JP/19/VITAL

Shinya Tsukamoto Dissects love, loss and memory in 'Vital'

Paul F. Agusta Contributor/Jakarta

What is the cost of remembering great joy?

Perhaps the recollection of immeasurable sorrow? Hiroshi Takagi (played with a beautifully subtle sadness by internationally acclaimed Tadanobu Asano), a gifted medical student, who survives a horrendous accident without his memory, sets out on the path of rediscovering himself through medical texts and cadavers.

Upon his return to medical school, Hiroshi enters a four-month dissection program, throughout which he slowly regains memory to eventually realize that the cadaver he is examining in intense detail, is the body of Ryoko, his former lover (played with an engaging wildness by Nami Tsukamoto), who died in the same accident that cost him his memory.

These grisly, sorrowful discoveries come through disjointed flashbacks, which can be somewhat disconcerting to viewers who like a linear story format.

It may take awhile for viewers to acclimate themselves to Tsukamoto's way of storytelling, before they realize that there is a quite apparent pattern to the interweaving of flashbacks and real time in this film.

This technique brings home the shock and confusion of coming to grips with major loss as Hiroshi himself initially refuses to acknowledge the images that pop into his head as memories.

He feels as if he has entered a parallel universe in which his past with his lover plays out simultaneously with the unfolding of the rest of his life.

The film is so layered and rich in texture that after serious contemplation, it elicits intense respect for the craft of its creator. Tsukamoto wrote, directed, produced, shot and edited this excellent film himself. An amazing feat on any level in the complex world of film making. Probably the only adequate approach to a story as deeply complex as Vital.

In cinema, there are certain screenplays that no self- respecting writer would entrust with anyone else to bring to the screen simply because they are too intimately connected to that individual's method of thought and creativity. Vital is clearly one of these scripts. In Tsukamoto's hands, this conceptual seed takes root and blossoms into an unforgettable story of relationships between the living, the dying and the dead.

Loss is an almost impossible emotion to come to grips with on any level, let alone discuss articulately through any medium, even one as powerful as film.

Vital opens a moving dialog about human intimacy, love, loss and longing with its viewers. This is not a film that will be easily forgotten, and is certainly a unique cinematic experience.

Although disturbing on multiple levels, and disconcerting visually, due to rapid cuts, strange angles and color play, in tandem with masterfully crafted sound design, this film never alienates, although the visuals are understandably startling given the subject of the story.

This film certainly is not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach, but it is also definitely a masterful cinematic creation that should not be missed.

(The screening of Vital on the second day of JiFFest, Dec. 10 at 7:15 p.m. in Studio 3 of Djakarta Theater, Jl. Thamrin, will be somewhat unique because Shinya Tsukamoto is scheduled to be in attendance).