Suicide Club

Name: Jisatsu Saakuru (Japanese)

Suicide Club/Suicide Circle (Intl)

Director: Sion Sono (also the writer)

Release Date: 2002

Tagline: Well then, goodbye everybody.

Introduction:

Suicide Club was both written and directed by Sion Sono as part of a trilogy of three independent films. Deemed the “most groundbreaking film” at the Fant-Asia film festival, Suicide Club lives up to this lofty expectation. Painted in the somewhat questionable media of cult-horror, Suicide Club evokes a message of identity, alienation, and connection between individuals, their families (related, or not related) and themselves.

Synopsis:

This movie opens to fifty-four school girls, with the average age of fifteen, who gleefully leap to their deaths in front of a speeding train. As you can imagine, the ensuing scenes are gory and horrific. The only clue to their mass suicide is a small white bag left behind at the scene. Meanwhile, another small white bag is left behind at a hospital, where a nurse commits suicide. The police are baffled; these two incidents seem to have no connection to the other, and the fifty-four school girls are from eighteen separate schools.

Among the sinister contents of these two white bags; the increasing suicide epidemic; a strangely perturbing website; and a band composed of preteen girls who seem to have the nation under their spell lies a troubled nation and a sinister plot.

Review:

This movie can be rather confusing at times, you have to keep in mind that this is the first movie in a series of three. The next movie, Noriko’s Dinner Table, sheds more light onto mystery created in the first. Suicide Club keeps you guessing, and in the end, leaves you haunted and troubled. I, for one, did not know what to think after viewing this movie. I guess we’ll just have to wait until the series is complete!

Some of the gory scenes in this movie are incredibly shocking. For instance, the daikon chopping scene almost made me lose my dinner. Just as a warning, try to not eat before or during the viewing of this movie!

Above all, this is a movie about relationships: relationships with your family, relationship with your friends, and most importantly, relationships with yourself. “Are you connected with yourself?” the movie continually asks. Is life worth living without these relationships? This movie stays with you long after you finish watching it, forcing you to evaluate your society. While Suicide Club is more suitable for a Japanese audience, I’m sure you can identify with some of the issues is brings us.

Regardless, don’t be scared off by all the heavy societal questions that I have just posed. This movie is wonderful, and everyone should watch it, if only for the gory suicides and the cute Asian chicks. Enjoy!

Ratings:

Entertainment: 10
Scares: 8
Gore: 10 (just you wait…)

*GO WATCH THIS AS SOON AS YOU CAN*

Video:

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