The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

...the relationships are complicated; you fight to get rid of your partner, then when you finally achieve that you cannot live without him/her so you cry...Other point in this movie is a more difficult one: try to get along with the different or with the differences and accept him/her that way. A very complicated task that the human kind still does not reached.Humor and tragedy.-Also: .Very good motion .Good music .Nice camera work .Nice editing .Good actorsFun to watch; recommended.

I'm not sure how to even begin a critique of this film. The best analogy that I can think of is a bit like the first time I ever went into a sushi bar. - It wasn't just that the food that I ate was completely different to a palate more used to hamburgers or fish & chips, but that the rules were different too. Instead of having a waitress write down the order, I picked out colourful dishes off a conveyor belt, and ate some wonderfully exotic food. All of this wrapped up in a culture that was decidedly Japanese....and I loved it!!Exactly the same is true of Survive Style 5. It was completely different from the usual movies I watch, the rules were broken, the experience was extremely colourful, wonderfully exotic, it was decidedly Japanese...and I loved it too!! The film focuses on several story lines, from the fairly tame (the sexual confusion of a group of young friends), to the surreal (the murdered wife who keeps returning to beat up her husband in ever more bizarre ways), to the absurd (the man stuck in a trance thinking he's a bird after the hypnotist is killed)...and beyond.The first thing that struck me was the brightness & colour of the film. The words 'kitsch' do not do the sets justice, with big pink fluffy 'Hello Kitty' cuteness or neon manga-esquire style. The movie is not drab in the slightest! Also the film wears its 'Japaneseness' on its sleeve, which is further highlighted by the inclusion of the very un-Japanese Vinnie Jones (playing a hit-man who asks the question "What is your purpose in life?" indiscriminately to air stewardesses and pieces of broccoli).Amongst all this mish-mash of colour, lunacy, absurdity, and surrealism lies a a big heart. While almost completely disparate in some places, the movie ends in a surprisingly satisfying manner (In fact, it's one of the best endings I could imagine for a movie so off-the-wall).Maybe the film won't be to everybody's taste, especially those who really do not want to try something different, but what can I say? I like to try something new once in a while, and if you're like me, this might be a tasty plate of Futomaki for you!

There are 5 stories that somehow connect but not really intertwine (this is the deceptive part), however, I liked all of them, the movie puts a especial emphasis in bizarreness, but it doesn't go too far.Wife and Husband- This is in fact the fantastic part of the movie, the silentness of the wife is the main tool for getting you into that sweet vacillation of whether things are real or not, but there are lot more, as the costumes she wears every time (Which reminds me to a movie knows as "héroe" by this latitudes) and the phase-shifts. Here we also have the sweet dose of violence.Killers - I got pretty surprised when I ran into "Big Chris"! The contrast between Jones and the translator was way bizarre. There's not much going on here, since both of them are like a lone functional character.Birdman- The "strange" vector of the film, yet the cutest, Keiichi's perspective keeps the frankness of children accurately. I LOVED the teacher scene.Yoko the Creative- Oh god, Yoko's ideas for commercials are so unfunny they become funny, and Yoko is funny herself. Really laugh with the way she laughs and with the wild winking when she's having her "afflati". Here I may mark two characters I would had LOVED to see a little bit more of = The café girls. The accident girl was so funnily pathetic, and that were really strengthened by the uncaring friend. I wonder what would have happened to her if she'd got a third scene!!The Housebreakers = And again we find a bizarre contrast, this time between the "ugly" and the "sexy" burglars. This story takes little of the film's length and it is also the most disconnected one, but adds a funky "sexuality" note.And to finish, I liked the music.

Some people out there may imagine the Japanese of Tokyo to be stoic and colorless like Vulcans. To some extent, that is how they really are. The buildings are gray, and if it's overcast, everything kind of blends together into a formalized drone. There is more paperwork added each day, another speech to sleep through, and the shuffle begins anew. Add the business formalities, and society can get very stiff over there.That is one side of Japan.SURVIVE STYLE 5 is the other side. Somewhere buried beneath the hard samurai exterior, the Japanese are the silliest, flashiest people on the face of the earth. Just watch the game shows on TV to see what I mean. It takes the slightest spark to transform a crowd of adults into a crowd of Pokemon monsters. Add this side of Japan, and every conversation at the workplace has a Comic Book BANG! POW! and HORRA!The movie features five story lines (1) A hip to be square family of four (2) A girl that won't stay buried (3) An assassin on a hit job (4) A hypnotist (5) A traveling band of fools in a van. Here's a puzzle for you -- what is the common element that connects these 5 story lines? Beats me. Maybe it's the STYLE.SURVIVE STYLE 5 is like a multi-colored salad falling to the kitchen floor in slow motion. Everyone stands agape as the orange leaves scatter like purple rain. Most memorable are the vivid colors and extreme silliness. Take for example the absurd scene where a typical nuclear family is rocking out in the car on their way to a hypnosis show. All four are bobbing their heads to punk rock and shouting American profanities in unison.A cohesive story would have propelled this movie into greatness. But because it's so scatterbrained, it can safely be filed in the "two-hour music video" drawer. You might want to display it at the entrance to your home on special occasions -- like an Andy Warhol photograph. It can serve as a reminder of how absurd the world can get. "Yes, the world did have a story to tell once upon a time. It made absolutely no sense, but it had such a beautiful Christmas Tree!"If SURVIVE STYLE 5 is your cup of tea, I recommend Taste of Tea, released in 2004 starring Tadanobu Asano.JYJimboduck-dot-com