Alive (2002) User Reviews

great set-up, not so great payoff

[movieman_kev · 7/10 · 2 June 2005]

Tenshu is imprisoned and sentenced to death. When he survives electrocution the government officials give him a choice to either be electrocute at a greater degree or agree to some experiments. He chooses the experimentation and is placed in a large metallic cell with a bad ass criminal who also survived the electrocution. They can have whatever the want in the room (within reason), but they can't leave. after a few days there meals are cut down to one per day and the room temp is set up too 100. After some more alarms are sounded at intervals so they can't sleep. One day a 'witch' come into their cell (albeit a glassed off portion) What happens next I'll let you find out. I may be in the minority here but I liked the build up, it was intriguing to me. Now if the payoff was half as good as the build up was I would have rated this so much higher.

My Grade: C+

Media Blaster's 2 DVD set Extras: Disc 1) Director's Cut; Trailers for "Versus", "Aragami", "Attack the Gas Station", and "Deadly Outlaw Rekka" Disc 2) Theatrical Cut; Commentary with Hideo Sakaki, Ryuhei Kitamura, Sakaguchi Takuand Tsutomu Takahashi; Cast and crew interview; Making of; Original Trailer; and Promo Teasers

Pretty good. I enjoyed it.

[veganflimgeek · 7/10 · 8 April 2004]

Alive

Alive is a very entertaining SCI-FI movie from Japan. I have noticed a lot of disappointed film geeks who loved Versus this director's debut film or his third film Azumi. I have heard they are blood drenched films with swords and zombies and all kinds of goodies. Frankly I went to the video store to get Versus but I am just fine with Alive.

If you are looking for beginning to end wall to wall action then Alive is not your pick. There is plenty of action however it comes as pay-off for a whole hour of character driven build-up. Personally I think it is well done and worth it.

Of course some of the plot is silly as with many SCI-Fi action films and I think the subtitles using the term foreign object could have replaced with parasite for greater effect. This film is brutal when it needs to be so faint of heart need not apply.

They kept the budget down by for the most part confining all the action to one underground building(taking a cue from the cube) but the film doesn't suffer for it. Another bonus for this film is intense gothic imagines that are done with great artistic flair during the many Flashbacks and dream sequences.

Rent this!

Not what I wanted.

[Ky-D · 6/10 · 8 April 2005]

Between "Versus" and "Azumi", I was getting around to liking director Kitamura, but after this entry I'm not so sure anymore. It's got all the promise, but never lives up to it.

A man is sent to the electric chair for the murder of his girlfriend's rapist. However, he survives the execution and is subsequently put into an experiment involving seedy government types, fellow prisoners, containment and a rather hostile alien entity trapped in a girl's body. It seems this entity only likes to latch onto the most blood thirsty host it can find, so death row inmates should make good subjects for government research. Oh, what will happen?

Any and everyone who has sat through one or more Japanese sci-fi flicks should be able to predict who the alien will latch onto and what will happen once it does. Giving that is a moot point, the film doesn't get going until it happens. Unfortunately, it takes a LONG time before the story gets moving, before that viewers have to sit through dry, dull dialogue scenes ad nausea.

Once the film finally takes off, it starts to have some fun. Guys with guns, super-powered fights, the works. It's just way too little, way too late to salvage much interest. Most viewers will not sit long enough to see things pick up, which is really too bad, there is some good sci-fi stuff later on.

A note about the ending: I won't ruin anything, but I think watchers should know that like other films by Kitamura, the movie concludes, but the story doesn't have much of an ending. Make of it what you will.

So many good ideas are wasted on dull story telling and limited conception. Worth a view only to hard-core J-film fanatics.

6/10

Very slow build up into ... nothing

[K_Todorov · 4/10 · 13 April 2007]

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.

Alternative Action-movie worth seeing

[The_Ostentatious_Paki_Don · 7/10 · 16 April 2003]

The movie starts out with a bunch of Dead Men Walking peeps sitting in individual cells, waiting for their inevitable meeting with death represented by the electrical chair.

Then our "hero", who is called Tenshu, is taken to the chair, he's zapped, and then....he's still "Alive". AHA ! He is given a choice by some creepy military guys who look really cool : Either we zap you until we've made sure you're actually dead OR you can walk through this door and take whatever destiny might lie ahead of you". Our hero says yes to option 2, and then the actual story commences.

He wakes up in a different sort of cell (very high-tech and very big), where he finds another cell-mate, who also managed to survive the electric boogie-ride. A voice in the speakers tells them that they are free to do whatever they wish, as long as it happens within that room. Sounds a little suspicious, but the two men accept : What else can they do ?

