Review of Noriko's Dinner Table (2005) by Jesse O — 24 Apr 2012

I believe every filmmaker should make the type of movie he/she wants. I don't think they should acquiesce to a studio who wants something done differently because it doesn't fit what the studio wants.

Then there's movies like this, which make me re-think those ideas. And it's not that the movie doesn't make sense. I resigned myself to the fact that it probably wouldn't make sense long before I even started watching it, hell Suicide Club (of which this movie is a pre/sequel of sorts) didn't make sense either, didn't stop it from being a great movie.

The problem is how self-indulgent and pretentious the movie is. Can anybody, seriously, give me a good reason why this movie was 2 hours and 40 minutes long??? If you wanted to see Sion Sono pleasuring himself metaphorically through his characters for 3 hours, then this is the movie for you.

There are a lot of narrated monologues that absolutely serve no purpose whatsoever, other than, again, to stroke Sion's ego. You could've cut this movie in HALF, would've been an IMMENSELY better and I don't think I've ever gone that far with a movie.

Think about it...this would be an hour and 20 minutes cut. And this isn't me exaggerating, it's Sion Sono getting WAY out of hand with this movie and refusing to edit it down out of pure stubbornness or, perhaps, stupidity.

And the thing is, the movie has good ideas. It adds intrigue into this mysterious suicide circle and the individual stories, while the constant voice over monologues are probably the worst (as in self-indulgent and pretentious) part of the movie other than the length, at least seem to be hinting that they're all heading toward the same end.

Like they're on a collision course and that's good. There's also some interesting themes about family, identity, nihilism. I don't get how people thought it was a good movie, but hey that's their opinion.

I wouldn't say I hated this movie, but in a lot of ways I did. This, Southland Tales, and almost every Gus Van Sant movie in existence is proof that giving people creative freedom isn't always the best idea.

Very disappointing and I wouldn't recommend it on any level.