Review of Suicide Club (2001) by Lucia S — 01 Aug 2008

This one is a bit of a toughie to review. While I thought that Sono's "Strange Circus" was a trippy, disturbing, and fascinating film...this one was a little too abstract at parts to fully wrap your mind around. This movie has to have one of the most unforgettable, gory, shocking intros that I've seen in a long time. I'd had an idea of this suicide intro, but even with that knowledge I was still a bit taken aback. The senselessness of violence and throwing about of life like it was worthless, taps into the mass suicides occuring in an over-worked, over-stressed Japan. This whole notion of saving face and keeping emotions in check finally takes it's toll.

It's troubling when people, and the youth in particular, convince themselves that suicide is the solution to everything. Life is suffering for the most part, and trying to run away from it as if it were a game is futile. I am myself, and I can't become disconnected from myself. At first, I was under the impression that the Internet would play a larger roll in the movie, similar to the anime series "Serial Experiment Lain". The concept of the self and connections was intriguing but like I said earlier, hard to fully grasp. One thing Sono is brilliant at, is presenting a wide array of insane characters. Genesis and the Dessert girls stand out. ** SPOILER** Who knew kiddie bands were really wanting us to commit suicide? On a final note, I found it extremely shocking that I wasn't as disgusted by the "chain" of flesh as I should have been. I knew that I should have been disturbed by it, but yet I wasn't.