i have see most of ryuhei kitamura work and i have come to the conclusion that he have a knack for action . scene be kinetic and fast often combine element of martial art and gun fight and samurai fight with camera work that effectively capture the on screen carnage . with versus and aragami kitamura demonstrate that creativity and show that he his more than capable of work with a low budget . so what happen in alive . to be more blunt and the answer would be nothing . nothing happen in alive it be a two hour plus movie with little to no action and little to no character and plot . adapt from a comic book by tsutomu takahashi alive be an examination of the life of one tenshu yashiro ( play by hideo sasaki ) a death row convict who survive his execution . he be then give a choice of either to repeat the execution or to subject himself in a bizarre series of experiment . he choose the latter and soon after that be place in a room along with a rapist and later with a girl infect with a strange parasite that in exchange for it host humanity grant supernatural power . naturaly at some point that parasite move into yashiro and the bad thing be that doesn not happen very soon . similar to aragami and alive set it first half in establish the basic exposition . character be introduce and their motivation be set and their relation between each other be uncover . the whole thing even take place in just one set . the first major problem of that comparison be that while aragami be just a 70 minute movie and alive drag on for more than two hour thus make the first part over one hour long . that length could have be justify have the character be make a bit more interesting but ala that be not the case . dialogue be dry and monotonous and deliver without any sense of emotion or depth and character themselves aren not much interesting . there be some small attempt at make alive a bit more moral ambiguous but in the end it all come down to the classic represent evil government people against and super power protagonist and whom yes you guess it and save the girl in the end . like i previously say the entire film practically take place at just one set and and after two hour that do get boring and even bad the set design itself wasn not even interest to begin with and and doesn not do much to improve on other aspect of the film . now and after that first part be over and one might think that kitamura would at least make some entertaining action scene to make up for the boring beginning . sadly that be not the case . the two only fight be actually rehash of similar fight from hollywood movie and complete with bullet time effect and psychic power . theyre just not interesting or fun and kitamura creativity from versus be go and the small set even limit his often very impressive camera work and it all boil down into generic and expectable fight and a shame really . evidently aragami be good on all account and kitamura have learn something from alive . so it wasn not at least a total loss watch this movie . if only to understand the error make and how to fix them and create a good more entertaining movie .