What these two men do not know is that they have been set together, so they can awaken an inner urge to kill within them. Basically the unknown scientists in the background p**s them off until they decide that they should kill each other. Sounds weird ? Indeed, but there's a greater purpose to all of this. THIS is the part which should not be revealed, and so it shall remain unrevealed.

But fear not, it is the unknown that lures the viewer to watch more of this pseudo-action movie, fore it has an entirely different approach to the question : How long time can you stand being with a man who's an S.O.B. and would you kill him to obtain freedom ?

The first hour is basically trying to awaken your interest, it sneaks up without you actually knowing it. Then it becomes a roller coaster ride with WILD Matrix-like action fight-scenes with a touch of individuality to honor the comic book from which the movie is based upon.

The movie is indeed very special, so special that normal cinemas won't view it under normal circumstances. However, the story is fascinating, the music is fantastic, and the actors do their bit (some more than others) to make the movie truly unique.

If you should be so fortunate that your cinema or video store has it, watch it, and enjoy the fact that not everyone is trying to make mainstream movies to earn huge bunches of cash.

Talk about boring...

[Jim-D · 3/10 · 16 March 2005]

I'll keep this short, as I know I don't need to say much.

"Alive" is a strange little film that obviously appeals to some, but I found it to be shockingly bland from almost the very beginning. The film did very little to make any of the characters likable and the story at times became so convoluted that I completely lost interest. As I said, I know others enjoyed it, but I found Kitamura's "Alive" to be anything but - a lame, extremely boring drama disguised as a thought-provoking action sci-fi flick. I felt like I was suckered into watching this film, based by its intriguing premise and uber-exciting cover art.

My suggestion? Pass it up for Kitamura's far more enjoyable freshman effort "Versus" or his 2004 riot "Godzilla: Final Wars".

...And don't get me wrong, I'm always up for a good thinking man's film, but this certainly wasn't it. There was nary a moment that I actually cared about a single event taking place in this overly-preachy, dialogue-heavy movie.

If you wanna talk about something... talk about boring.

It definitely better than the source material but.........

[phanthinga · 7/10 · 24 May 2019]

When I watch Alive (2002) for the first time a couple of years ago I thought the movie was fine despite that it a huge step down compare to the bombastic mess of violence and gore of Versus (2000) but now after reading the manga version which is very short and underwhelming I decided to give the movie another chance and my impression on the story and character still pretty much the same but with many new layer of respect for director Ryuhei Kitamura. Like I said before because the manga was not that good to begin with and when I watch The Making of Alive (2002) for free on Youtube and know the reason why this movie even exists in the first place is because how much the director love the ending of the manga so he makes a whole movie to accompany that ending is flat out insane and kind of inspiring. It a real challenge for the film crew to make this movie as entertaining as possible and I think with the Matrix action scenes and a rematch between Hideo Sakaki and Tak Sakaguchi definitely fill the bill although the movie still suffers greatly from the unnecessary long runtime and the pacing.

High Hopes...

[salukininer · 2/10 · 9 March 2005]

Having seen Versus previously I had high hopes for Alive. The description of the movie on the back of the DVD jacket sounded promising. Alive did not deliver. VERY slow development. Loads of potential with the cast and the cool visuals. The premise was intriguing but the payoff did not offset the build up. Could have done so much more at the end. Most of the movie is just " sitting around ". To put it plainly, three of us were amped to sit down and watch this movie and by the 50 minute mark we were struggling to make it thru to the end. It really needed more shock elements. If you are looking for Ichi the Killer or Versus type fights then save yourself some $ and loads of disappointment.

Kicks off great but falls off the edge

[kluseba · 7/10 · 5 October 2011]

"Alive" is a dark dystopian science-fiction drama that convinces with some philosophic thoughts and some social criticism. There are a couple of intriguing mysteries surrounding the movie that keep a certain level of tension. This Japanese flick though lives especially from its dark and twisted dystopian atmosphere and a good graphic work. The acting performances of the two male prisoners and the strange witch are great enough to carry the movie on and have a classic and theatrical approach reminding me of Sartre's "No Exit".

Towards the end, the movie sadly shifts into a rather ordinary fantasy flick with some boring action scenes. I also feel that one could have developed some characters a little bit more and gone more into some details. While there are many interesting aspects, the movie doesn't go as it could have. As soon as the mysteries are solved or left untouched, the story shifts into emptiness and the whole structures gets somewhat overlong, pointless and even emotionless. Even the acting gets less addicting and one loses interest concerning the different characters. The dramatic turn of events in the ending can't save much anymore and leaves the viewers more or less untouched because the flick lost too much credit in its last third.

