Rating: 
Summary: Frustrating
Review: It's one of those movies that annoys one royally, not because it's ineptly made, but because it's well-made but squanders a lot of potential.The opening scenes are remarkable and memorable. Fifty-four girls go to a train platform, laughing and joking, and as a train approaches, almost playfully take hands and jump under the train's wheels, where they're all killed in some amazingly explicit footage. The suspense is mounting...what is causing the wave of suicides among Japan's youth? What is the meaning of the strips of skin taken from each corpse, found in a bag at each crime scene, sewn together in a grisly chain? What is the meaning of the website that logs the suicides as they happen, before they're reported or even discovered? Unfortunately, the story is largely unresolved at the end. After getting off to such a great and intriguing start, it seems as if the writers and directors had no idea of where to take the story or how to end it. Plot elements are dropped. Important characters disappear halfway through. Insignificant characters suddenly take center stage. Time is wasted on red-herring subplots. The conclusion is a garbled mess that will leave the viewer scratching his head. The film comes to a stop rather than a satisfactory end. It's too bad, because the first half is so good and haunting. It's frustrating to see it veer off into surreal, pretentious nonsense. There's a great story here, waiting for a cohesive ending. With the wave of Asian-horror remakes on the way from Hollywood (DARK WATER, THE GRUDGE, etc), I almost hope some producer will take the first half of this movie and make a more comprehensible ending for it.
Rating:
Summary: Club What?
Review: Ok, so a movie about a group of school girls killing themselves sounded intriguing at the very least. I'm sorry, after the plot brakes off into more branches than a Mormon family tree, I found myself thinking what the real reason behind this movie was. So I looked for a common theme, and of course everyone has spoken about the critique of Japanese and capitalist culture; but I am simply not happy with that. Look, this move is just plain bad. The theme is something like this: kill yourself, become an individual . . . oh no. . . . just kidding (insert Japanese school girl laugh) living is the best and makes you an individual. All and all, it's more incoherent than Descartes' account of clear and distinct perception. I'm sorry, but I just like it when my movies make sense all the way though, rather than tricking the populous to think something more Existential is going on.
Rating: 
Summary: A sensational and intelligent cult film from Japan!
Review: On the night of May 26th, 54 school girls descended the stairs of Tokyo's Shinjuki Station. While crowds of people gathered together on Track 8, these students (who had arrived from 18 different schools) stepped behind the platform's yellow line. Suddenly, in an unprecedented act of escapism, all the girls jumped in front of an oncoming train. Amid the screams of terrified and dumbfounded spectators, an ocean of blood splashed on the walls as bodies were crushed under the screeching wheels. The gruesome spectacle I just described is a mere opener to 2002's "Suicide Club," a mindblowing horror film written and directed by Shion Sono. Mixing a generous helping of gore into a detective mystery, this film warns adults of a growing tragedy noticed through careful observation: a homogenized holocaust of bubblegum consumerism. What makes this movie all the more chilling is how self-destruction has become another innocuous fad embraced by adolescents. With peer pressure in the air, teenagers clap and cheer as their best friends leap off tall buildings and hang themselves to chase the hottest thrill.
In the center of "Suicide Club" is a cheerful, all-girl pop group called Dessart. Their latest single, "Mail Me," is topping the charts as manufactured Dessart products are sold to the masses. Meanwhile, the Tokyo police department searches for clues linked to the train suicides. Among the members are Kuroda (Ryo Ishibashi), Shibu (Masatoshi Nagase), and Murata (Akaji Maro). At first, these three gentlemen believed that the deaths were forced upon victims by an underground cult. However, the plot is twisted when Shibu gets a phone call from The Bat (Yoko Kamon), a woman who is intrigued by a rather strange web site. On www.maru.ne.jp are rows of red and white dots. Each single dot represents another person's suicide, and more dots appear on the monitor immediately before the deaths happen. Later, it's revealed that at almost every crime scene, a white sports bag is mysteriously left behind. Inside it is an incredibly grisly souvenier: a coiling belt stitched from the victims' skins. Apparantly, every time a person dies, his/her flesh is added to the bleeding band. However, it's never known as to who is actually doing the handiwork.
During the movie's scenes of satire, citizens all over Tokyo take their own lives as part of the morbid entertainment. A heavy stand-up comedian slits his throat. A young girl inserts her head into a gas stove. There's even a moment when a smiling mother methodically slices off her fingers on a cutting board. Here, to truly alarm us, her husband and children never pay attention; they are too busy watching a Dessart chocolate commerical in the family den. Obviously, a sinister plot to destroy human life is connected to the Dessart members. It's up to the viewer to decide what that is. Could the group's songs contain subliminal messages intended to brainwash record buyers? Are the five members demonic forces that snatch and swallow desperate souls? Or are the girls just pawns manipulated by outside enemies?
Perhaps the most memorable character in the film can be none other than Genesis (Rolly), a sadistic rock singer with bleach blond hair, eyeliner, and black sequins. As an American viewer, I can best describe him as a volatile mix of David Bowie, Dr. Frankenfurter, and Cecil B. Demented. In the latter half of the film, Genesis kidnaps The Bat and drags her into a bowling alley, where he and his band members rape young women and torture house pets. In an insane effort to gain public notoriety, he labels his group "The Suicide Club" and boldly claims to have used the Internet to instigate a blood revolution. From here, it looks like the carnage has ended. But shortly after Genesis's arrest, another 200 red dots show up on the computer! What's important about this particular moment is how it reflects the controversy surrounding rock stars: it reminds us of how such shocking acts (like Ozzy Osbourne and Marilyn Manson) are wrongly blamed for encouraging impressionable teens to kill themselves. In a way, "Suicide Club" brings the musical outcast to life as well as the fashionable trendsetters.
