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The latest from Japan’s baron of body-horror Shinya Tsukamoto taps into a sub-trend for dramas about amnesiacs. Nothing new there, but Tsukamoto puts a kink in the plot by basing the film on a medical student, Hiroshi (Tadanobu Asano) whose girlfriend dies in the accident that robs him of his memory. When he rejoins medical school, the corpse he has to dissect has a familiar tattoo, which triggers old memories...
As squelch-tastic as it sounds, Vital is gentler than Tsukamoto’s previous outings might suggest, exploring the body as a ground on which people engage emotionally rather than a site of transformation. Expressive imagery and a restrained performance from Asano create a quiet study in loss and love in which reality and idealised memories merge persuasively. Japan’s master of metal and mangled mayhem has never seemed quite so human.
"Souls-like meets Fable" is all this indie RPG needed to say to meet its Kickstarter goal, but it added in a Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood nod just for good measure
Gorgeous JRPG homage Clair Obscur sells out its collector's edition months before launch, dev says it didn't think "the demand for our physical editions would be so high"
Turn-based RPG Clair Obscur dev says all-star voice actor lineup includes people like Andy Serkis and Baldur’s Gate 3 alumni by accident: "He was like, 'Isn't that Clive from Final Fantasy?'"