In the end, the movie is a mixed package with two third of the running time that is rather addicting, diversified and filled with tension, mystery and atmosphere while the last third is less intense and lacks of originality. This is a fairly interesting movie to rent or watch once but only of an average quality compared to many other contemporary Japanese movies and I wouldn't suggest you a blind purchase of this flick. After all, my rating is seven out of ten but I'm maybe still a little bit generous, so don't expect an outstanding movie in here but just some good entertainment with a few enjoyable qualities.

Mislead about the Cube thing but other than that alright show

[CopperFrightful · 5/10 · 14 February 2005]

Out of all the Kitamura movies I've seen, this is my least favorite. I liked it but its not his best in my opinion. Hideo Sakaki was of course good, but other than that the cast didn't push me either way. They were just there. I say it is misleading about the whole Cube reference because it was nothing like that movie, except if you take into account that they're in a cell. But it wasn't claustrophobic at all.

******THIS IS WHERE IT MIGHT GET SPOILERY!!!!******** As far as the Sakaki/Sakaguchi reunion went I was a little disappointed. I knew Tak would come in at the last part and I knew they would have an ending fight-scene, but I was looking forward to that. Heh, I was even looking forward to the cheesy make-up/body suit that he would have on; which I enjoyed btw. But what disappointed me was that there was no bantering. Tak uttered not a word and that took some of the luster away from the fight/reunion. Also, I felt robbed that Hideo wasn't the one to give him the death blow. What's worse is that he died from a gun shot wound! No! Ah, what a waste. I didn't find it terribly perplexing, like some of Kitamura's other works, but there's one thing that kept rolling around in my head: was Zeros an alien? I don't think he was. I think that the alien part of the story was the virus itself, but Zeros was a human previously who caught the disease and the results were what we saw, he was changed extensively and was absent of any kind of personality and that's what Tenshu would have become eventually. *********END OF SPOILERS***************

It was an alright flick, I wouldn't pay the list price for it but it was good. Perhaps even good enough to own, watch with a buddy or two and perhaps even play Mystery Science Theatre.

Well-paced & engaging flick

[purban · 9/10 · 27 December 2004]

I found this movie to be very well-paced. The premise is quite imaginative, and as a viewer I was pulled along as the characters developed. The pacing is done very well for those that like to think--enough is kept hidden from the viewer early on, and questions keep arising which are later answered, producing a well-thought out and very satisfying film, both cerebrally and from an action standpoint.

It seems some people were looking for a non-stop roller-coaster ride with this film--one of those that comes charging out of the gate. This would be more analogous to one of those coasters that first takes you slowly up the hill--creating a wonderful sense of anticipation--and is ultimately, in my mind, more fulfilling for the foundation initially laid.

Excellent film.

Gave me a headache

[citruskiss · 6 December 2004]

Despite the fact that I waited until the ending credits for something to happen, I ended up leaving the room a few minutes before they started to role.

Why? Because of the horrible, throbbing headache that this movie induced in me. This happens to me from time to time when I'm bored to the brink of tears.

There really is NOTHING to this movie. The unpredictable bits are all Deus Ex Machina... and thusly dull, forced and contrived.

Not only did I not care about the lead character, I forgot he was in it for half the movie. The set, seemed to take center stage, and all that was left was a long, LOOOOOONNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG, drawn-out story of... you know... I'm not even sure what it was about.

I can't imagine that it matters.

I love bad movies. A lot. But this one was just not worth it.

Miss It.

Alive Is A Little Dead Inside

[DavyDissonance · 6/10 · 31 December 2017]

Alive is about some dingle berry who is a calming psychopath being utilized in a government experiment pertaining to some mystical thingy. Nice settings and some good action sequences but the story goes nowhere and the pacing is like slugs screwing. If this movie was at least 25 minutes shorter I would of liked it more because this dicking about with idle dialogue and meaningless progression was poofy. It's only worth one assimilation in its entirety at best.