If you desire a cinematic work with stunning images and a daring concept, then I recommend this movie for your collection. No American remake can do justice.
Rating:
Summary: 10 STARS!!
Review: Perfect on every level, I can honestly say this is the best movie i have seen to date. Alot of reviewers who gave this movies negative reviews simply didnt understand the movie given it is deeply rooted in Japanese culture and psyche, and for the violence. But i feel that the violence and gore work for the film, and the story.. If you are able to get past all that, then you will find a great story you will like. I have heard that this movie is the first of a trilogy that has not yet been finished, so i will definitely be looking out for that...
Rating:
Summary: Open your eyes!
Review: Please people, do open your eyes! This movie is a darn good one from start to finish. I'm sick of hearing all of these people who are too lazy to read the subtitles (most of the people who complain do NOT seem the type to actually speak Japanese) and look at the visuals. They then go online and waste not only their own time but the valuable time of others. I found this movie very interesting with it's depiction of the cultural distance between the modern Japanese and their children. I'm not going to waste your time by describing the movie, I will say that it is indeed worth watching and try and walk away with the key message in the film. Like a jigsaw puzzle, this movie surely has it's place.
Rating:
Summary: Ignore the popcorn mentality.
Review: Simply put this movie isn't meant to make sence, you are meant to find your own answers I think more movies like this should be made because I'm tired of the standard crap being put on our screens and rediculously long fantasy films getting 11 Oscars when there are films out there such as this that will never pick up an award because it actually try's to be different. Or at least thats what I think. Disturbing, violent and at times downright bizarre but totally unforgetable.
Rating: 
Summary: I loved the first half and hated the second.
Review: Starting with the self-murder of 54 school girls in the subway, Japan is suddenly plagued by a series of mysterious suicides. Jumping off of buildings, taking pills, face in oven, knives, guns it's all here and Detective Kuroda is determined to solve the mystery. His first clue is the large rolls of human skin left behind at some of the suicides. Next is a website that knows the number of victims before the deaths even occur.
Outside of the cartoonish blood effects, the first half of SUICIDE CLUB is excellent and even scary at times. I was thoroughly entertained, but then the ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW- impersonators show up and the whole thing goes to Hell. Luckily, after their song (yes, song) they didn't stick around long, but then the stuff about the teenage pop band starts (two more songs) and I lost all interest.
I know this movie is only 3 years old, but it already needs to be rewritten and then remade by a better director. Tasashi Miike would be my first choice. A great story idea like this deserves to be done correctly.
Rating:
Summary: Hair fax?
Review: Subway opening? Genius. Random musical number an hour in? Also genius.
Rating: 
Summary: Suicide Club Review
Review: Suicide Club (AKA Jisatsu Cirlcle, AKA Jisatsu Club) is more than a movie about the group suicides of Japanese school children (with a couple exceptions of adults), it is about more than murders committed by a gang led by a Charles Manson fanatic, more than people trying to find connections to the suicides, but while we're at it, let's just scratch the surface.
Detective Kuroda (Ryo Ishibashi....seen in films such as Audition) is basically trying to find connections between a recent string of group suicides taking the lives of Japanese school children. After each group suicide, a large roll of human skin is found. None of the school children seem to be of the type to commit suicide. They're all normal kids; happy kids. They even have happy dispositions while in the process of killing themselves. The story branches to "The Bat", a girl/computer geek trying to find a connection between the murders (she also finds a website connected to suicides that haven't happened yet, another girl that is trying to connect the suicide of her boyfriend to any other event, and an insane man obsessed with Charles Manson that also breaks into song.
Many people dislike this movie because they find it to be too confusing. They need to look at the whole movie in a symbolic sense. It is actually a movie about religion, about how fads sweep quickly throughout Japan, about families drifting apart, about the dangers of idolizing pop-icons/famous faces too drastically.
While, in one scene, the movie attempts to be a bit too "artistic", and some of the special effects are a bit cheesy (example: blood sprays as it would from a Nightmare on Elm St. movie or a kung-fu flick), it does not really detract from the overall greatness of the film. It is still one of the best thrillers I've seen in a while. I highly recommend picking this one up.
Rating:
Summary: "It's the Millenium - motives are meaningless..."
Review: Suicide Club has to be one of the weirdest films I've ever seen! It's great! I worry that we've gotten too used to Hollywood-style films, where everything has to happen for a reason and all the loose ends get cleared up before the popcorn goes cold and the Coke goes flat. Suicide Club (Suicide Circle?) is pretty much the antithesis of a matinee flick. It's disturbing, it's confusing and it has a post-modern ironic streak a Bullet-train long. It's nearest American comparison would be Blair Witch project, or Final Destination - they too employ the same themes of a malevolent, unknown force messing with the minds of mankind, but this is very definitely a Japanese flick, lots of suspense, lots of intrigue, very little explanation, much like the original Ring(u).
Is there a deeper meaning behind it all? Did the filmmakers cop out of a neat explanation? You'll have to watch and make your own mind up - personally I think it's intentionally ambiguous - it's designed to freak you out not knowing what the hell happened; much more unsettling and disturbing that way than having the butler do it.
Some scenes are visually brilliant and memorable - not least of these is the scene in the preview that isn't in the movie, where the fax machine starts spitting hair out? Fantastic! The sinister nature of our supposedly benign technology represented here by the Internet and text messages and secret web sites is one that I'm sure will inspire a lot more movie as time goes on. I hope they all are as great as this one!
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