burying his wife only to have her reappear at the house and try and
return the favor. Yoko, (Kyoko Koizumi) is an ad executive who accidentally loses her tape recorder filled with ludicrous ideas
for commercials. Kobayashi (Ittoku Kishibe) is a father who is hypnotized into
thinking he’s a bird for a television show, but is unable to be taken out of
his state when the hypnotist is killed on stage. The killer (Vinnie Jones) is a hit man who has a habit of asking people (and occasionally broccoli) about
their function in life. There is also a
trio of young burglars including Morishita (Yoshiyuki Morishita) who’s trying
to come to grips with his love for another man.
‘Survive Style 5+’ is an amazing black comedy. There’s so
much going on within the intertwining stories, it’s not possible to really
discuss it in a capsule review like this, so it’s a film I’ll definitely be
revisiting with a more lengthy take in the future. It gets an inclusion in 12 Days of
Weirdness because the events transpire around the Holidays. Most notably in
Asano’s story, which features one of the most startlingly colorful and strange
Christmas scenes ever filmed: Ishigaki
returns home after yet another attempt to bury his wife only to find his house
over decorated with lights, a tree, a taxidermied reindeer in the bedroom and a
giant menacing stocking hanging from the ceiling. In some ways it’s the perfect
encapsulation of the film in that it starts somewhere dark, turns comedic, then
a little unnerving and finally heartbreaking. A brilliant film.
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