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Suicide Club (film)
Encyclopedia
Suicide Club, known in Japan
as is a 2002 Japanese independent
horror film
that gained a considerable amount of notoriety in film festival
s around the world for its controversial subject matter and gory presentation, and has since developed a significant cult following. It won the Jury Prize for "Most Ground-Breaking Film" at the Fantasia Film Festival
. The movie was written and directed by Sion Sono
. It deals with a wave of seemingly unconnected suicide
s that strikes Japan and the efforts of the police
to determine the reasons behind the strange behavior.
in Tokyo
to commit mass suicide
. As the train approaches the station, they line up on the edge of the platform, join hands, and throw themselves in front of the oncoming train. In the midst of the subsequent chaos, someone leaves a small white bag on the platform. Meanwhile, in a Tokyo hospital during a night shift, the security guard is left astonished as one nurse disappears without a trace and another jumps out of a window. Another white bag is found in the hospital. Three detectives - Kuroda (Ryô Ishibashi
), Shibusawa (Masatoshi Nagase
), and Murata (Akaji Maro
), take the case. They then seek a connection linking the schoolgirls. Soon, a hacker
named Kiyoko (Yoko Kamon), who uses the alias
"The Bat", calls the police and informs them of a link between the suicides and a website she found, which shows nothing but red and white dots that match the numbers of female and male suicides, respectively. She agrees to help the police solve the crime. Meanwhile, the white bags are opened, each revealing two rolls of human skin stitched together. The detectives theorize that the skin was removed from the victims before their deaths.
On May 28, at a high school in Tokyo, a group of students who are on the school roof during break laugh about the mass suicide. As a joke to imitate the 54 schoolgirls, they end up standing on the edge of the roof, jokingly pretending to get ready to jump off. They pretend to jump off the roof, but their joking gets serious as some actually jump. The ones that do not jump look down in shock and surprise. Moments later, they also end up committing suicide. On May 29, the suicide boom has spread all over Japan. Mitsuko (Saya Hagiwara) is on her way home when she gets hit by her boyfriend, Masa, who has thrown himself off a roof. Mitsuko is taken to the police station for questioning. In the autopsy room, Kuroda discovers Masa had an open wound on his back, which went right through a butterfly tattoo, and that one of the pieces of skin on the roll fits perfectly on the wound. Mitsuko acknowledges knowing about the wound, but denies ever hearing about a suicide club. The police strip search Mitsuko to see if she is missing any skin and discover that while she has no skin missing, she does have an identical butterfly tattoo. Before Mitsuko leaves the police station, she attracts Shibu's attention, and Shibu gives her his business card so that she can contact him. Later, Kuroda's son, Toru, shows Kuroda a weird website his friend showed him, with nothing but a white flashing circle and a short message regarding the suicides.
On May 30, the police receive a call from a boy who clears his throat after each sentence. He warns that on that evening at 7:30, another mass suicide will take place at the same platform. That evening, the detectives organize a stake-out in order to prevent another mass suicide from happening; however, nothing happens at the station. Meanwhile, the individual and smaller-scale group suicides continue all over Japan, claiming many lives, including Kuroda's entire family. This section of the film includes a gory scene in which a mother is chopping vegetables in front of her daughter and proceeds to chop off her fingers. The camera sees the mutilated hand and splattered blood all over her face. The Bat gets caught by the henchmen of a mysterious psychopath who calls himself "Genesis". She and her sister are taken to his underground lair, where a girl in a white sack is brutally raped and killed by one of the henchmen right in front of them while Genesis sings a song. A group of detectives has just gathered at Kuroda's home when they get a call from the same child who warned them about the second suicide wave. The boy asks Kuroda if he is "connected with himself" and whether or not one can be connected with oneself after death. After he hangs up the phone, Kuroda snatches a gun from one of the detectives and shoots himself. At Genesis' lair, The Bat, after she notices that her sister has already been killed, manages to obtain access to a computer and tries to e-mail the authorities information about her whereabouts. She is caught in the act by Genesis. He is eager to get his name into the history books, however, and allows her to send the message. The police arrive soon afterward and arrest Genesis and his henchmen. The bust immediately becomes national news.
