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Japan, 99 min
Director Sono Shion
Producers Tomita Toshikazu, Kawamata Masaya, Yoshida Seiji
Screenwriter Sono Shion
Cinematographer Sato Kazuto
Editor Onaga Akihiro
Music Hasegawa Tomoki
Cast Ishibashi Ryo, Nagase Masatoshi, Sato Tamao, Hosho Mai, Maro Akaji
Print Source: Daiei Co., Ltd.
Sales Agent: Daiei Co., Ltd.
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Sono Shion (who was our guest way back in 1990 with his autobiographical feature Bicycle Sighs) has been making weird, formalist indie films ever since he made the shift from poetry-writing to cinema. But Suicide Club represents a further shift into weird, free-form exploitation. It touches on some serious issues (Japan is, after all, the suicide capital of the world), but refuses to take them seriously; even the horror scenes are treated as black comedy. Sono comments that he set out to explore his perception that Japanese people nowadays have lost the will to live. There’s no reason to disbelieve him, but none of it makes much sense, least of all when it turns into Velvet Goldmine Redux for a scene or two. But it certainly holds your attention.
Just as teen Japan goes wild for an idol band called Desert, who have secret messages in their visuals and lyrics, 54 schoolgirls join hands on the Yamanote Line platform in Shinjuku Station and jump in front of an oncoming train. The resulting tsunami of blood heralds hundreds more mass and individual suicides. Shop-worn cops of three generations (Ishibashi Ryo, Nagase Masatoshi and Maro Akaji) investigate and discover any number of potential triggers, even as their own lives collapse around them. Is it all caused by a dangerous website? By a deranged glam rocker? By seemingly clean teeny-boppers? Or just by living in contemporary Japan?
- Tony Rayns
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Programme Code: SUICI
Fri Oct 4, 10:00pm
Granville 7 Cinema 7
$8.50
Tue Oct 8, 1:00pm
Granville 7 Cinema 7
$6.50
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Selected Filmography
Man’s Flower Road (87), Bicycle Sighs (90), The Room (93)
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