Survival Style 5+

Another movie to assault the senses after the one i reviewed before is also a product from Japan, land of extremes. But this is supposed to be a design blog, you say. Well, I take whatever that inspires me and i jot it down here.

Throughout my movie reviews in the near future, I might be reviewing movies that might not be necessarily award-winning, nail-bitingly awesome. But there are certain parts in that movie which deserves creative mention. I'm not gonna ditch the movie just because the storyline suck ass. There are also certain aesthetic values which makes the movie appealing, the stage setup of the movie, the color filters that they use, the styling of characters, etc etc...

In this case, this movie is insanely good, in terms of visuals and storyline. You know there are some movies that is insanely funny, like snatch, and that it only gets better if you accompany the movie with a group of stoner friends and a couple of joints?

Yeah, thats what I'm talking about. This is one of those movies.
Its a set of 5 stories intertwined with each other to produce an intoxicating blend of insanity and wackiness. The movie doesn't make sense and it doesn't expect you to do so but sit yo ass and go along with the ride. It starts of with Aman (Tadanobu Asano), shovelling dirt to bury his wife (Reika Hashimoto). When he goes home, his wife is very much alive and waiting for him. Its the calm before the storm when the wife unleash all fury as she proceeds to annihilate her husband with all sorts of kitchen utensils within reach accompanied with blaring rock track by Rob Laufer entitled "Go, Go, Go". The movie then breaks of with the opening credits with bold use of fonts and colors, striking red juxtaposed with bright yellow in true MTV style. Such is the boldness of the movie that sets the tone for the rest of it.I really like how they set the house that Asano lives in with his wife, very garish but it also works at the same time. Clashing colors with wacky ornaments all over the house. It must have been a damn pain to collect all the props and re-do the damn house for this movie. But I guess one can find anything in Tokyo to cater to their tastes, be it horrendous or classy. I realised the effort into creating such a set and how it needs to compliment the direction/insanity of the movie. Also small little things like the internal decoration of the minivan in story number 4, very retro and colorful. In one of the more laidback story, the use of soft pastel tones throughout the entire setting can be seen with everything is perfect order, shelves tuck nicely objects lined up neatly, while the more atrocious stories get the in-your-face, bold-as-hell colour treatment with props slammed all over the place.

The movie is supported by heavyweights like the ever-flexible, oddball, Johnny Depp of the east –Tadanobu Asano, Hiroshi Abe, Ittoku Kishibe and Vinnie Jones, yeah, psycho Vinnie... all 5 stories come together finally to form a satisfying end. I'm not gonna spoil everything for you. This visual feast of a movie satisfies your love for oddball cinema. Go ahead. Purchase it, light one up and enjoy the ride.