Suicide Club [Jisatsu saakuru] (2002)
Movies from Japan are usually pretty damn bad… well, they all got a pretty neat story behind it - but generally bad due to poor acting, lack of budget, and the usual Hollywood flair. Earlier today, I was just browsing the GameFAQs forum as usual and came across a thread entitled, “Name me a show with lots and lots of girls dieing…” — I was naturally interested cause people dying makes for a cool story. Within, someone mentioned the movie Suicide Club and one thing led to another and I just finished watching it. (Yes, Internet Rules).
When I read the title “Suicide Club,” the association that immediately came to mind were “cult” or “brainwashed” or something dark with insidious leader — but within the first 10-15 minutes of the movie, I knew the story was going to be really fucked up. A bunch of teenage school girls, while waiting for the subway to arrive and chatting away with each other happily, suddenly lined up and jumped onto the path of the incoming train as they joyously counted 1, 2… 3! Blood and gore splattered all over the place - and I was left with the question, wtf?!
I doubt any of you reading this will remember a particular anime called Lain where bunch of people were suiciding and remain “connected” to the world via the Internet. Without giving too much of the movie away, Suicide Club had a similar premise behind the show. However, there were a lot of inconsistencies which broke apart the solid horror/mystery story.
Again, I might be giving away too much - but the housewife who basically felt “nothing” as she chopped away her fingers as she diced up a white radish? Bullshit. The girl who stuck her head into the oven? Again, bullshit. There were many death where the cause were too prolonged that the pain should have elicited reactions - but nope, the suicide deranged individuals remained in a stupor, and me shaking my head in disbelief.
The premise was really great - but they had to add some stupid gory scenes … for no apparent reasons. The people were killing themselves due to “disconnects” and “connections” yet - there were just too much of supernatural attached to the story. I wish they stayed their supernatural hands, and made the film more grounded to Earth - it would’ve been a much much better film otherwise. I did like the message tho ~ to care about others pain like they were yours, to love others and yourself, and to say what’s on your mind instead of shrouding it. Too bad these messages are easy to say, but hard to apply universally.