May 26th: 54 school girls join hands in a train station, and seconds after they all throw themselves infront of a moving train. There's a white bag left by some unknown person at the train station which contains pieces of skin, sown together. More inexplicable suicides are to follow, while some teen pop band called Dessert often appears on the tv, singing catchy songs. When the police start looking into what could be the reason for all these recent suicides, they get a tip over the phone about some website that predicts how many boys and girls are next to go in future mass suicides. The suicides all over Japan keeps increasing, while the police seem nunable to take any proper action, or find the right clues on how to stop this wave of suicides.
Personally, I think Suicide Club is one of the finest movies to come out of Japan. One reason for that, except for that it's a fantastic flick, is that it delivers a message that a lot of people out there so needs to hear and understand. Think for yourself, be who you really are, and don't follow others or go with what the media tells you to do, wear, or listen to. This might all seem very obvious, but if you take a look at how things are in the world, it's a message that truly makes sense and needs to be said.
One could go on and on about how television and the media affects and influence us, but I won't do that since this is a movie review and not a lecture on how to be as a person. Still, I think that Suicide Club has a message worth to think about, for some more than others. This mass suicide right in the beginning of the movie is bound to grab your attention, blood splatters, there's gore, but it has more to it than that.
 
The police starts to investigate, but since it wasn't really a crime, it's hard for them to move along and go further. Still, they wanna figure out what triggered this mass suicide, and who left a white bag containing pieces of skin at the station? Shortly after, more suicides takes place, high school kids jumps from buildings and a lot of strange suicides seem to occur, all for some unknown kind of reason. There's also this catchy girl pop band on tv, that everyone seems to like. Can they have something to do with this whole thing? Of course not, they're just twelve year old girls singing catchy tunes with pointless lyrics.
What makes Suicide Club so interesting is the story. It's easy to get caught up in it as it somewhat draws you in, and best things is that it keeps delivering all the way through. I can honestly say that this movie hasn't got one boring minute in it. All the time in the movie is used for something that pushes it a little further, makes it even more interesting, or even more bizarre, depending on how you see it. Death is always present here, and from start to finish, there's a hell of a huge body count. It's also quite graphical, delivering bloodshed and gore, but never so it feels too much or way over over-the-top.
It may sound like a movie full of death and gore, but if you're only after that, there are better flicks to choose from with a focus on those type of things. While I think the main reason for watching this is because of the brilliant story, it also has some good suspense to offer, and is way different from most flicks out there. The acting is great, especially from Ryo Ishibashi starring as Detective Kuroda. This man truly delivers, but so does everyone else as well. The score is great, and while the girly pop is not, it works well in this film. Highly recommended.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Suicide Circle, Jisatsu saakuru
MOVIE YEAR: 2002
DIRECTOR: Sion Sono
WRITING CREDITS: Sion Sono
GENRE: Horror, Thriller
CAST: Ryo Ishibashi, Akaji Maro, Masatoshi Nagase
COUNTRY: Japan
RUNTIME: 99 min
RATING: 10/10
Suicide Club Website/IMDB Click here
Suicide Club Trailer
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