Jisatsu saakuru (2002) - Suicide Circle / Suicide Club

"Suicide Circle (aka Suicide Club, aka Jisatsu Sakuru, aka Jisatsu Club) was without a doubt one of the most eagerly-awaited post-Ring 'New Wave of Japanese horror' films of 2002. Opening with a notorious sequence concerning an exceptionally bloody mass suicide of 54 schoolgirls under a Tokyo-bound train at Shinjuku station, the film has been much talked-about, analysed and discussed, not merely as an effective piece of horror entertainment, but as a deeply biting, scathing and scary commentary on the state of Japanese contemporary society. It's not an immediately accessible film, by any stretch of the imagination: the heavy complexity of the themes only appear through repeated viewings. And Suicide Club is a genuinely creepy, disturbing movie with some truly poignant moments that easily stands up to repeated viewings.

Both directed and written by Sion Sono, a man whose usual field of filmic work is the gay pornography industry, and starring two heavyweight and extremely well-respected actors (Ryo Ishibashi and Masatoshi Nagase) Suicide Circle is an odd, totally unique and unmissable addition to the field. It's also strangely only rated R-15, despite its multiple and gruesomely gory depictions of the nastiest kinds of suicide possible. Drawing influences both from the work of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's masterpieces of modern horror cinema such as Kaïro and Cure, and during one particularly bizarre sequence, from the Japanese equivalent of MTV and from his own directorial background, Sion Sono has created a terrifying, sinister and downright apocalyptic vision of where the country's shaky post-boom future is taking the people." - Mandi Apple 2003
Great! Funny, Sick, Witty. Contemporary stuff. Love it. 9 out of 10.
Jisatsu saakuru (2002)