Drab, Dull, and Wasted Energies

[NIXFLIX-DOT-COM · 5/10 · 4 December 2003]

ALIVE is a big letdown for fans of Kitamura's VERSUS. It's not a big surprise Kitamura chose this movie as his sophomore effort coming off the massive success of the hyper kinetic VERSUS. The result, unfortunately, is a terribly dull and drab movie that expends way too much energy on a silly story and even sillier fights. The first half is mostly nothing happening, with the film's first 40-minutes completely superfluous, as it has nothing to do with the rest of the movie. What amounts to "tension" is one nice guy (who was condemned, but is still pretty nice) and a not-so-nice guy (who was also condemned, and deservedly so) trying to outdo each other when it comes to weak acting. The nice guy just mopes a lot and the mean guy just shouts and acts crazy. Amateur hour, anyone?

It doesn't help that Kitamura shows his familiarity with American films by, basically, reusing up all the action sequences that he liked from those films in this one. THE MATRIX special effects was used, as well as James Cameron's ALIENS sequence where characters run around screaming into each other's helmet/vid contraption as they're attacked. (For "elite soldiers", these guys "lost it" pretty darn quick!) We also get "psychic powers" very, VERY similar to Proyas' DARK CITY.

Not that ALIVE is completely bad. It's just...mostly dumb and bad.

5 out of 10

No, no, noooo.

[sippan · 4/10 · 29 December 2006]

I don't know where to begin, so I'll begin with a snippet from the back of the cover of this movie. "Alive combines the tension of Vincenzo Natali's Cube with Kitamura's own Versus." I have not seen Versus, so I can't comment on that, but I think Cube was an excellent movie which I recommend to everyone. However, in this case someone has clearly confused "tension" with "boredom".

I'll just go ahead and spoil the entire plot, because besides being one holy Swiss cheese of a plot, it's also moldy cheese, and the movie is not worth spending any time on even if you don't know the plot beforehand, so it doesn't matter. If I have misunderstood the plot, don't hit me - it's probably because I had to struggle to keep my eyelids open.

So the American military in Nevada once lost a UFO i the Nambi desert. This apparently makes sense because they're both deserts so surely they're practically the same place. Different continents or not. A monkey broke into the UFO and acquired an alien something which was passed on to a Japanese researcher who had to eat the monkey to survive in the desert. What ever. The alien thing is now passed on to anyone who's "bloodthirsty" enough to kill the current host. The Japanese military wants to use it for military stuff, so they decide to make it pass from the current host (the researcher's daughter) to some other dude. But instead of just picking someone out of the military, which is full of people who are bloodthirsty AND already on the military's side, they decide that it's probably a good idea to pick some criminal out of death row instead. Oh, and the reason they pick this particular criminal from death row is because he was the first person in history to not die from the non-lethal electric shock which is the standard execution method, because everyone dies from the placebo effect when they get electrocuted. I don't know if they do this so they can giggle in the staff room at how everyone dies even though it's not deadly, or if they just want to cut down the electricity bill.

Then the movie turns into what The Matrix would have been if it had been really lame, and superfluous fighting bores us to tears for what feels like an hour. And oh wait, now they remember that they already had a dude who was infected with the alien thing, so the entire movie up to this point was actually a totally waste of time and also human lives. Then everyone dies. The end.

The only one moment in the movie where I didn't want to go away and sleep or eat a sandwich instead, was when a dude was pinned to a wall by a pipe through his chest, and he's hanging around up there and another dude walks by. The dude hanging on the wall says "I'm in pain, shoot me". And the living dude looks at him, and it's not like he's a mean dude or anything, so he really looks sorrowful and doesn't want the guy on the wall to suffer. So he shoots him.

(Rhetorical pause.)

In the stomach. "Gee THANKS A FREAKIN' HEAP."

Didn't Do It For Me, But Some Neat Ideas!

[Movie-Misfit · 4/10 · 2 March 2020]

Ryuhei Kitamura's comic book adaptation may look incredibly stylish, with a great set and wonderful lighting - but my god, is it slow! I chose to watch the extended version of this HK Video (Taiwan) release which also came with a snipped theatrical release for a better viewing of Kitamura's vision, but what a long, drawn-out affair that was...

Pretty much just set in the one room - a futuristic jail cell - the first 35 minutes crawls along with drab character development on 2 ex-prisoners who don't really ooze much on-screen personality, before a quick fight explodes between them, ending within seconds before taking us back into a crawl!

It would at least another 30 minutes before anything close to exciting came about, which, at this stage - I couldn't really care about.

Alive is most certainly not one of Ryuhei's finest moments. While it still looks very independent, or even like a TV movie, it does have some nice ideas and plenty of great cinematography - but ultimately, it is a bore-fest of a film that is far from the likes of Versus and Azumi and will only appeal to fans of the comic book or those who enjoy long, talky Japanese drama with plenty of moody shouting, and nice visuals.

