Alive (2002)
In Alive, a death row prisoner is cultivated as a storage vessel for a powerful alien witch. Ryuhei Kitamura (Midnight Meat Train, Versus) delightfully mixes martial arts, science fiction, and action genres in a brilliantly stylized setting of green glass and white light that will make your jaw drop if you have a single artistic bone in your body. Meanwhile, bones are cracking right and left as the film’s hero smacks down everything that comes his way. Much as in Kitamura’s Versus, Alive transforms from one segment to the next so quickly and distinctly that it feels like two or three separate movies crammed into one. Some opportunities seem lost (I wished we could have seen more of the interaction between the two death row prisoners) and others rushed, but by keeping things at a clip there is never a dead second in Alive.
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Tags:action, alive, anime, death row, japanese, kitamura, kung fu, martial arts, prison, science fiction
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