Suicide Club AKA Jisatsu Circle (自殺サークル)
(2001) 99 Min.
Rated: R (Gore)
Country: Japan
Director: Sion Sono (園 子温)
Starring: Ryo Ishibashi, Masatoshi Nagase, Mai Hosho
Links: IMDB | Wikipedia
Rating: ★★★☆☆
After a group of Japanese school girls kill themselves, a mysterious rash of suicides plague Japan.
Synopsis:
On May 27, 54 school girls line themselves up along a train line and jump in unison onto the tracks just before a train pulls into the station. Everyone in the station is sprayed with blood and the scene is chaotic.
At a hospital two nurses commit suicide by jumping from a window.
At the scenes of these suicides a roll of flesh is left that is sewn together.
Three detectives, Kuroda (Ishibashi), Shibusawa (Nagase), and Murata, investigate these deaths.
A hacker named Kiyoko notifies the detectives of a website that has a pattern similar to the deaths in red and white circles.
The next day a group of high school kids discuss the suicides and decides that they want to commit suicide too. Partially joking and serious they all line up along the roof and jump to their deaths. Only one student is reluctant enough to stop. The detectives interview her to see if there is a pattern.
The day after that, while a girl named Mitsuko is walking home she is hit by her boyfriend Masa who has jumped to his death from the roof of a nearby building. Mitsuko is only slightly cut and gets interviewed by the detective. She is strip searched and a butterfly tattoo is found on her shoulder. The detectives also realize that Masa had a butterfly tattoo and a piece of flesh from the roll of flesh matches his back.
The next day the police receive a call from a boy warning about copycat suicides at the train station. The police stake out the area, but nothing seems to happen. Meanwhile, people are still committing suicide all over Japan. Det. Kuroda’s family is found dead. When the police arrive, the boy calls and speaks with detective Kuroda. They talk for a while and at the end of the call Kuroda shoots himself.
Meanwhile Kiyoko is captured by some thugs and a man named Genesis who enjoys killing animals. He sings a song as a woman is raped and murdered by his cohort under a white sheet. Kiyoko, frightened, e-mails the police and Genesis and his men are caught. Genesis revels in the spotlight and claims he’s responsible for all the deaths.
Mitsuko goes to Masa’s home and looks into his room. She is able to figure out a code from a pop idol DESSART poster that spells out suicide. The boy from earlier calls and invites her to a secret concert.
Mitsuko goes to the concert building and sneaks into a backstage area. There is a small stage with children and they pose questions to her. Mitsuko answers them and they applaud her. She is taken to a dark room filled with small chicks and children follow a tall man who takes a wood shaver and shaves a slice of skin off Mitsuko’s back where her butterfly tattoo is.
A roll of skin ends up at the police station and Detective Shibusawa recognizes the skin with the butterfly tattoo as belonging to Mitsuko. He goes to the train station and sees Mitsuko there. He pulls on her to try to stop her from suicide, but instead she pulls away from him and boards the train as normal. She stares at him as the train departs.
Meanwhile, the pop group, DESSART, decides to disband and gives a farewell performance song as the film ends and the credits roll.
Review:
An interesting look at Japanese society and a bit of a reflection on Japan’s attitude on suicide. Japan has a high number of suicides for a developed country. This film doesn’t exactly seem to comment on it other than to explore themes of group suicide pacts, the media, and things unique to Japanese society like idol groups.
The amount of suicides in the film is a bit jarring and sometimes presented in a comical way. People from all walks of life seem to be okay with the idea of killing themselves in this film. There is a cult-like aspect that permeates the film but there are no outright conclusions made and the film leaves it open to audience interpretation.
I think it’s a fairly interesting film, if not a bit bloody. It’s not outright scary, but it’s a bit thought provoking and perplexing. I would recommend it to anyone interested in Japanese cinema or interested in dark themes like this.
A prequel was made called Noriko’s Dinner Table (2005) that vaguely reference the suicide circle.