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| Survive Style 5+ - Movie Club 2018 | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jan 24 2018, 03:36 PM (56 Views) | |
| Lencho of the Apes | Jan 24 2018, 03:36 PM Post #1 |
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Let's go do some crimes
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I loved the extravagant set design in Survive Style 5+. So invested in irrelevant filigree, meaningless detail, excess for excess' sake; some of those spaces looked like VR environments. I guess that's an element to keep in mind when reading the movie, but I wasn't really interested in reading it; I just liked looking at those molded-plastic-baroque spaces. This would be a good time for Holymanm to post his first movie. Edited by Lencho of the Apes, Jan 24 2018, 03:37 PM.
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| "The four cardinal points of the compass? In reality, there are only three: North and South." | |
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| mesnalty | Jan 24 2018, 03:44 PM Post #2 |
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g legs' flame
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There seems to be a trend in contemporary Japanese cinema of broad, surrealistic, over-the-top comedy. Hitoshi Matsumoto's films like Symbol and R100, a lot of Sion Sono, some of Miike's films (to a lesser extent). Survive Style 5+ fits right in, with its crazy set design and its bug-eyed acting. I will say that I generally find these films extremely grating, and SS5+ is no exception. Lots of good comedic premises - I'd probably enjoy a different movie based on the premise of a guy being stuck in hypnosis forever because the hypnotist dies before snapping him out of it. But this frenetic maximalism is too much for me. Btw, I often like Sono, and I think that's because his films have strong thematic through-lines, even when they're wild and surrealistic. They're not always successful, but they at least maintain my interest. (Well, they often go slack in the middle - he needs a good editor - but that's a separate issue.) I'm interested to hear if anybody has thoughts on this Japanese microgenre, and why it's been so prevalent for the last decade or so. |
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| Lencho of the Apes | Jan 24 2018, 05:47 PM Post #3 |
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Let's go do some crimes
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Gozu, by Miike and The Crazy Family by Ishii... those are the only J-coms I've seen that are even remotely similar to this, and the similarity's pretty remote. Mesnalty must be talking about something else... |
| "The four cardinal points of the compass? In reality, there are only three: North and South." | |
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| mesnalty | Jan 24 2018, 06:00 PM Post #4 |
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g legs' flame
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To me the similarities are mainly in the acting style (though broad, non-naturalistic acting isn't exactly a new phenomenon in Japanese film) and in the general anything-goes tenor. But the bright, eclectic costume/set design in SS5+ also reminds me of movies like Symbol and Sono's Antiporno, even though SS5+ is much busier than these examples:![]()
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| kanafani | Jan 24 2018, 06:51 PM Post #5 |
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SS5+'s excessiveness ultimately strikes me as superficial and juvenile. The imagery has the stamina of a T.V. ad; nothing is sustained for long. A lot of the gags and ideas are smart, I suppose, but they don't amount to much. It has the sensibility of a talented but insufferable adolescent who wants to awe you with how creative he is. And as is the case with a lot of movies that share this sensibility, it is not content with sticking to goofy, offensive, dumb humor (which I have really nothing against, though I did not laugh much), but it attempts to ultimately achieve a certain depth and a state of emotional catharsis, and that's where I found it most tedious. Example: the husband who is repeatedly trying to kill his revenant wife finally rediscovers the essence of love, or something along those lines, I wasn't paying 100% attention by then. Example: the young punk who shouts "I am not a homo, I am gay", in a moment that I suppose was meant to be poignant and touching, but does not manage to be either of these things. Example: The young ad lady who finally gets the meaning of life or whatever as she is running down the street. Why do so many people get epiphanies as they're running anyway? I run everyday, and it's never happened to me. The final twist is clever, but it's a cotton candy moment, it has no lasting impact. If I want to be honest, at the risk of sounding condescending, this is the kind of movie I would have considered a masterpiece back when I was 12. My current aging grouchy self just shrugs his shoulders and moves on. Sorry I've been such a movie club bummer. It's been a hard winter.
Edited by kanafani, Jan 24 2018, 06:51 PM.
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| letterboxd | |
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| Holymanm | Jan 24 2018, 09:23 PM Post #6 |
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moats n groats
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will upload mine shortly! ss5+ is an old 'inside cult classic' that used to be one of my favourites and was part of my introduction to 'weird cinema'. it was so wild and exotic and unique. when i rewatched it again this past year, for the first time in 12+ years, it was... less impactful. still fun and groovy, though a great deal of it was just nostalgia and old inside jokes and references. it does have asano though... |
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| bure420 | Jan 28 2018, 12:12 PM Post #7 |
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deadpan darling
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i saw SURVIVE STYLE 5+ like 7 and a bit yrs ago when i was first getting into foreign movies, and i loved it! but do i remember much? just that it was kooky. and the guy who gets stuck as a bird, it's such a ridiculous concept taken so earnestly that it's almost surreal. but i can't say i can vouch for the 4.5/5 i give it on lbxd. sometimes i rewatch movies i liked at that time and i like them the same, sometimes it's like a full point less, i'm just less "wowed" now that i'm a more experienced movie watcher. i'm not gonna rewatch at this time tho
Edited by bure420, Jan 28 2018, 12:24 PM.
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| javierquintero | Jan 30 2018, 02:48 PM Post #8 |
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Gifts must affect the receiver to the point of shock. - Walter Benjamin
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I watched Survive Style 5+ last night. Honestly it was a painful experience. The structure was interesting but dialogues were so stupid and the tone was inconsistent. I can see the resemblance with Symbol, Gozu, Getting Any? but what these three have in common is a solid conceptual agenda that binds form and content into one thing. In spite of the randomness appearance they have some sort of a gravitational core and all scenes and situations somehow refer to it literally or metaphorically. The same happens with Visitor Q or Executive Koala. Those farces inherited a principle on consistency (from absurd drama) and its determination of the absurdity of existence. They show a lot of freedom and wackiness in their construction but they also have some clear limits and rules depending on their own logic, mysteries, obscure "metaphors" and unexplained symbols. In Survive Style 5+ there are scenes that can easily be deleted without affecting the whole because, in my opinion, they precisely don't express that whole.
Edited by javierquintero, Jan 30 2018, 02:58 PM.
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| Mauries | Jan 30 2018, 11:01 PM Post #9 |
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g legs' sweetheart
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Watched Survive Style 5+. Not my kind of aesthetics, and if the film wasn't programmed in this film club I would probably never finish it. But I must say, when I was some time in it gave me quite some smiles. So the jokes were okay, but a good comedy needs a heart
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| The Economy stinks, bees are dying, and movies are pretty much all sequels now | |
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| sacmersault | Feb 1 2018, 03:08 AM Post #10 |
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Survive Style 5+: Wow! Amazing film. It was one of the most bizarre, surreal movies I've seen in a long time. I loved the aesthetic. The crazy colors, costumes, music, art direction, etc... There were some Kubrick and Guy Ritchie influences, specially the decor reminded me of A Clockwork Orange and the crazy style reminded me of Filth by Baird. I loved it. |
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