On June 1, Mitsuko goes to her boyfriend's home to return his helmet. She goes to his old room. Soon she realizes something is not right. She notices the Dessert posters on the wall. Then she takes a look at the photo album where she sees pictures of Masa and the members of the band together. Then the phone rings. She notices that the ringtone is one of Dessert's songs. One poster gets her attention. She grabs the cell phone and notices that the girls' fingers and the numbers on their shirts have a connection. With the help of the cell phone she unravels the poster's secret message by hitting each number on the girls shirt one time for each finger they held out. For the girls with double-digit numbers on their shirts, their right hand corresponded with the first digit and their left with the second. The message revealed was the word S-U-I-C-I-D-E. Not long after she has cracked the code behind the poster, the other phone starts ringing. She answers it and is asked to give a PIN
. Mitsuko dials 7842433, the same code she used for the decoding of the secret "suicide" message. After typing the number she talks to a boy, who tells her there is no Suicide Club, and invites Mitsuko to "come over". Mitsuko begins to decode Dessert-related material, though what exactly she found is left unspecified. In the middle of this, she finds out Dessert has a concert at an arena the next day and goes there.
On June 2, with the code she just got, she is able to unlock a door and get to the backstage area, where she goes to a stage. The stage curtains are opened and she sees a group of children in the audience. One of the children asks her if she came to repair her connection with herself. She shouts she is connected to herself and the children applaud. She then goes with them to a place where her tattoo is removed by a woodworking plane
. A new roll of skin is made which ends up with the police. The detective Shibusawa notices that one of the pieces of the skin belongs to Mitsuko. That evening he goes to the station where he sees Mitsuko and thinks she is going to commit suicide. He grabs her arm but she pulls away. The train arrives but she does not kill herself. Instead, she quietly gets on it, the door closes and the train leaves. As it does, Dessert announces it is their last presentation, performing their last concert as the movie ends.
and a proposed follow-up. Noriko's Dinner Table
(Noriko no Shokutaku) depicts events from before and after the happenings of Suicide Circle, and gives more insight on several plotholes of its predecessor. In 2006, Sono said "I always wanted to make a trilogy but in reality it is very difficult."
in April, 2002. The book deals with the themes of both Suicide Club and Noriko's Dinner Table, bringing the two film's plots closer. So far no plans for an English edition have appeared.
of the same title and written by Usamaru Furuya
appeared at the same time of the movie's Japanese DVD release. Although Furuya's intention was to faithfully reproduce the film's plot, Sion Sono asked him to write his own story. As a result, the Suicide Club manga is much more straightforward and easy to understand than the film, and features much more solid character development. It deals with the same opening scene, but there is a twist: out of the 54 suicidal girls, a survivor is reported: Saya Kota. Her best friend, Kyoko, must now unveil the secret of the Suicide Club and save Saya from falling deeper into it.
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
as is a 2002 Japanese independent
Independent film
An independent film, or indie film, is a professional film production resulting in a feature film that is produced mostly or completely outside of the major film studio system. In addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies, independent films are also produced...
horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
that gained a considerable amount of notoriety in film festival
Film festival
A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...
s around the world for its controversial subject matter and gory presentation, and has since developed a significant cult following. It won the Jury Prize for "Most Ground-Breaking Film" at the Fantasia Film Festival
Fantasia Festival
Fantasia International Film Festival is a genre film festival that has been based mainly in Montreal since its founding in 1996...
. The movie was written and directed by Sion Sono
Sion Sono
is a controversial Japanese filmmaker and poet. He was born in Toyokawa, Aichi, Japan, and is best known for his films as well as avant-garde poetry performances.-Early career:...