After the 1 hour mark, things start to move along a little quicker (a little) bringing in some horror and action elements that are actually pretty sweet - but for most viewers by this point, its far too late! The end fight featuring Tak Sakaguchi is worth fast forwarding to I guess...

Overall: I want to say its like The Matrix meets The Cube, but honestly, you wouldn't be missing much if you didn't catch it!

DEATH OR DOOR NUMBER 1

[nogodnomasters · 4/10 · 10 April 2019]

Tenshu (Hideo Sakaki) killed the 6 rapists of his girlfriend. He survives the electric chair and gets to choose between death and what is behind door number one. He finds himself in a modernistic prison as part of an experiment. He is paired with a slightly deranged serial killer necrophiliac who also has a long list of misdemeanors. The goal of the experiment is to have one of the guys kill the other for a reason that is later exposed at about the same time as that alien thing called the "Isomer."

The film is way too long. There are flashbacks to make the rape/murder more complex. The control room drama was bizarre and added needlessly to the length of the film, whose plot wasn't that overpowering considering the manner in which it was presented. Interesting concept made boring.

1 f-bomb in English subscripts. No sex or nudity.

A taut, inventive thriller.

[howerd · 8/10 · 8 February 2007]

An inventive, suspenseful exercise in claustrophobia. A Japanese thriller that sets itself a tough challenge by being entirely set in two rooms. Not completely successful, but taut, surprising and well-acted. One might find the film somewhat reminiscent of SAW – two men trapped in room and pitting against each other – but unlike that film it dares to stay with its premise and keep the hero locked in his cell throughout the film. It's like watching a lab experiment. Some might find the contained suspense tedious, but this reviewer found it enthralling. The sound and imagery of the film are stunningly well realized. This is a certainly a good film to use to show off a good home video system. Just right for a late night movie fest, when one is in the paranoid mood. It certainly kept me awake that night.

No, it's not Versus: It's better!

[fmfdg114 · 10/10 · 15 November 2003]

Most complaints I've heard of this film really come down to one thing: It isn't Versus. Yes, the cast and crew is basically the same. Yes, Kitamura rehashes a few shots in the fight scenes that come in the film's second half, but that's about where the similarities end. Versus takes place essentially all outside, showcasing Kitamura's ability to craft an interesting B-movie in natural locations. For Alive, almost everything takes place inside. In small, cramped spaces. Here the art design is thrust into your face, and WHAT art design it is! We are treated to several very intricate and interesting spaces, and our characters are for the most part confined to those spaces. Also a key difference is that we don't get much action here until the end of the film. Versus was all about action and cool, here a LOT more emphasis is put on characters and situation and messing with your mind. Because of this, Alive is a far more interesting film than Versus. You may not pop it in and go to a random scene to watch five or ten minutes of cool zombie bloodshed, but you will sit glued to the screen for nearly two hours watching he interaction of a few genuinely interesting characters.

I'm now ecstatic that I ordered the DVD despite some naysay. You should too! But be sure to realize this is a different animal from Versus - it's often slow, and requires a bit of thought to get the most out of it. I hope Media Blasters picks it up for subtitled R1 DVD release!

Comic is way better

[thurd · 20 April 2004]

The movie is based on a manga series created by Tutomu Takahashi and as usual in such cases 'the book was better'. I haven't enjoyed the movie at all, despite its unusual atmosphere, it is just too long. A good film consists of many elements and one of them is right pace, which this film is lacking. What struck me the most was decreasing quality of the special effects, as if they spent most of the money in the beginning and then tried to do the ending with whatever was left. Ah I forgot to mention the 'mutant from space' character, which was omitted in the comic book, that gave the final scenes a 'Dragon Ball' feel and only distorted the depth of the comic ending.

Give back 2 hours of my life please

[freshestprince · 12 June 2004]

I'm a big fan of Kitamura Ryuhei after films like Versus and Azumi. He paints a great picture with action and flare in his movies. The movie Alive drained 2 hours of my life that I could have used wisely (putting my head down in shame). The movie starts off very slow and I mean yukkuri. When it gets down to the action I'm pretty much half a sleep and the action scenes weren't that great. No variety in environment cause it's just a jail and if I had to give credit it felt like I was in jail for watching the movie. The movie Cube pulls together better than this movie and it was probably more low budget than this. Big disappointment. All I have to say is don't watch this movie. Hope to see Aragami soon hope that's better. Peace