I don't know what it is about The Suicide Club, but the movie felt really gross to me. It gave me the willies in a very serious way.

One would definitly say that it shows how effective and powerful this film is. And how creepy. Like a good 75% of the lost generation, I was desensitized to film violence by the time I was old enough to drink, and it takes some pretty solid film making for me to bat an eye.

It could also have been the subject matter... the concept of suicide and the power of the media have always given me serious twitchies, and that was what this film was about.

The first scene is of 54 school girls happily jumping in front of a speeding subway car. More suicides follow, and at some of the death scenes they find a white duffel bag with a roll of human skin taken from the victim and carefully sewn together. Premeditated. There's something larger than a bunch of random suicides going on.

A girl called The Bat informs police that she has found a website that predicts the suicides. There is a dot for every person who has died, but the dots are updated before the suicides happen.

The Bat gets kidnapped by a David Bowie wannabe, complete with the shoes a throne pose, who sings with his band while one of the henchmen rapes and kills a girl who's tied up in a white sheet.... There's a lot of girls tied up in white sheets all over the floor of his lair-- I'm sorry, you'd have to do something else to me to have a white sheet hold me in. Does it not occur to these women to rip the sheet to get out? But I digress.

I really did like the cinematography of this film. That is part of what made The Suicide Club so effective. This wasn't the beautiful, crisp filming of a major moviehouse... it was grainy and dark, perfect for this film. The characters were well acted.

Perhaps it was my american sensibilities, but the movie dragged on. It felt so much longer than it was... as my husband said, "Another 5 minutes of it, and I would have offed myself too."

The movie did have an important theme that I hope will be listened too... It is a tirade on fads and Japanese culture, how teenagers would even kill themselves because it is the cool thing to do. I think this is something that should be examined in our culture as well.

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age