. It deals with a wave of seemingly unconnected suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
s that strikes Japan and the efforts of the police
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
to determine the reasons behind the strange behavior.
Plot
On May 26, 54 teenage schoolgirls gather at Shinjuku StationShinjuku Station
is a train station located in Shinjuku and Shibuya wards in Tokyo, Japan.Serving as the main connecting hub for rail traffic between central Tokyo and its western suburbs on inter-city rail, commuter rail and metro lines, the station was used by an average of 3.64 million people per day in 2007,...
in Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
to commit mass suicide
Mass suicide
- Examples :Mass suicide sometimes occurs in religious or cultic settings. Defeated groups may resort to mass suicide rather than being captured. Suicide pacts are a form of mass suicide unconnected to cults or war that are sometimes planned or carried out by small groups of frustrated people...
. As the train approaches the station, they line up on the edge of the platform, join hands, and throw themselves in front of the oncoming train. In the midst of the subsequent chaos, someone leaves a small white bag on the platform. Meanwhile, in a Tokyo hospital during a night shift, the security guard is left astonished as one nurse disappears without a trace and another jumps out of a window. Another white bag is found in the hospital. Three detectives - Kuroda (Ryô Ishibashi
Ryo Ishibashi
is a Japanese actor and international celebrity. He is known around the world for his roles in the classic Japanese Horror films Suicide Club and Audition. He is also recognized in America for his role as Nakagawa in The Grudge and The Grudge 2....
), Shibusawa (Masatoshi Nagase
Masatoshi Nagase
Masatoshi Nagase is a Japanese actor. He is best known in the West for his roles in Friðrik Þór Friðriksson's Cold Fever and Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train, in Japan for his role as TV's Mike Hama .He has won two Japanese Academy Awards, for Best Supporting Actor and Best Newcomer in 1992...
), and Murata (Akaji Maro
Akaji Maro
is a Japanese actor, Butoka, and theater director. He was born in Sakurai, Nara and is the founder of Dairakudakan. His son is Nao Ōmori.-Film:*Yakuza Weapon *Sakigake!! Otokojuku *Makai Tensho *Kill Bill Vol...
), take the case. They then seek a connection linking the schoolgirls. Soon, a hacker
Hacker (computer security)
In computer security and everyday language, a hacker is someone who breaks into computers and computer networks. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, including profit, protest, or because of the challenge...
named Kiyoko (Yoko Kamon), who uses the alias
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
"The Bat", calls the police and informs them of a link between the suicides and a website she found, which shows nothing but red and white dots that match the numbers of female and male suicides, respectively. She agrees to help the police solve the crime. Meanwhile, the white bags are opened, each revealing two rolls of human skin stitched together. The detectives theorize that the skin was removed from the victims before their deaths.
On May 28, at a high school in Tokyo, a group of students who are on the school roof during break laugh about the mass suicide. As a joke to imitate the 54 schoolgirls, they end up standing on the edge of the roof, jokingly pretending to get ready to jump off. They pretend to jump off the roof, but their joking gets serious as some actually jump. The ones that do not jump look down in shock and surprise. Moments later, they also end up committing suicide. On May 29, the suicide boom has spread all over Japan. Mitsuko (Saya Hagiwara) is on her way home when she gets hit by her boyfriend, Masa, who has thrown himself off a roof. Mitsuko is taken to the police station for questioning. In the autopsy room, Kuroda discovers Masa had an open wound on his back, which went right through a butterfly tattoo, and that one of the pieces of skin on the roll fits perfectly on the wound. Mitsuko acknowledges knowing about the wound, but denies ever hearing about a suicide club. The police strip search Mitsuko to see if she is missing any skin and discover that while she has no skin missing, she does have an identical butterfly tattoo. Before Mitsuko leaves the police station, she attracts Shibu's attention, and Shibu gives her his business card so that she can contact him. Later, Kuroda's son, Toru, shows Kuroda a weird website his friend showed him, with nothing but a white flashing circle and a short message regarding the suicides.
On May 30, the police receive a call from a boy who clears his throat after each sentence. He warns that on that evening at 7:30, another mass suicide will take place at the same platform. That evening, the detectives organize a stake-out in order to prevent another mass suicide from happening; however, nothing happens at the station. Meanwhile, the individual and smaller-scale group suicides continue all over Japan, claiming many lives, including Kuroda's entire family. This section of the film includes a gory scene in which a mother is chopping vegetables in front of her daughter and proceeds to chop off her fingers. The camera sees the mutilated hand and splattered blood all over her face. The Bat gets caught by the henchmen of a mysterious psychopath who calls himself "Genesis". She and her sister are taken to his underground lair, where a girl in a white sack is brutally raped and killed by one of the henchmen right in front of them while Genesis sings a song. A group of detectives has just gathered at Kuroda's home when they get a call from the same child who warned them about the second suicide wave. The boy asks Kuroda if he is "connected with himself" and whether or not one can be connected with oneself after death. After he hangs up the phone, Kuroda snatches a gun from one of the detectives and shoots himself. At Genesis' lair, The Bat, after she notices that her sister has already been killed, manages to obtain access to a computer and tries to e-mail the authorities information about her whereabouts. She is caught in the act by Genesis. He is eager to get his name into the history books, however, and allows her to send the message. The police arrive soon afterward and arrest Genesis and his henchmen. The bust immediately becomes national news.
On June 1, Mitsuko goes to her boyfriend's home to return his helmet. She goes to his old room. Soon she realizes something is not right. She notices the Dessert posters on the wall. Then she takes a look at the photo album where she sees pictures of Masa and the members of the band together. Then the phone rings. She notices that the ringtone is one of Dessert's songs. One poster gets her attention. She grabs the cell phone and notices that the girls' fingers and the numbers on their shirts have a connection. With the help of the cell phone she unravels the poster's secret message by hitting each number on the girls shirt one time for each finger they held out. For the girls with double-digit numbers on their shirts, their right hand corresponded with the first digit and their left with the second. The message revealed was the word S-U-I-C-I-D-E. Not long after she has cracked the code behind the poster, the other phone starts ringing. She answers it and is asked to give a PIN
Personal identification number
A personal identification number is a secret numeric password shared between a user and a system that can be used to authenticate the user to the system. Typically, the user is required to provide a non-confidential user identifier or token and a confidential PIN to gain access to the system...
. Mitsuko dials 7842433, the same code she used for the decoding of the secret "suicide" message. After typing the number she talks to a boy, who tells her there is no Suicide Club, and invites Mitsuko to "come over". Mitsuko begins to decode Dessert-related material, though what exactly she found is left unspecified. In the middle of this, she finds out Dessert has a concert at an arena the next day and goes there.
On June 2, with the code she just got, she is able to unlock a door and get to the backstage area, where she goes to a stage. The stage curtains are opened and she sees a group of children in the audience. One of the children asks her if she came to repair her connection with herself. She shouts she is connected to herself and the children applaud. She then goes with them to a place where her tattoo is removed by a woodworking plane
Plane (tool)
A hand plane is a tool for shaping wood. When powered by electricity, the tool may be called a planer. Planes are used to flatten, reduce the thickness of, and impart a smooth surface to a rough piece of lumber or timber. Planing is used to produce horizontal, vertical, or inclined flat surfaces on...
. A new roll of skin is made which ends up with the police. The detective Shibusawa notices that one of the pieces of the skin belongs to Mitsuko. That evening he goes to the station where he sees Mitsuko and thinks she is going to commit suicide. He grabs her arm but she pulls away. The train arrives but she does not kill herself. Instead, she quietly gets on it, the door closes and the train leaves. As it does, Dessert announces it is their last presentation, performing their last concert as the movie ends.
