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Suicide Club (Suicide Circle)

Suicide Club (Suicide Circle)

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Stupid!
Review: This is the worse movie I ever seen in my life!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Even Glam Rock Can't Save This Movie
Review: This movie started out OK. The cutesy school girls committing suicide was a good time, and there was even an excess of blood spraying on bystanders. The movie even held up about 45 minutes in, that is, until the main character committed suicide. Roll Credits. No actually, there is an hour left. This is when the movie divulges into a meaningless, directionless waste of film. The first half of the movie was building you up, and was actually pretty cool and interesting. With a quick pull of a trigger, the whole plot, character development and movie go into the toilet. I can only assume that this movie was intended to shock, but ends up falling infinitely short. It seems the director forgot that without coherency, nobody would care. If you want a good gore-fest shock-cinema movie, see Riki-Oh, or even Battle Royale. If you want a well-done, frightening movie, see Audition. Whatever you do, don't waste your money on this trite abomination of a film.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Trying to be extreme and intellectual
Review: This movie tries to be extreme and also to be intellectual. It is neither. I agree with the majority of reviews that say there was something interesting about the beginning with the suicides and the sown-together skin of the "victims" being left at the scene.

However, no real story ever develops and interest deteriorates ever minute you watch. There is a lot of time spent on story pieces that are never shown how they fit into the main story line. My assumption is that this was purposeful done, trying to be intellectual by "letting the audience interpret for themselves". It wasn't "intellectual". The story pieces didn't connect and the story fell apart because of it.

This movie does paint a well-done dark atmosphere in the beginning which I enjoyed. The skin sewn together was a good effect similar to the stomach in the bag in Se7en. However, anything that involved blood was done as bad as I've seen anywhere. Someone off camera throws a bucket of blood on a wall or other surroundings.

I wanted to like it. It introduced elements that I was interesting in having expanded and explored more. Then when I was interested, it went nowhere. All potential. But all the potential remains unexploited.

In the end, it seems some bubblegum pop girl band is somehow behind it all. How? Who know? Not even the writer, I'm sure.

It's not intellectual. It's not even quasi-intellectual. It's downright stupid. It's a bad movie.

I hope this director can work on something dark and similar to this but a good story. I think a great movie could be made with a better story. (Oh, and of course, a dark movie but one without blood, which was extremely, incompetently done)



Rating: 3 stars
Summary: absolutely shocking
Review: This was definitely shocking. At the end of it I was completely speechless. The overall message was clear and it was presented "okay". You could just feel the tension reverberating through the film. However, the gore wasn't all that gory and the suspense wasn't all that suspenseful. But I think everyone should see this film despite its bad cinematography because of what you can take from it. My family thought it was a completely pointless movie and had no use, but I could not get enough of it. Watch it. I think if you actually think about what it is saying, it'll affect you as much as it has me.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Movie
Review: This was One of the best movies I have seen in some time. If you are looking for a typical cookie cut western style movie this certainly isnt one to see. The violence and gore is highly stylized. A number of the complaints here seem to be in part due to film being taken out of context. It is to a large extent a satire and not a straight out horror/thriller movie. You really need to attempt to place the movie in its current context rooted in japanese culture and a more collectivist psyche.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Perplexing but with a Deeper Meaning
Review: To explain the movie fully would ruin it, because I believe some of the effect of the movie is leaving puzzled, as even the greatest analysis cannot explain certain things, such as the baby chicks at the end. But in a society where the youth and the adults are so disjointed that the adults cannot understand the youth, such as through popular music [it seems only the youth can figure out the secret Dessert/Desart messages], the internet, etc., and the youth is so impressionable, destruction follows. The perpetrators of the suicides, such as the child who calls the police, they are the innocents who have not been destroyed by that very society, but unforunately, they seem to feel compelled to save their generation by destroying those that are already too late. Society wants to find a scapegoat, which is why there is that self-proclaimed Charles Manson, but it simply does not work that way. The suicides do not stop. If it were simply a shallow mystery with the suicides caused by the pop music group, then it would be nothing more than a B movie. It seems to begin this way, but diverts into a greater meaning. There is humor where you don't want it, and odd suspense. It is not something you forget.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: what the ............?
Review: well, at first sign it seems a very interesting movie. The story stars good, the gore is good even the actors are good. But there are a lot of problems, first of all the ending is too obvious, you can figure out really fast. Then the gore scenes are ridiculous, i mean how can a person cut off their fingers without make any expression and there is another scene when a girl is falling from the ceiling and the body explodes like a blood bomb!, those moments are very stupid that doesn't shock you that makes you laugh.

