Review of Vivant

This 10 episode streaming series seems to wrestle with the classical "quantity vs. Quality" dilemma. Quality loses. What might have been an unique and memorable action adventure series is hopelessly buried under an excess of repetitious stuff. To call out a few: the incredulous story line often lacks continuity and is loaded with never-ending, nonsensical twists and turns and way too many subplots involving global organizations dedicated to destroying Japan, global organizations dedicated to protecting Japan, and global organizations dedicated to destroying and protecting Japan (sometimes at the same time!). Most supporting actors seem well cast and deliver fine performances. Sadly this is not the case for the two lead actors - they are clearly miscast. Rubber-faced Masato SAKAI plays one of the heroes and delivers nonstop mugging and silliness (sort of like a standup comic trying to be funny when loose in the wild) until the last few episodes. Not particularly amusing. The other hero is ostensibly Japanese, but certainly doesn't appear to be. Actresses can be overly made up and look a bit like geisha (which they are not). Cutesy scenes involving a child actress are repeated ad nauseam and milked beyond dry. Then there is the sand. The series is packed to the gills with it, both real and virtual. Photography and CGI are outstanding and sets (particularly real outdoor ones) are simply marvelous. Score is uneven. Subtitles arrive before some characters have finished delivering their lines. A movie that requires a lot of popcorn (and strong, anesthetic liquid refreshment) be at the ready. Viewed on Netflix. WILLIAM FLANIGAN.