Locked up in a cello case, young Mitsuko is forced to watch her parents making love in front of her. Her perverted father, who's also the principal of the school she's attending, abuses Mitsuko sexually and when he's not at home, her mother keeps lashing out it anger at the poor girl. Pushed down some stairs by Mitsuko herself, her mother dies and Mitsuko takes her place at her fathers side. This is all in a new novel by author Taeko, a wheelchair-bound woman. But is it all just fiction, or is Taeko in fact Mitsuko, or is she Mitsukos mother?
Strange Circus - strange movie, at least the title is very appropriate. The story might sound a bit complicated but eventually everything comes together and proves to be a clever story, but not as complicated at it first seemed to be. Strange Circus though is a very odd film that features some very dark and disturbing moments, dealing with a lot of sex, child abuse along with incest, and add to that some other quite disturbing and bizarre things. Needless to say, I guess you have to be in a certain kind of mood to be able to enjoy a film like this.
But it's all not just a crazy and bizarre film, it also has a lot of dramatic parts that are worth watching, along with beautiful and different scenery, indoors as well as outdoors. It starts off with that we get to follow Mitsuko as a kid and we soon learn that her father is an utterly perverted freak who can't seem to get enough of having twisted sexual acts. Obviously you're bound to feel bad for the poor girl, who btw is only 12 years old, or should I say 12 years young. We soon learn that her father, who's the prinicipal of the school Mitsuko goes to, is a very disturbed man who likes it weird. The movie offers some strong scenes early on that features sexual content which may feel a bit much to some, but eventually things get better. Well, maybe not better but it's not like that all the way throughout.
 
Mitsuko's mom dies and poor Mitsuko who has been sexually abused by her father for a long time starts to think that maybe she really is her mom while her mom was in fact Mitsuko. Does that sound weird? Well, let me tell ya, weird is something this movie offers plenty of. What I told you so far could be called part one of the movie, that is one full-length film but that can easily be divided into two parts. There are of course plenty more things to it than what I've told you, but that's for you to find out. Part two, if we now can call it that is about a wheelchair-bound woman named Taeko who has become a popular writer, writing about the character named Mitsuko and her tragic childhood. Is she making everything up or is her writings autobiographical?
A young man named Yuji starts to work with Taeko, by her side, proof-reading what she writes. Yuji seems like a nice and very shy guy who deply respects Taeko's work. But there are reasons to why he wanted to work with her and the guy of course has a dark side as well, even a little too dark maybe. The film might have a few moments were confusion takes over, but I found it to get back on track fast after it had delivered those moments. The story is solid and the film contains a lot that you don't get to see every day, and except for that it was generally a good film, that is also one reason to why you should give it a shot. Along with a few disturbing scenes with sexual content, Strange Circus also offers some realistic gore at a few places that for some might be hard to stomach as well. The acting was good and belivable even though it was a bit over-the-top during a few scenes, no biggie though. Excellent score with mostly piano music that really fit and captured the movie well.
It's a bit hard to describe everything without spoiling anything, but it definitely had a solid story and is worth checking out. It might not be for everyone though since basically it's a drama but that features a lot of sex and strong scenes that might be hard for some to sit through. While I can't say that I really did enjoy those scenes, they sure did the job. A lot of films have a tendency to not cross the line, but Strange Circus is not one of those films and I believe that's a good thing.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Kimy˘ na sÔkasu
MOVIE YEAR: 2005
DIRECTOR: Sion Sono
WRITING CREDITS: Sion Sono
GENRE: Drama, Thriller, Mystery
CAST: Masumi Miyazaki, Issei Ishida, Rie Kuwana
COUNTRY: Japan
RUNTIME: 108 min
RATING: 7/10
Strange Circus Website/IMDB Click here
Strange Circus Trailer Click here
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