Survive Style 5+

How to describe the experience of watching SURVIVE STYLE 5+?! The look of the movie alone was enough to blow me away: it features fanciful costumes that look nothing like any clothes I've ever seen before, sets crammed with all manner of curios, and a use of color which is simply outrageous. Imagine WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN's aesthetic mixed with the texture of a Dali painting as filtered through a commercial for bubblegum. Then put it on overdrive and string it with Christmas lights...and you will only have begun to envision the glorious assault of brightness and fashion that is SURVIVE STYLE 5+.

Fortunately, the movie's abundance of style is matched by its substance. The plot concerns 5 different main characters whose stories become intertwined in a variety of improbable, violent, and hilarious ways. We meet a song-and-dance hypnotist, a businessman who thinks he's a bird, a zombie wife who fires her arm off like a cannon, and a British hit-man who shows up periodically to ask "WOT IS YOUR FUNCTION IN LOIF?" before going nuts and stabbing people. All that, and I'm only describing the first half hour or so...

Despite its absurd and surreal tone, SURVIVE STYLE 5+ makes complete logical sense. Never once does it veer into the no man's land of "weirdness for the sake of weirdness." The plot meanders all over the place, but there IS a method to its madness: a POINT to it all, a moral to figure out and mull over. In this regard, SURVIVE STYLE 5+ outclasses just about every movie of its type, by which I mean the recent rash of movies with multiple narratives that come together coincidentally. SURVIVE STYLE 5+ is definitely better than HAPPINESS. It may be better than PULP FICTION. MAGNOLIA shouldn't even be mentioned in the same sentence with it. Really, there is no movie I can adequately compare with SURVIVE STYLE 5+ because it seems like the first film of an entirely new genre.

It's hilarious, too. Several days after viewing the movie, I still find myself walking down the street, remembering a funny scene or line, and laughing wildly to myself about it.

So do what you can to see it on the big screen, then pray for a decent DVD release. You will NOT be disappointed.

Definitely one of my favorites!

There are so many creative and innovative ideas and genuine rip-off's of clichés. A real fun to watch. And the stunning art style ... never seen a so detailed and thought-out flick like this one. Even when you watching this film a second time you still might get lost in figuring out all these details.

Music was also perfectly used; a 100% match with the art style (something like Rock/Pop ...(?).. well, you'll get it when you see it) Even the slower and moderate background music (simple piano chords), which was used in the middle of the film for quite a long time, was also a consummate choice.

The highlight, alongside the art style, of this movie was definitely characters and acting. Every one of them really stand out. Some of the reviews complained about a cliché-kind of presentation of Vinnie Jones. You know, this was intentionally; hinting at the cliché image of Gaikokujin (foreigners) in japan. It is just an amazing performance of the entire cast.

If i happen to see this movie presented in an art exhibition, i wouldn't be surprised at all. A real masterpiece, though some might only like it, but not love it, as i do ... well, too bad! ;)

Just like Seal's 90's hit, "in a world full of people, there's always someone to fly". I would describe this movie as both an expression and example of the people who 'try to fly' - and they are usually considered crazy in society. They try different, previously unheard of things, and sometimes it's genius and sometimes it's a dud. But hey, at least they try.

This movie is absurdingly complicated in a first viewing, yet it delivers with, yes, absolute style. On a second viewing the themes become more apparent, and this is a movie you'll want to see (at least) twice.

Five stories are intertwined, sometimes subtly and others obviously, Tarantino/Ritchie mode, and they all deal with crazy stuff. This is a visual and stylish delight, as well as little bit of a mindtrip. There's symbolism if you look hard enough, but the joy of the movie is the way it deals with different themes - homosexuality, identity, love and death - and shows us that life is indeed a little bit crazy.

Recommended. 8/10

There are 5 stories that somehow connect but not really intertwine (this is the deceptive part), however, I liked all of them, the movie puts a especial emphasis in bizarreness, but it doesn't go too far.

Wife and Husband- This is in fact the fantastic part of the movie, the silentness of the wife is the main tool for getting you into that sweet vacillation of whether things are real or not, but there are lot more, as the costumes she wears every time (Which reminds me to a movie knows as "héroe" by this latitudes) and the phase-shifts. Here we also have the sweet dose of violence.

Killers - I got pretty surprised when I ran into "Big Chris"! The contrast between Jones and the translator was way bizarre. There's not much going on here, since both of them are like a lone functional character.

Birdman- The "strange" vector of the film, yet the cutest, Keiichi's perspective keeps the frankness of children accurately. I LOVED the teacher scene.

Yoko the Creative- Oh god, Yoko's ideas for commercials are so unfunny they become funny, and Yoko is funny herself. Really laugh with the way she laughs and with the wild winking when she's having her "afflati". Here I may mark two characters I would had LOVED to see a little bit more of = The café girls. The accident girl was so funnily pathetic, and that were really strengthened by the uncaring friend. I wonder what would have happened to her if she'd got a third scene!!

The Housebreakers = And again we find a bizarre contrast, this time between the "ugly" and the "sexy" burglars. This story takes little of the film's length and it is also the most disconnected one, but adds a funky "sexuality" note.

And to finish, I liked the music.

Some people out there may imagine the Japanese of Tokyo to be stoic and colorless like Vulcans. To some extent, that is how they really are. The buildings are gray, and if it's overcast, everything kind of blends together into a formalized drone. There is more paperwork added each day, another speech to sleep through, and the shuffle begins anew. Add the business formalities, and society can get very stiff over there.

That is one side of Japan.

SURVIVE STYLE 5 is the other side. Somewhere buried beneath the hard samurai exterior, the Japanese are the silliest, flashiest people on the face of the earth. Just watch the game shows on TV to see what I mean. It takes the slightest spark to transform a crowd of adults into a crowd of Pokemon monsters. Add this side of Japan, and every conversation at the workplace has a Comic Book BANG! POW! and HORRA!

The movie features five story lines (1) A hip to be square family of four (2) A girl that won't stay buried (3) An assassin on a hit job (4) A hypnotist (5) A traveling band of fools in a van. Here's a puzzle for you -- what is the common element that connects these 5 story lines? Beats me. Maybe it's the STYLE.

SURVIVE STYLE 5 is like a multi-colored salad falling to the kitchen floor in slow motion. Everyone stands agape as the orange leaves scatter like purple rain. Most memorable are the vivid colors and extreme silliness. Take for example the absurd scene where a typical nuclear family is rocking out in the car on their way to a hypnosis show. All four are bobbing their heads to punk rock and shouting American profanities in unison.

A cohesive story would have propelled this movie into greatness. But because it's so scatterbrained, it can safely be filed in the "two-hour music video" drawer. You might want to display it at the entrance to your home on special occasions -- like an Andy Warhol photograph. It can serve as a reminder of how absurd the world can get. "Yes, the world did have a story to tell once upon a time. It made absolutely no sense, but it had such a beautiful Christmas Tree!"

If SURVIVE STYLE 5 is your cup of tea, I recommend Taste of Tea, released in 2004 starring Tadanobu Asano.

JY

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