Survive Style 5+
(dir.Gen Sekiguchi)
"You know you wanna watch..."
I’m not sure I could accurately describe this movie with coherent sentences. Oh, all the words would probably be common and familiar to those who cracked open an elementary school level dictionary. Whether they make any sense, like the film itself, is up to you. So instead, I’ll just tell you what is in the movie:
- A man who may realize he actually loves his fire-ball spitting wife only after he kills her over and over and over…and over and over and over…and over
- A family salary man who turns into a chicken
- An arrogant hypnotist (played with just the right amount of gouda by “Trick’s” Abe Hiroshi) with a cod piece that would and should put Superman to shame
- A self-absorbed ad producer who seems to only have any emotional gratification from the commercials she comes up with in her head
- A trio of would-be house thieves dealing with underlying homosexual tendencies
Vinnie “I’m the Juggernaut, bitch” Jones as a judge-jury-death dealer hitman who considers life to be something you earn, not a right
Some of the sets are colourful and imaginative. The music enhances the whole slick, stylized tone of the movie. What else can I say?
While the movie seems to channel the story-telling techniques of Pulp Fiction, with multiple-storylines intertwining and diverging throughout in an almost random sequence order, it definitely goes beyond the “What’s in the suitcase” fantasy levels of Tarantino’s effort. A woman dies literally a hundred hideous deaths. A man flies (doubly strange because the bird he believes himself to be is a chicken). Did I mention Vinnie Jones?
Rather than explaining whether I liked the direction or if the performances were adequate or if the script served the story, the best way I can review this film is how it made me feel as I watched it to the end. I felt like I was at a carnival freak show. I bought a ticket. I entered the tent. I saw some extremely bizarre shit everywhere, I felt uneasy looking at it -some of it even eliciting an unexpected grin or chuckle- but instead of turning around and leaving through the entrance, I made my way through the whole experience and came out on the other end definitely not thinking I was better for having gone through it. But then I turned around and popped my head back into the tent to be sure of what I had just witnessed.
And that’s what I did with Survive Style 5+. I stuck my head back in and replayed various parts of the movie, reviewing the bizarre and freakish characters and stories. So while I’m not certain I can say I loved this movie, I’m pretty sure if it was a movie I hated or was frustrated with I wouldn’t have done that. So is the movie worth watching? I hope it is. I’m hoping more people will see it and tell me what the hell they thought it was about. I’ll even buy the ticket. Step right up, folks. Rating: B
"If you think I look weird, you should see what I'm packing in my tights."
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