| Review by Jim |
| Plot: After a group of 50 high school girls commit grisly suicides by joining hands and throwing themselves in front of a train, a series of unexplained suicides soon sweep over Tokyo with no pattern and the only clue being a duffel bag with a roll of skin. The case is then given to Kuroda and his team of detectives to find out what or who is driving dozens of people to kill themselves. Can they find out in time and prevent any more suicides? Probably not. Review: On an aesthetic level, Suicide Club is a pretty damn good movie with tons of atmosphere and dark humor abounding, but on other levels it doesn't do so hot, but let's start with what makes this movie fun. The movie starts off with a group of high school girls just casually chatting away at each other while waiting for the next train in a subway. All of a sudden they join hands, gleefully smile, and jump right onto the trains, effectively getting crunched by the train and splattering all their gore onto the shocked crowd in the station. I mean, their teenage heads fucking explode, gushing a tidal wave of blood like a melon! The sheer absurdity of the spectacle is so horrific and hilarious at the same time that we can't help but feel disgusted and laugh out loud at the same time. There are a lot of moments like that in the film, especially when even more people kill themselves and when a David Bowie-esque character enters called Genesis. While singing a musical number with a guitar, one of his underlings slices up a screaming woman in a sack. So in terms of shock value and dark comedy, Suicide Club had its bases covers, but everything else seemed to go to waste. It's as if the writers were having all these great ideas for scenes, but when it came to coming up with a real plot, characters, or tying up the loose ends at the finale, they just couldn't do it. Don't get me wrong, there were more than enough scenes of creative and humorous violence to go around, but by the second half of the film, the novelty and laughs had worn off and I wanted some concrete answers. The second half drastically changed to a much more serious tone and that just didn't work out. The whole "kiddie cult" aspect didn't answer shit but instead raised even more questions. I was having fun trying to figure out what was the suicide influence which made a semi-interesting "whodunnit." Was it Genesis and his gang of psychos? A secret cult called the Suicide Club? Was it the ultra pop-stars Dessert? Or was it just plain peer pressure? Just as I really got to thinking who or what was the culprit, the film abruptly answers that question with a very weak answer and on top of that, they add a confusing side answer/subplot (if I can call it that) that involves many children that leave cryptic messages for the police and cough after every sentence (just get the kid a glass of salt water already). Another big minus is the fact that we really could care less about any of the characters. Even the ones that have an impact on the story are devoid of any real personality. The film's theme is that of peer pressure and going with the crowd, which is decent, but it takes maybe one or two minutes into the film to know that's its theme. In the end, I'm not impressed by Suicide Club. It had its moments of dark humor and originality, but there just wasn't enough of that energy put into the storyline. It's fun to watch for the first half, but it drags like an anchor near the end, so it is watchable. If you just want to rent a new, artsy Japanese movie that's been stamped with tons of awards as soon as possible, then you should take a look at Suicide Club, otherwise if you're not desperate then you're not missing much by skipping this movie. |
| Rating: ** |
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