SURVIVE STYLE 5+ (Japan, 2004)
Directed by: Gen  Sekiguchi
Starring: Tadanobu Asano, Reika Hashimoto, Vinnie Jones, Hiroshi Abe, Jai West

Some things can’t be explained, and Survive Style 5+ is one of them. A candy-colored comedy from Japan, it stars British footballer, Vinnie Jones, and Ichi the Killer star, Tadanobu Asano, in a movie that assumes the shortest distance between two points is via the fifth dimension. A salaryman wins tickets to the latest stage sensation: hypnosis show, VIVA FRIENDS! In the middle of the act an assassin shows up and sticks a pin through the hypnotist’s skull just when the salaryman has been turned into a bird. A gang of housebreakers roam the suburbs, dealing with their budding lust for one another. A man kills and buries his wife, only to have her claw her way out of her grave and go after him with missile arms and fire breath. An advertising executive goes off the deep end and begins bringing her clients some of the funniest and most vulgar commercials ever seen on TV.

Somehow, director Gen Sekiguchi brings all these strands together into a movie that isn’t weird-for-weird’s sake but instead feels thrillingly original. Jettisoning traditional movie tricks this flick aims for something more, and it gets there. The ending will leave your brain and your heart feeling freshly scrubbed, and you will be absolutely unable to explain any of it to anyone else. Bring everyone you know so they, too, can experience the one-of-a-kind adventure that is Survive Style 5+.