On a bleak Sunday morning with the wind howling around my building and rain lashing against the windows, I got under a blanket and decided to watch Isn’t Anyone Alive (生けているものはいないのか / Ikiteiru mono wa inai no ka), a film directed by Gakuryu Ishii (石井 岳龍). Gakuryu Ishii, formerly known as Sogo Ishii (石井 聰互), is usually known for making punk films but changed his name and made a come back with this bizarre offering. I’m not sure what genre Isn’t Anyone Alive really fits into – some say it’s a comedy but even at its funniest moments I wouldn’t say that.
Set on a university campus, the film begins by introducing various groups of friends and their relationships. Immediately it’s clear this isn’t going to be a normal story, as a young engaged couple sit and talk with another girl who is apparently carrying the engaged man’s child. Elsewhere on campus, students discuss the urban myths relating to the university hospital on campus, where it is said ‘immortality experiments’ have taken place in the basement.
Suddenly talk turns to the news of a major train crash on a JR line, and what follows can only be described as bizarre. One by one, all of the main characters we have just met start dying. their deaths are quite dramatic – lots of choking, coughing and shouting – and not a single person calls for help. Instead, those remaining seem resigned to the fact that some sort of virus is coming to get them and they are all going to die, and as they wander around stepping over the dead they contemplate their last words, seeming more concerned with how they are going to die than stopping it happening.
The movie is beautifully shot, with a great soundtrack, but the story is just odd. There’s no resolution at all, and I can’t see what the message is supposed to be, if there is one. I suppose there is a sense of ‘what it is to be human’ about the film (friendship, family, love, etc.), but this theme isn’t well-developed enough to make for an interesting story.
Fans of Gakuryu Ishii might have a different take on this, but I would say Isn’t Anyone Alive is not really a movie worth bothering with. Check out the trailer and see what you think…
It’s not a film for everyone, but you might want to know that it’s an adaptation of a play that falls under ‘Theatre of the Absurd’.
I wrote a bit about that in my own review.
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Thanks, Alua. Yeah, as you say, just not for everyone. I studied a bit of ‘theatre of the absurd’ when I was at uni and just didn’t get it. (>_<)
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I would love, just once, to be able to sit back and enjoy a movie without a. rushing b. falling asleep or c.rushing! I like oddities! Is it available via rent? I can try and check out our cable Hikari to see if the video is up there on demand! Sunday was a bit bleak for us, in someways, we had to travel to see my father-in-law who may not be with us for very long “I can’t seem to unshaken his view from the hospital bed” and his last words, hopefully not, but then we decided to sight see afterward. I hope your Sunday cheered up for you a bit.
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Sorry to hear about your Sunday (and sorry for the very slow response to your comment!). Yes, this film is available to rent (here in the UK, anyway). 🙂
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