I have to admit, when we bought tickets to see Vital, we were expecting a horror movie. We were wrong, but in a good way.
Director Shinya Tsukamoto weaves a fairly intricate, slow-to-reveal tale about a Japanese medical student and his attempt to uncover his past. Recently, this student was involved in a car accident that left him an amnesiac, and killed his girlfriend. The accident caused the student to become a recluse, until an anatomy textbook brings his fervor for his studies back to life. As he and his fellow students work on dissecting human bodies, the student discovers he is operating on his dead girlfriend. As he dissects more of the body, the lines blur between dreams and reality, as the student tries to reveal his opaque memories of himself and his girlfriend.
What's most interesting about Tsukamoto's treatment of the film is its almost casual pace in building the emotions in the main character. There's no direct impact, no horror shots, no ghosts around the corner to surprise you, and no gruesome scenes to drive the points home. Instead, this tale focuses on the student's evolving emotions to create the sense of loss and discovery that the film ultimately conveys.
Overall rating: 7.0 /10.0
Details:
Runtime: 86m
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
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