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Wow. Cynics who think that cinematic storytelling has reached a dead end should sit themselves down in front of the mind-blowing and imaginative Survive Style 5+, a Japanese crime comedy that despite some post-Tarantino story elements actually has more in common with the inventive American comedies of the Kaufman/Gondry/Jonze camp. Initially the five paralleling story lines seem disparate, yet watching them ultimately intersect in inspired ways is one of the film's innumerable pleasures: a husband tries to repeatedly kill and bury his wife, but she keeps returning, even more indestructible; three young burglars break into houses and get into trouble; a London hit-man travels through Japan with his interpreter/employer, continually asking people what function they serve in life; attending a hypnotist's performance with his family, a salary man becomes permanently convinced he's actually a bird; and a driven advertising director has to reexamine her life after her increasingly hysterical ideas for television commercials are rejected. First-time feature director Gen Sekiguchi actually was Japan's leading (and award-winning) director of commercials, and he brings a stunning visual style to the film as well as a completely boundless, anarchic approach to cinema's possibilities: you never have any idea where Survive Style 5+ is headed from minute to minute, and the trip is as riotously funny as it is unpredictable. Like most wholly original films, Survive is a bit difficult to summarize, so just take my word for it and see it. |