Vital, Shinya Tsukamoto, Giappone, 2004, colore, 35 mm, 86′ | 2005 Neon
In un terribile incidente stradale lo studente di medicina Hiroshi ha perso la memoria, mentre la sua compagna Ryôko è rimasta uccisa.
Per tentare di ritornare alla normalità, riprende i suoi studi. Durante il corso di anatomia, sezionare un cadavere sembra risvegliare ricordi, più o meno reali, finché capisce che il corpo su cui sta facendo pratica è proprio quello di Ryôko. L’incredibile scoperta non solo non lo ferma, ma lo spinge a continuare la dissezione e lo studio di quel corpo con ossessione crescente, come fosse in cerca dell’essenza (anima?) della persona che era stata. Mentre la fa rivivere nella propria mente, in un luogo immaginario nel quale vorrebbe perdersi con lei, nella realtà si fa coinvolgere in violenti amplessi dalla compagna di corso Ikumi (Kiki), dedita all’asfissia erotica.
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Hiroshi (Tadanobu Asano) wakes up in a hospital room and realizes that he was in a serious car accident that caused the death of his girlfriend, Ryoko (Nami Tsukamoto), as well as the loss of his memory. While trying to regain his memory, one of the first clues that Hiroshi finds are his old medical textbooks that he studied prior to his accident. This gives him a renewed purpose in life and he delves forward into his medical school studies. One of his medical school classmates, Ikumi (Kiki), soon becomes infatuated with Hiroshi, although he does not return her interests initially. During a 4-month period, in which his class dissects human cadavers, Hiroshi realizes that the body that he is dissecting is the body of his former girlfriend, Ryoko, which causes more of Hiroshi’s memory to return. During this time, Hiroshi engages in a relationship with his classmate Ikumi, that helps him recall further memories of his ex-girlfriend. Ikumi, meanwhile, feels jealous rage because of Hiroshi’s devotion in dissecting the cadaver of Ryoko, while Hiroshi is consumed in the quest to understand who that person was that died in his car and ultimately find out who he really is.
