Vital – Third Window Films

Director: Shinya Tsukamoto
Screenplay: Shinya Tsukamoto
Starring: Tadanobu Asano, Nami Tsukamoto, Kiki, Kazuyoshi Kushida, Lily, Hana Kino, Go Riju, Jun Kunimura, Ittoku Kishibe
Country: Japan
Running time: 86 min
Year: 2004
BBFC Certificate: 18

Shinya Tsukamoto is one of the most distinctive, creative and entertaining Japanese filmmakers of the past 35 years. From his iconic, black and white, science fiction/horror hybrid debut, Tetsuo: The Iron Man, through to 2023’s Shadow of Fire, his 16 feature films plus shorts and student films encompass a creative flair and puzzle-box aesthetic that makes them endlessly enduring.

Third Window Films have brought the majority of Tsukamoto’s filmography to UK Blu-ray (with Arrow doing similar with a lavish boxset in the US) with two of the director’s films being released in September 2024, including the subject of this review, Vital.

The film follows Hiroshi Takagi (Tadanobu Asano) who awakes in a hospital bed having lost his memory following a car crash that caused the death of his girlfriend Ryoko (Nami Tsukamoto). Hiroshi discovers a book on medical dissection and joins a medical school, where a classmate becomes infatuated with him and he starts experiencing lucid dreams of his late girlfriend.

Aside from the occasional observation, that’s all I’m going to say on the plot, which goes to some very dark, unsettling and surprising territory (to be expected given it’s a Tsukamoto film) and is best savoured going in blind.

It’s wonderful to watch the plot play out, particularly as the present day is intermixed with those lucid dreams of Hiroshi with his girlfriend. Hiroshi references one of these sequences as not being a memory, but like he was there and it was real, to add to the mystery. And further sequences suggest the Ryoko of his dreams is very different to the one in real life – she’s a dancer in the dream sequences, for example, but wasn’t a dancer during her life. It’s as if he’s still getting to experience a life with Ryoko after her death, but what’s interesting to figure out is how much of these visions are memories.

Alongside this, his classmate Ikumi (Kiki) has her own past crosses to bear, as she feels responsible for a professor’s suicide, and is a frequent observer of Hiroshi; indeed, one outstanding time-lapse sequence sees Hiroshi dissecting a body whilst she watches on. Both characters complement each other well and are incredibly intriguing. The Ryoko of Hiroshi’s dreams is also a very intriguing character. Nami Tsukamoto, who plays Ryoko, is a professional ballet dancer, and her dances in the dream sequences are a highlight.

These dances play out to the backdrop of the island of Okinawa, which is gorgeous and an important film location in Japan’s cinematic history, and leads to some very striking imagery throughout the film. This being a Tsukamoto picture, he is the cinematographer as well as screenwriter and director, and his visuals should be rightly applauded. There are some wonderful opening shots of Hiroshi’s parents filmed face-to-face; the father’s face partly distorted by his wife’s, almost as if they are one and the same person. Other similarly intriguing images of two characters follow. There are many outstanding shots and camera moves throughout the slender running time.

Asano’s performance as our lead character is mesmerising; much of it is silent, certainly in the first act or so, with his face, reactions and movements telling the story. Couple this with the excellent editing (Tsukamoto again) which shows us what his character is seeing (or at least thinks he’s seeing), and you get a real glimpse into his psyche.

Vital is another bravura piece of filmmaking from Tsukamoto and a fabulous film. Its themes of memory, grief, death and loss are brought to the screen in a typically offbeat and interesting way from the director, building to an unforgettable climax. It’s a film that will reward repeat viewings.

Film:

Vital is released on UK Blu-ray on 30th September 2024 by Third Window Films. The transfer is wonderful, really showcasing Tsukamoto’s cinematography and the eye-catching colour scheme. Audio and subtitles are also great.

BLU-RAY CONTENTS

Making of Vital

Archival Interview with Shinya Tsukamoto

Video Essay – An Assault On The Senses

Tom Mes Audio Commentary

Music Clips

World Premiere at the Venice Film Festival

Special Effects Featurette

Trailer

Slipcase with artwork from Ian MacEwan (limited to 2000 copies)

The audio commentary is another outstanding one by Tom Mes, covering an incredible amount of ground. Mes wrote a book on Tsukamoto, so is incredibly knowledgeable of him, and he also attended some of the director’s film sets so also provides some first-person background on the making of the film. He gives an overview of the director, touches on the colour scheme, gives an insight into the plot of the film, and references the throwbacks to the director’s earlier works.  We also get a glimpse into the locations and thoughts on the characters and much, much more. His thoughts on the themes of the film are particularly good. The standout extra and a commentary that’s easy to recommend listening to.

An Assault on the Senses is a 16-minute video essay by Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharp, which places Tsukamoto’s career in the context of Japan as a country in 1989, at the time his first feature Tetsuo debuted, as well as in the context of the cinema and home video landscape of the time. It also references Takeshi Kitano, whose first work as a film director, Violent Cop, debuted in the same year. The first third takes a good look at Tetsuo before delving deeper into Tsukamoto and his films, and how he is a true auteur, very much bringing his vision, unfiltered, to the big screen. It’s an outstanding overview that packs a lot into its running time.

The 19-minute ‘making of’ is essentially a glimpse behind the scenes, mixing footage shot during the production, with clips from the film and some interviews. There are some neat insights, given its brief running time, and some welcome footage.

The Venice Film Festival piece runs for 11 minutes and again shows behind the scenes footage, as well as some of the press junket. A nice inclusion.

The interview with director Tsukamoto is 11 minutes and seems to be an extended edit from the ‘making of’, certainly shot at the same time. The director provides an insight into the themes of the film. The interview is interspersed with clips from the film.

The special effects piece runs for just over 10 minutes and features an interview with special effects artist Hisashi Oda together with behind the scenes footage of how the effects for the dissection sequences were created. It’s a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes.

The music piece is essentially a six-minute music video, with clips from the film playing, scored to Cocco’s Blue Bird – a song that also plays on the menu of the disc, as well as over the end credits of the film.

Rounding out the package is a 90-second trailer, which certainly sells the film and gives an insight into its themes.

I’ve been a long-time fan of Tsukamoto’s since seeing his feature debut Tetsuo on TV in the 1990s. Vital was one of the few of his features I hadn’t seen, and it’s another fabulous, thought-provoking piece of cinema. Fans of the film should be pleased with the Third Window Films release, which features an excellent audio/visual presentation, with some strong extras, mostly archival, headlined by a fantastic commentary and very good visual essay.

Disc/Package: