Jisatsu sâkuru (2001)

A detective is trying to find the cause of a string of suicides.

Director:

Sion Sono

Writer:

Sion Sono

Stars:

Ryo Ishibashi, Masatoshi Nagase, Mai Hosho

1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Ryo Ishibashi	...	Detective Toshiharu Kuroda (as Ryô Ishibashi)
Masatoshi Nagase	...	Detective Shibusawa
Mai Hosho	...	Nurse Atsuko Sawada (as Mai Hôshô)
Tamao Satô	...	Nurse Yôko Kawaguchi
Takashi Nomura	...	Security Guard Jirô
Rolly	...	Muneo 'Genesis' Suzuki
Joshua	...	Slave Boy
Masato Tsujioka	...	Genesis' Gang
Kôsuke Hamamoto	...	Genesis' Gang
Kei Nagase	...	Genesis' Gang
Yôko Kamon	...	'The Bat' Kiyoko
Maiko Mori	...	Kiyoko's Sister
Sayako Hagiwara	...	Mitsuko (as Saya Hagiwara)
Takatoshi Kaneko	...	H.S. Boy on the Roof
Mika Miyakawa	...	H.S. Girl on the Roof

Storyline

54 high school girls throw themselves in front of a subway train. This appears to be only the beginning of a string of suicides around the country. Does the new all-girl group Desert have anything to do with it? Detective Kuroda tries to find the answer, which isn't as simple as one could hope.

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Plot Keywords:

suicide | high school | student | death | teenage girl | 

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Taglines:

Sore de wa minasan, sayonara [Well then, goodbye everybody.]

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for disturbing thematic elements, strong violence/grisly images and some language

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

6 April 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

Suicide Club

Filming Locations:

Shinjuku Station, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan

Box Office

Budget:

$250,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Omega Project,Biggubîto,For Peace Co. Ltd.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The Bat's computer is a black Apple Macintosh PowerPC 5500/225. This model was already discontinued in 1998.

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Goofs

When the students jump to their death on the school roof, you can clearly see crew-members throwing buckets of fake blood at the window.

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Quotes

Child: Even if you were to die your connection to your boyfriend would still remain. Even if you were to die your link to the world would remain. So why are you living?

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Alternate Versions

Two different R1 versions of the film exist, an R rated version and an unrated version. Not only can they be differentiated by the unrated version having a red stripe on the cover, but they have different pictures on the sides of the DVD cover (the unrated having a picture of Mitsuko). There are six additions to this version of the film.

• In the subway scene in the beginning, the shot of the girl hitting the tracks is extended long enough to show her head getting run over by the train.
• In the school sequence, the ear is now shown being pushed off the roof of the building.
• In the suicide montage the portions showing the woman cutting off her own fingers is extended dramatically, and there are a few more lines added to the background song to accommodate this.
• In the scene showing the introduction of Genesis, there are two added parts of him stepping on a cat, and then crushing a dog under his foot.
• In the scene of Kurota's suicide, the gunshot has been extended long enough to show the bullet actually going through the back of his head.

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Connections

References The Trial of Joan of Arc (1962)

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Soundtracks

Raito wansu
Written by Haruko Momoi
Performed by Dessert

User Reviews

Good, but not entirely coherent

First of all, I looked at another comment by someone named rrobins2-1, who said that this movie is "not for the Japanese ignorant," that it has a lot to do with Buddhism and Shintoism, and that it's perfectly understandable from a Japanese point of view.

Mr. rrobins2-1 obviously doesn't know what he's talking about. I have lived in Japan, I speak the language, and I know that his comments are ignorant, which is ironic because that's what he claims others are. First of all, many Japanese people don't follow any religion, nor do they know a great deal about them. Second, every Japanese person I spoke to said the same thing about the movie: "I didn't understand it." So much for that perfectly understanding Japanese point of view. Anyway, now that that's finished, on to the review:

The beginning parts of the movie show a lot of promise. Teenagers are killing themselves, and being happy about it to boot. The police are looking into it, believing that it's more of a murder, and someone is causing it. Throughout the movie, you see their futility in trying to figure things out, and the scenes that feature mass suicide are very intense and well-done, but there ends up being so many different things in the movie that don't amount to anything, and their is no real conclusion to the film.

First off, there's a girl who informs the police of a website that's connected to the suicide. She attempts to find out the cause of the deaths. It seems that she would be an important character, but she's not in very much, and she doesn't do anything. This goes with all the characters. There are many characters in the movie, but none of them are developed, and many times you're left wondering why they're in the movie to begin with. There's a weird Rocky Horror-esquire musical performance about halfway through the movie, which many people believe is way out of character for the rest of the movie. Anway, I don't want to spoil anything, so I will just say that the story doesn't end, and with the way things stand at the end of the movie, it's impossible to understand how these people were convinced to kill themselves the way they were.

Going through all the stuff in the movie quickly: There's the mass suicides, Cops that are out of touch, a giant roll of stitched together human flesh of the people who have or will commit suicide, a weird j-pop band who's name is misspelled numerous times throughout the movie, the weird, gay cultist who sings wants to be famous, coughing children who know everything about the situation and give cryptic clues about it. All of these, as well as the stuff I neglected to mention, either come out of the blue, or are barely in the picture (or both), with no explanation (and almost no clues), leading you to wonder what they are doing in the first place. I know it's supposed to be a satire, but if half the people who watch it don't understand it, how are you supposed to get your message across?