A movie about an amnesiac isn't anything special, but what about an amnesiac who, in going to medical school to become a doctor, inadvertently begins dissecting the corpse of his old girlfriend? Now that is something exceptional. Admittedly, Tsukamoto Shinya뭩 Vital is better in concept than in action, but this being the director of the legendary 1988 film Tetsuo: The Iron Man, the work certainly is a trip. Though his post-Tetsuo films have gotten scant, if any, distribution in the States, the fact that Vital stars the hyper-prolific Asano Tadanobu may help the film be seen by more. Those coming to the movie under the strength of his appeal may be in for a surprise though. As Takagi Hiroshi, victim of a car crash which wiped his memory and killed his depressed girlfriend, Asano walks around the film in a somnambulate daze only the dead would consider active.

In Vital Asano stars as Hiroshi Takagi, a young man who has just regained consciousness after slipping into a coma after a horrible car accident which claimed the life of Ryoko, his girlfriend. Takagi awakes with no memory of any sort: not of the accident, not of his family, not of his girlfriend. His parents, both doctors, take him home where he discovers a box full of old medical textbooks and he subsequently enrolls in medical school.

Through the first third of the film Takagi is a shell of a man, staring vacantly into space and seldom, if ever speaking to anyone. He shows no interest in any of his classmates - even the attractive young woman who slowly becomes obsessed with him - and lives alone in a squalid apartment. The first glimmer of life appears when Takagi begins his dissection class and he begins to explore the corpse of a young woman with a tattoo on her arm, a tattoo which slowly begins to dislodge fragments of Takagi's memories. He eventually comes to realize that the corpse he is dissecting is none other than Ryoko, his former girlfriend.

What you would expect to be a repulsive event for Takagi actually holds a strange attraction to him. As he continues to work more of his past returns and he grows increasingly protective of Ryoko's corpse. Eventually he begins having waking dreams of his lover. Are they memories? Fantasies? Or has he tapped into some sort of supernatural reality in which he can interact with Ryoko's spirit? Takagi becomes increasingly distant from reality as he pursues Ryoko beyond death.

อาซาโน่เล่นเป็นชายหนุ่มที่ชื่อฮิโรชิ เขาฟื้นคืนสติมาหลังจากประสบอุบัติเหตุรถชนกันจนเขาอาการโคม่า ไม่รู้สึกตัวเป็นเวลาหลายวัน เมื่อเขาตื่นขึ้นมาเขาไม่สามารถจำเรื่องราวอะไรได้เลย ทั้งนี้เป็นผลมาจากการเสียชีวิต ของแฟนสาว เรียวโกะ ที่นั่งมาด้วยกันในรถ ฮิโรชิ เป็นนักศึกษาแพทย์ดังนั้นสิ่งที่เค้าค้นคว้าและมุุ่่งมั่นที่สุดในตอนนี้ก็คือ การทำให้ศพของคนรักกลีบฟื้นคืนชีพขึ้นมาอยู่ร่วมกับเขาต่อไป ....