Suicide Club (2001)

Such a frustrating disappointment

Excellent adaptation.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

The Three Acts: The initial tableaux: Fifty students jump in front of a train to their bloody deaths. At the hospital, there is consternation over the news and the rail closures; further, there is a power outage and another death. The detectives have many issues to sort out. On a website, red dots seem to count the deaths.Delineation of conflicts: Were the deaths an accident, which would be convenient for writing them off, or were they murders, or were they something else? Who is behind the mysterious websites? Were the 50 youngsters from the same high school? The police have a lot to figure out.On the one hand, we have regular common sense. On the other hand, we have the formation of local suicide clubs that wish to establish a new record on the total number of simultaneous deaths. Are the cops immune to this movement?Conformity and nihilism seem to be working together, hand in glove, but why? Just what are those skin rolls (very long strips of human skin made of segments stitched together) about?Resolution: One question for me was whether the film intended to show supernatural causes, or whether it stayed reality based. If it stays reality based, will the police find the human centre of the problems?

The movie starts off in a relatively typical gruesome gory Japanese style and promises to be an interesting investigative thriller. However as soon as you've seen the 50-odd schoolgirls voluntarily jump to their deaths, you're greeted with footage that makes it blindingly obvious what's behind the whole thing. So that's the whole thriller aspect of the movie gone within the first 5-6 minutes and you might as well stop watching then, because nearly all further events contribute nothing more than vague symbolism and gore and stick out as some kind of agenda the movie is trying to desperately push. The story is illogical, none of the events seem plausible even in it's own universe with extremely persuasive cryptic children, it never really goes anywhere with the plot and then just ends for no reason.Having read some of the other reviews that claim this movie is some kind of masterpiece of social commentary, I have to say that just because a movie tries to address issues in society does not make it good by default.

This movie has a good concept and social criticism. I understand it but don't think you have to be a genius for this. Or that the movie is for whom understand. This is the ultimate bullshit when someone try to defend something.The execution is awful. Could be a matter of culture, but they can't show emotion. The acting is bad. It is the kind of movie that don't worries in make any sense, provided that the concept was spited to the audience.The only message I will take with me is that I must kill myself for have a bad taste for music (some people for movies).obs: Are those songs anesthetics? Why the child on the phone (presumably a minion of the crap band) has to clear his/her throat every damn line?

Shinjuku Station in the evening rush hour. High school girls throng the packed platform, dominating with their raucous chatter, jangling bags and provocatively short skirts. As the commuter rapid approaches, something bizarre happens - 54 girls join hands and step reverentially on the platform edge. Given the title of the film, it is no big stretch to guess what happens next.A veteran detective (Ryo Ishibashi) and jaded younger colleague (Masatoshi Nagase) suspect a grand plot, but are thwarted in their attempts to investigate by weary seniors. Clues are supplied by The Bat, a more web-savvy mysterious informant. Can the detectives uncover the conspiracy and prevent more suicides? That is as much narrative analysis as the story can bear, as it veers off course in the second half into surrealism, MTV theatricals, and heavy-handed symbolism. "There is no suicide club" declares a juvenile voice on the phone, continually clearing its throat. Whether there is or isn't is a question never fully resolved.Don't be taken in by reviewers who tell you that you have to be Japanese to understand this film - my Japanese students and friends are as baffled by the story as anyone else. Sion's film never quite lives up to that opening sequence in Shinjuku Station, but it compels you to go with it to the end, and provides a few thrills along the way. It is a shame it does not all quite pull together. But there are enough digs at Japan's shallow celebrity culture, crippling generation gap, obsessive consumerism, and indeed freakishly high suicide rate to make this worth watching.In short, great visuals, shame about the script.