"Suicide Club" Is a Movie I Watched

54 girls jumping in front of a train to their death causes many more suicides across Japan. That's the premise of this rather complicated and quite confusing film that is hard to forget about. A movie that is still talked about and discussed right now since its release in 2001.

So Suicide Club is a Japanese filmed released in 2001 directed by Sion Sono. I was introduced to him by a good friend back in Vancouver who is into foreign films (and a lot of anime). He never actually told me about this film, but the name "Sion Sono" was what he dropped a couple times, and the Sono guy seemed to be quite the popular one in these film circles. So I watched a few of his movies and this is the one I wanted to talk about first.

We have 54 girls jumping to their death and getting run over by a train in a huge, bloody mess. The police are at a loss but makes everything even worse when even more suicides start happening all over the country which seem to all be unconnected. We have a slight hint that the pop group "Dessert" (or "Dessart", "Desert", "Desret". I don't fucking know) may have been giving people subliminal messages and we also get the crazy character, "Genesis" who claims to be behind everything, and we also get the hacker girls giving tips to the police.

This movie is not your usual fair. We jump to different characters doing and how they're all dealing with the situation including the older detective, the younger detective, the high school girl whose boyfriend commits suicide and hurts her ear, the hacker girls, and all those souls we don't see long till they depart. The movie manages to balance the focus out incredibly well. You never find it jarring when the movie shifts to all these different perspectives. It's like in The Avengers where every character gets a chance in the spotlight and nobody overstays their welcomes. Here, it keeps everything fresh. It lets us get a chance to see how this situation is affecting all these people, even if they only appear once and don't come back for one reason or another. Like the rooftop scene which started out so normal and turned into something so unsettling perfectly captures the sense that this horrific thing is seen so casually to people that it's frightening.

And we also see how the more sane cast in the movie are dealing with this horrific boom. Most notably the older detective, the younger detective and the high school girl whose boyfriend commits suicide. They get the most time in the spotlight. Now, the high school girl especially gets a big moment towards the end of the film which has left people completely confused on what everything means. That shit is still discussed to this day. I don't want to ruin the experience for anyone who hasn't watched the film yet, but you will know what I mean once that stuff starts happening.

Oh yeah, the film gets weird, even before the whole schtick with the high school girl. As if the suicides weren't weird enough, they really, REALLY amp the bizarre factor. In fact, it already does get bizarre by the second half. It's a crazy fun, bloody craziness. Don't miss it. I don't want to say more or else the surprise factor will be gone. There just isn't a film quite like this in terms of its context and presentation.

Now this movie isn't a perfect one. Some scenes might feel like it drags on longer than necessary, the perspective shifts might be a bit jarring and the ending does not explain much. You will be left scratching your head thinking "What the fuck did I just watch?" There are many questions that will not be answered although SOME of them are in Noriko's Dinner Table (which I'll talk about some other time) so there is that to look forward to. The movie leaves you feeling like there are too many mysteries left unanswered to be satisfying. You look at some Christopher Nolan films like Inception or Interstellar, there were a ton of confusing elements to the story and the ending didn't answer everything, BUT enough of them made sense or had a way to give the story go into a complete circle to leave you mostly satisfied. This does not have that.

But holy shit, Suicide Club is a film that has layers. There are many analysis videos on YouTube for a reason. Probably close to Evangelion or Serial Experiments Lain in terms of needing to make an analysis because there is a lot to be discussed. You can go ahead and look for them yourself. I'm just here to tell you that Suicide Club is a movie I watched, and a movie I will remember for a very long time. As I said before, it's not perfect. But damn, it is memorable and may require a second viewing to digest everything. Give it a go.