IMDb > Alive (2002/I)
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Overview

User Rating:
5.8/10   860 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 7% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Ryûhei Kitamura
Writers:
Tsutomu Takahashi (comic book)
Ryûhei Kitamura (screenplay) ...
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Contact:
View company contact information for Alive on IMDbPro.
Genre:
Action | Drama | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller more
Tagline:
A life worse than death.
Plot:
After survivng his own execution, Tenshu choses to be subjected to the bizarre experiments of the prison officials. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
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NewsDesk:
(3 articles)
Holehead '09 Review: Be a Man! Samurai School
 (From JustPressPlay. 12 June 2009, 9:30 AM, PDT)
Eiff 08: Review of Midnight Meat Train
 (From QuietEarth. 2 October 2008, 12:56 PM, PDT)
User Comments:
Very slow build up into ... nothing more (19 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)
Hideo Sakaki ... Tenshu Yashiro
Ryô ... Yurika Saegusa

Koyuki ... Asuka Saegusa
Shun Sugata ... Matsuda
Erika Oda ... Misako Hara
Tak Sakaguchi ... Zeros
Jun Kunimura ... Kojima
Ryûshi Mizukami ... Warden 1
Keita Kimura ... Warden 2
Minoru Aoki ... Warden 3
Boba ... Hair Cut Guard
Takanori Hamachika ... Guard 1
Makato Kitami ... Guard 2
Seki Watanabe ... Guard 3
Suenari Matsubara ... Guard 4
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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
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Runtime:
Canada:119 min (Toronto International Film Festival)
Country:
Japan
Language:
Japanese
Color:
Color
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Certification:
Australia:MA (2006) | New Zealand:R16 | Germany:16 | Singapore:NC-16
Company:
Suplex more

Fun Stuff

Goofs:
Factual errors: When Takutake shoots Zeros after he is defeated, you can clearly hear the sound of a shell casing of a pistol hitting the ground. As Takutake is using a revolver, which does not eject spent shells after each shot, this would make no sense. more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes (2004) (VG) more

FAQ

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User Comments

   (Comment on this title)
3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful.
Very slow build up into ... nothing, 13 April 2007
4/10
Author: K_Todorov from Bulgaria

I've seen most of Ryuhei Kitamura's work and I've come to the conclusion that he has a knack for action. Scenes are kinetic and fast often combining elements of martial arts, gun fights and samurai fights with camera work that effectively captures the on screen carnage. With "Versus" and "Aragami" Kitamura demonstrated that creativity and showed that he his more than capable of working with a low budget. So what happened in "Alive" ? To be more blunt, the answer would be - nothing. Nothing happened in "Alive" it was a two hours plus movie with little to no action and little to no characters and plot.

Adapted from a comic book by Tsutomu Takahashi "Alive" is an examination of the life of one Tenshu Yashiro (played by Hideo Sasaki) a death row convict who survives his execution. He is then given a choice of either to repeat the execution or to subject himself in a bizarre series of experiments. He chooses the latter and soon after that is placed in a room along with a rapist and later with a girl infected with a strange parasite that in exchange for it's host's humanity grants supernatural powers. Naturaly at some point that parasite moves into Yashiro, the bad thing is that doesn't happen very soon.

Similar to "Aragami", "Alive" sets it's first half in establishing the basic exposition. Characters are introduced, their motivations are set and their relations between each other are uncovered. The whole thing even takes place in just one set. The first major problem of that comparison is that while "Aragami" was just a 70 minute movie, "Alive" drags on for more than two hours thus making the first part over one hour long. That length could have been justified had the characters been made a bit more interesting but alas that is not the case. Dialogue is dry, monotonous, delivered without any sense of emotion or depth, characters themselves aren't much interesting. There were some small attempts at making "Alive" a bit more moral ambiguous but in the end it all came down to the classic : evil government people against, super-powered protagonist, whom yes you guessed it, saves the girl in the end. Like I previously said the entire film practically takes place at just one set, and after two hours that does get boring, even worse the set design itself wasn't even interesting to begin with, and doesn't do much to improve on other aspects of the film.

Now, after that first part is over, one might think that Kitamura would at least make some entertaining action scenes to make up for the boring beginning. Sadly that is not the case. The two only fights are actually rehashes of similar fights from Hollywood movies, complete with bullet time effects and psychic powers. They're just not interesting or fun, Kitamura's creativity from "Versus" is gone, the small set even limits his often very impressive camera-work and it all boils down into generic and expectable fights, a shame really.

Evidently "Aragami" was better on all accounts and "Kitamura" had learned something from "Alive". So it wasn't at least a total loss watching this movie. If only to understand the errors made, how to fix them and create a better more entertaining movie.

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