Suicide Club (my first review of Sion Sono's film)

On May 26, 2001, 54 schoolgirls simultaneously threw themselves under a train. Streams of "tomato paste" poured from under the train onto the subway station platform and onto people's faces. As the train driver tried in vain to slow down, sliding on the blood-soaked rails, the bodies and bones of the suicidal girls were crushed by the train's wheels. People were in shock. The police were perplexed. Identifying the bodies was nearly impossible. There is no connection between the students at different schools. The press is publishing newspapers with screaming headlines about a suicide club. A mysterious website is counting the deaths of girls and boys with red and white dots. Mass hysteria is covering Tokyo with a lead blanket, accompanied by new waves of suicides.

The modern world cannot find a connection with itself. This is how bad fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, friends, and colleagues come to be, unable to 'play' their roles. Alienation and societal pressure push people to actions that can be a liberation, a way of rebirth in a life cycle where your actions are your own choice. To take one's own life is the perfect way to keep in touch with oneself. In Suicide club, Sion Sono presents suicide as a panacea for all problems. The psychological and social problems of the picture come together in a huge pile that anyone can sort through, but the final picture will be different. The influence of mass media? The suicide cult in Japan? The Internet? The Werther effect? The problem of the family? The place of young people in a world where no one can find a connection with themselves? There are many reasons. One way or another, Sion Sono connects them into one big story quest and plays with the genre as he pleases, which sometimes doesn't always benefit the film and often leaves it confusing.

The philosophy of Sion Sono is also not always easy to understand, and Suicide club can be interpreted in different ways.

 In my opinion, Sion Sono turns all the conveniences of the modern world against the people of the Land of the Rising Sun and turns Japan into a crazy world. The Suicide Club is Japan itself, slowly killing itself in the hope of finding a way out. A way out of what? A bursting financial bubble? The crampedness of megacities? A lifetime employment system that doesn't offer the chance for re-employment? Isolation? Terrible social pressure? There are many reasons. The childish innocence of the Dessert youth group drives people to despair, as they are trapped in their own shells and have no idea how to find that connection. The Harajuku tribe represents the ugliness of the modern world and the younger generation through a gang of thugs. The strange dot website simply keeps a dispassionate count. It would be amusing to see red dots in the shape of a circle against a white background.

The early Shion Sono showed itself in all its glory. In Suicide club, suicide as a part of Japanese culture and the mentality of the people has acquired more tragic forms and leads to the disintegration of society. An original brain torture, a puzzle in the literal sense of the word. 

If you like movies that ask a lot of questions but don't give a single answer, then I highly recommend this particular movie, it's worth poking around in this movie.