Just before the end, the movie turns somehow into a musical, the good story turns senseless, stupid, obvious. i really don't recommend to buy this movie but is worth see it, at least you learn something about japanese cuulture.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Jisatsu Sakuru
Review: Well, I officially came to the conclusion, after seeing time and tide and a few others, that Modern Asian movies do not like to fall into the cliche'd five-part plot summary genre, and thus at some point in the plot will go on a little tangent till the movie ends. But hey, that's fine with me. I liked this movie, can't say that I understood it all too well, but in some manner I felt resolved in the end. I would say more, but I don't want to be a spoiler. See the movie, and don't eat before hand. =)

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Bizarre
Review: What do bags containing wheels of human skin, a computer hacker referred to as "The Bat," a serial killer named Genesis with a penchant for breaking into song, a girl band named Dessert, a hit song called "Mail Me," baby chicks, and a kid who clears his throat constantly during cryptic phone calls all have in common? Why, they all appear in Shion Sono's incredibly disturbing and impenetrable film "Suicide Club." I'm not the only person who adores these offbeat Japanese horror films: Hollywood loves them so much that studios are scrambling over themselves in a mad dash to buy up remake rights. I'm not so sure, however, that anyone in Tinseltown will knock themselves out trying to bring a new version of Sono's film to American screens. A scary ghost story about a haunted videotape has an appeal to audiences on these shores; a tale about kids taking their own lives in heinous ways as a result of the evils of mass consumerism doesn't. Can you imagine a corporation trying to figure out a way to place their products in a film showing children jumping off the roof of their school? I sure can't. I think it is safe to say that "Suicide Club" will remain a singular effort for some time.

Sono's film begins with what is probably one of the most memorable opening sequences in a modern horror film. A group of fifty-four Japanese schoolgirls--wearing those instantly recognizable uniforms--queue up at the edge of a subway track, join hands, and dive in front of a moving train. Oh man, what a mess that makes! The cops, led by Detective Kuroda (Ryo Ishibashi) launch an immediate investigation. Their query takes on decidedly ominous overtones when a white bag left at the scene is found to contain a wheel of stitched together human flesh. Good grief, Charlie Brown! Even my hardened soul recoiled at the sight of so much atrocity so early in a film. My finger strayed to the stop button until I decided to tough it out. Fortunately, the movie can't sustain its memorable opening scenes, and things start calming down significantly. That doesn't mean, however, that "Suicide Club" turns into a Disney film. The subway incident soon inspires other youths around the country to come up with grisly ways to take their lives, the worst of which is a scenario involving a bunch of kids jumping off the roof of their very tall school building. Suicide soon becomes the new "in" thing, something everyone wants to do. Kuroda and his men can't figure out this nightmare.

Then a mysterious website that appears to keep track of the deaths, and even predicts them beforehand with startling accuracy, comes to the attention of the cops. A hacker named "The Bat" soon contacts the police promising to track down the identity of those behind the site, and for the first time it looks like answers explaining the grisly suicides will come to light. Unfortunately, a wacko named Genesis kidnaps The Bat and her friends before she cracks the mystery. This guy and his cohorts live in an abandoned bowling alley where they keep their victims tied up in sheets. Genesis, after singing a song, admits to killing a large number of people. Is he the one behind the suicides and the website? Maybe, but kids keep dying after the authorities apprehend Genesis and his gang. Even Kuroda's family isn't immune to the tragedies sweeping the country. By the time he receives phone calls from a throat clearing kid who asks him cryptic questions about his "connections" to his family and others, the whole case seems impossible to solve. The focus of the film then switches to a young lady who finds secret messages hidden in products sold by the girl band Dessert, messages that lead her to a place filled with kids asking the same sort of questions Kuroda failed to answer. It's also filled with dyed baby chicks (?).

No one knows better than I do that "Suicide Club" is one strange film. Just when you think you've got a handle on the weirdness, Sono throws in another element that doesn't make sense. By the time the end of the movie rolls around, all sense of logic seems to break down. What exactly is Dessert's role in the unfolding madness? What does the song "Mail Me" mean, if anything? What is up with the wheels of skin, the kid clearing his throat, and the baby chicks? I think I can follow a few of these things, mainly that all of the questions about "connections" hint at the alienating aspects of pop culture and materialism. There is a sort of "monkey see, monkey do" facet of mass consumerism that is potentially life threatening, seen here in the way kids so readily take to the idea of killing themselves because others are doing the same thing. Life and death become mere commodities. I have no idea how that theme ties in with a bunch of kids sitting around applauding the answers to their questions at the end of the film, or the whole baby chick thing. Especially the baby chick thing, which is probably some symbol a Japanese audience would pick up on in a minute. For me, it's mystifying in the extreme.

As arcane as it is, "Suicide Club" still entertains. The gore scenes go appropriately over the top, but largely fall away as the movie expresses its social messages. I'm not ashamed at all to say I got a big kick out of Genesis's performance in the bowling alley; his song isn't half bad! Extras on the disc consist of trailers for "Suicide Club," "Between Your Legs," "Children of Hannibal," and "The Bathers." Sono's film isn't for everyone, and it holds on tightly to its secrets, but I guarantee you will find something in this picture that will grab your eye. Give it a shot.


Rating: 2 stars
Summary: SUICIDE Plot
Review: What's extraordinarily frustrating about SUICIDE CLUB is the fact that the film desperately wants to BE about something. Beyond the stark images, beyond the sketchy plotlines that try to connect cults to teenage fanaticism to the Internet to a fascinating police procedural, CLUB tries very hard to convince the viewer that "it's all going somewhere" despite the lack of rhythm or a true narrative center.

The set-up is, however, incredible: 54 high school girls join hands and leap to their deaths in a seeming act of joy from a subway platform onto the tracks and the crunch of an oncoming train. Blood flies everywhere (the film has more than a handful of truly horrific images), and a mysterious suitcase filled with a long train of interwoven human skin is only the first domino to fall in a growing phenomenon of group suicides.

In the end, however, CLUB commits its own form of suicide by taking the easy way out, apparently blaming what appeared to be an unexplainable national 'Manchurian Candidate' phenomenon on one very, very bad pop song.


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