R100 - Another bizarre movie directed by Matsumoto of Gaki no Tsukai fame. He also plays a minor character in the movie who appears for about two scenes. The initial premise of the movie is that a salaryman whose wife is in a coma signs a contract with some sort of shady BDSM company to get 'punished' at random intervals for the duration of a whole year. While that's already sort of a bizarre premise in and of itself, things gradually become stranger and stranger, with a voice-imitating dominatrix, a dominatrix who can unhinge her jaw and consume people like a snake, and the gaijin ceo of the bdsm company who pretty much only speaks in cursewords. There's also some meta shit going on in the background. To be honest, I enjoyed Big Man Japan and Symbol more, but this one still delivers on the "WTF? factor", so it's definitely a must watch for anyone into that. I'd give it a 6.5 / 10 or so
Vital - Shinya Tsukamoto once again proves that he's got a great eye for aesthetics. The whole film is absolutely fantastically shot, and the overwhelmingly melancholy atmosphere is palpable. Tadanobu Asano has as of yet never disappointed me in any role I've seen him in. The plot concerns a man who wakes up in the hospital after a car crash. His family takes the opportunity to goad him back into med school again, where he is eventually faced with the body of his dead girlfriend on the dissection table. What follows is the protagonist's journey for closure and the recovery of his own real self. 7.5 / 10 for me, one of my favorites by Tsukamoto so far