DVD Suicide Club

4 Star

Since the 1990s, suicide has been a serious political issue in Japan, with the country having one of the highest worldwide rates over the past twenty years. The use of a national crisis as a source for horror has meant that Sion Sono’s 2002 independent horror movie, Suicide Club, has attracted a lot of attention on the festivals circuit, not only for its subject matter but for the violent way in which it is depicted in the film. Now available on DVD for the first time, UK audiences can have their first glimpse at the low-budget cult sensation which won the Jury prize for Most Groundbreaking Film at the Fantasia Film Festival.

"There are scenes which recall the best of David Lynch’s work."

Opening with a pleasant montage of schoolgirls making their way home at a busy train station in Tokyo, light music and happy, smiling faces setting the scene, Suicide Club offers no initial warning of the horror which is to come.

As a train approaches the station, a group of around fifty girls take their place at the front of the platform. Holding hands and chanting harmoniously “one…two…three!” they throw themselves onto the track and are mutilated under the wheels of the train. From this harrowing, sickening opening, we are launched into Suicide Club, Sion Sono’s twisted and ingenious investigation into suicide in Japan.

Detectives Kuroda (Ryô Ishibashi), Shibusawa (Masatoshi Nagase) and Murata (Akaji Maro) are called into investigate the case, as more mass suicides begin across the country. The plot then twists and turns through a mysterious website, a psychotic glam-rocker and a series of events which bring the investigation straight to the doorsteps of the detectives…

You may have seen gruesome horror films before, you may have seen psychological thrillers before, but be warned: you haven’t seen anything like Suicide Club. The film’s violence is not just disturbing because it is so graphic, but because it is seemingly without reason or explanation, young men and women kill themselves with a smile on their faces and do so not out of depression or a loss of hope, but just…because. While dealing with a sensitive subject matter, Sion Sono in no way holds back; relishing each escalating act of brutality and the shock it is no doubt bound to cause. There is no Final Destination style pleasure to be drawn from dramatic set pieces and ludicrously over the top scenarios as the deaths occur in painfully realistic circumstances often without warning.

There is something inherently unsettling about the realistic presentation of some truly bizarre scenes.

There is something inherently unsettling about the realistic presentation of some truly bizarre scenes and Sono deserves credit for uniting the real and the surreal with such effortless skill. There are scenes which recall the best of David Lynch’s work in the unsettling juxtaposition of pleasant music and violent action, and the general tone is distinctly Lynchian in the way even seemingly mundane or even pleasant imagery is imbued with dark, macabre overtones which create a sense of fear from the very beginning until the bitter end. The most successful scenes are also the most difficult to watch; particularly with the introduction of Genesis (played by renowned Japanese musician Rolly), a character who is likely to haunt the nightmares of many viewers. A dolled up, androgynistic nutcase; Genesis appears just in time to carry off another baffling plot twist and freshen up the film when it is in danger of growing repetitive.

The moments where Suicide Club is letdown come when the balancing of the various plots and the division between reality and fantasy become a touch too much for Sono to deal with – several plots are brought up and abandoned carelessly. The investigative part of the film peaks towards the end when the action is beginning to wind down and, as a result, one of the film’s major revelations fails to quite achieve the impact it could have. In some ways, Sono seems to let his imagination get the better of him, and while this leads to some truly inspired and unforgettable moments, it can also lead the Suicide Club to becoming untidy at the very moments when the plot should be at its strongest.

Thankfully, the plot manages to hold together and the cast help to maintain the severity of what is happening, Ryô Ishibashi, in particular, makes Kuroda a memorably tragic hero – and proves equally adept at portraying the gritty policeman and the more accessible family man, so his fate is made all the more distressing as a result. There are those who will argue that it is insensitive for Sion Sono to take such a profoundly important issue and trivialise it by using it as the basis for a horror movie, and this is perhaps a valid argument. Sono makes no attempt to link the events of the film to the real problem of suicide in Japan. But in terms of highlighting the issue, Suicide Club could not be more effective, as the imagery is so upsetting and visceral that it will remain in the mind far longer than a sober reflection on the problem possibly could.

While Suicide Club has just one too many plot holds to be considered a work of genius, it is still a dark, distressing and wonderfully artistic horror movie. Sion Sono’s treads the line between fantasy and reality with flair and has the audacity to pull it off. Perhaps to dark to be considered entertainment, Suicide Club is an experience, a no holds barred work of perverse art which will stay long in the memory.