Suicide Club (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:

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

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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

In the trailer of this movie, there's a scene of a person faxing herself, thus committing suicide. This is actually part of the security guard/nurses subplot of the movie, that had to be cut out because with it, the film would have been longer than two hours.

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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

Detective Toshiharu Kuroda: They're not the enemy.

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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

Referenced in Hostel (2005)

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Soundtracks

Sore dewa minasan sayônara
Written by Mitsuru Kuramoto
Performed by Mitsuru Kuramoto featuring Non-chan

User Reviews

Real Horror comes from within

The opening scene proved this film is going to be easy to digest, it is telling you that this film is going to challenge you, provoke you and disgust you! If you are not prepared, please don't watch this film.

The unique aspect of this film is that it doesn't have a specific protagonist, at least not in the traditional manner. This is likely to be one of the reason why some people find this film rather confusing. However, I think it worked well in terms of presenting the film in a wider aspect, showing us what suicide means in different situations, scenario, relationships, but what is more important, is what it means to you.

"What is your connection to you?"

The real horror from this film comes from the inside, inside the audience's mind, which is what real horror is about. The film explores a lot of theme, but what created the horror was the depiction of humanity. It shows how we are so numb because of how society programmed us, do we even know ourselves? We are also drawn to this fake hope, when you discover that you know nothing about yourself, that is when the real despair and horror comes.

This film is not perfect, but more importantly, the idea came across, it transferred the really strong sensations and this is what art is about.