A man is planning to become a doctor, but after a traffic accident, he loses his memory, and his girlfriend dies. He still wants to become a doctor, but things don’t go exactly his way when he has to dissect a corpse during his studies, and the corpse turns out to be his deceased girlfriend. That is messed up!
Vital is directed by one of the most interesting directors from Japan, Shin’ya Tsukamoto. This is a pretty short movie with a runtime of around 80 minutes.
The first half is the best because it feels like you’re trapped in a nightmare together with the protagonist as he dissects his dead girlfriend. At first, he isn’t aware that the corpse is his girlfriend, but when he discovers it, the movie becomes disturbing to say the least. A normal man would have yelled out, “This is my dead girlfriend, you freaks! Give me another dead body I can dissect!” But not this guy, who is played by my favorite Japanese actor, Tadanobu Asano. I hate watching his older movies when he had long hair. He looks so strange and stupid. I’m sorry, my Japanese friends, but I have a hard time accepting that Japanese men have long hair. It doesn’t fit you, okay? Sorry, guys!
The protagonist’s relationship with his deceased girlfriend was toxic. She was depressed and wanted to leave Mother Earth. She even reminded me of Sada Abe because she loved strangling. She’s one messed-up character, and at the same time, you feel that the protagonist should maybe seek some help, because this relationship isn’t working, and she’ll drag him down to hell if he doesn’t escape. Then, when they’re out driving, they get hit by a truck, and she dies. But her toxicity is still in his veins, so what’s the antidote? The woman who is attracted to him but whom he doesn’t see?
The cinematography and editing are excellent, especially in the first half. They create such a special, twisted atmosphere that you don’t experience often. It’s a disturbing watch, but in the second half, the movie starts focusing more on the drama and aftermath. We see how the protagonist must accept that life goes on, but at the same time, he’s driving one of the other students crazy because she’s interested in him, yet he doesn’t notice her. But I have to say, she’s also a little creepy with her hairstyle, and she doesn’t seem like a good woman at all, since she makes one of the teachers kill himself.
I was a little disappointed by the second half after that fantastic first half, which had so much energy because of the cinematography and editing. And of course, the disturbing scenes where the protagonist digs deeper into the corpse of his dead girlfriend, which makes him remember things from the past. That helps him accept that she’s dead and that he must let her go. But as a movie experience, the second half is a downer because it feels so ordinary compared to the first half. Still, it’s a solid movie, so you should watch it if you’re a fan of twisted movies that stand out from the crowd.