SUICIDE CLUB (aka SUICIDE CIRCLE)
PLOT-The cops are baffled as hundreds of Japanese teenagers begin killing themselves in large groups.
VIOLENCE-Several teens jump in front of a moving train and also off a building, with lots of blood splatter. Additionally, a woman chops off her own fingers, several suicide victims are found dead from various methods, and gross coils of human skin are unraveled several times (you'll understand when you see it...or maybe not).
SEX/NUDITY-A few naked girls are shown briefly, but not in a sexual context.
WHY I WATCHED IT-The Japanese have a recent history of making some really freaky horror movies. I had to check it out.
THE DOPE-As a kid, you probably heard your folks say, "if your friends all jumped off a cliff, would you jump too?"
Sure, it's a worn-out statement, but it's a valid one. The lesson is, don't do something just because everyone else is, or just because it's the popular thing to do. Follow your own path, bust your own beat. Dig? I always dug the phrase "Ignorance Is Suicide" because to me, individuality and self-expression have always been very important. If you pattern yourself after everyone else, who are you? Where's your identity? So in a sense, to ignore your true self and become a follower is its own kind of death. It's killing yourself, it's suicide.
That's basically the premise of SUICIDE CLUB, but the idea is presented in a very elaborate, yet darkly humorous way. As social satire, it's brilliant. As a dramatic film, it can be damn confusing at times and pretty weird, especially towards the end. The deaths are treated seriously, however they are presented in an comic, almost cartoonish way. Seeing a bunch of kids at lunch making a gleeful game out of plunging off the school's roof to their deaths is disturbing but yet carries a strong comment about a very real issue that we all faced at that age. In SUICIDE CLUB, it's all the rage to die. But the cops uncover more than that as coils of stitched-together human flesh are delivered in duffle bags at the crime scene by unknown persons, and the reasons why everyone thinks it's so cool to kill themselves is a mystery.
While not quite a straight horror film, SUICIDE CLUB manages some extremely chilling and intense moments, and of course the creep and gross-out factor are present (when you see how they get the skin off, you'll cringe). But where it scores highest is with the humor and the statement it carries about a timeless, vital issue.
MEMORABLE SCENES-A kid jumps off a building and lands on one of his friends, who happens to be passing by on the sidewalk below. As he lays dying, bleeding to death, he's like, "sorry I landed on you, are you okay?"
NOTES-There are rated and unrated versions of this film available, but both have a 99-minute running time. In other words, the only differences must be pretty small. The DVD conatins a photo gallery and some trailers.
(March 2004)