Cast
- Ryô IshibashiRyo Ishibashiis a Japanese actor and international celebrity. He is known around the world for his roles in the classic Japanese Horror films Suicide Club and Audition. He is also recognized in America for his role as Nakagawa in The Grudge and The Grudge 2....
as Detective Kuroda - Masatoshi NagaseMasatoshi NagaseMasatoshi Nagase is a Japanese actor. He is best known in the West for his roles in Friðrik Þór Friðriksson's Cold Fever and Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train, in Japan for his role as TV's Mike Hama .He has won two Japanese Academy Awards, for Best Supporting Actor and Best Newcomer in 1992...
as Detective Shibusawa - Akaji MaroAkaji Marois a Japanese actor, Butoka, and theater director. He was born in Sakurai, Nara and is the founder of Dairakudakan. His son is Nao Ōmori.-Film:*Yakuza Weapon *Sakigake!! Otokojuku *Makai Tensho *Kill Bill Vol...
as Detective Murata - Saya Hagiwara as Mitsuko
- Yoko Kamon as Kiyoko/Kōmori-The Bat
- RollyRolly Teranishimore commonly known as Rolly, is a Japanese musician and music producer.- Personal background :Teranishi was born in Kyoto. He grew up in Takatsuki, Osaka, Japan.- Professional background :...
as Muneo "Genesis" Suzuki - Hideo Sako as Detective Hagitani
- Takashi Nomura as Security Guard Jiro Suzuki
- Tamao Satou as Nurse Yoko Kawaguchi
- Mai Hôshô as Nurse Atsuko Sawada
- Kimiko Yo as Kiyomi Kuroda
- Mika KikuchiMika KikuchiMika Kikuchi , born on December 16, 1983 in Misato, Saitama, Japan, is a Japanese actress and seiyū. She is affiliated with Production Ogi.-Biography:...
as Sakura Kuroda - So Matsumoto as Toru Kuroda
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 Kuroda's suicide, the gunshot has been extended long enough to show the bullet actually going through the back of his head.
Sequel
As of early 2006, the film has one sequelSequel
A sequel is a narrative, documental, or other work of literature, film, theatre, or music that continues the story of or expands upon issues presented in some previous work...
and a proposed follow-up. Noriko's Dinner Table
Noriko's Dinner Table
, is the sequel to the cult film Suicide Club , a Japanese film, written and directed by Sion Sono, concerning a mass suicide of 54 schoolgirls and how it leads the law to a shadowy cult...
(Noriko no Shokutaku) depicts events from before and after the happenings of Suicide Circle, and gives more insight on several plotholes of its predecessor. In 2006, Sono said "I always wanted to make a trilogy but in reality it is very difficult."
Novel
Jisatsu Saakuru: Kanzenban (自殺サークル 完全版, translated as Suicide Circle: The Complete Edition) was written by Sion SonoSion Sono
is a controversial Japanese filmmaker and poet. He was born in Toyokawa, Aichi, Japan, and is best known for his films as well as avant-garde poetry performances.-Early career:...
in April, 2002. The book deals with the themes of both Suicide Club and Noriko's Dinner Table, bringing the two film's plots closer. So far no plans for an English edition have appeared.
Manga
A mangaManga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
of the same title and written by Usamaru Furuya
Usamaru Furuya
is a Japanese manga artist. He graduated from Tama Art University where he majored in oil painting and developed an interest in sculpting and Butoh dance....
appeared at the same time of the movie's Japanese DVD release. Although Furuya's intention was to faithfully reproduce the film's plot, Sion Sono asked him to write his own story. As a result, the Suicide Club manga is much more straightforward and easy to understand than the film, and features much more solid character development. It deals with the same opening scene, but there is a twist: out of the 54 suicidal girls, a survivor is reported: Saya Kota. Her best friend, Kyoko, must now unveil the secret of the Suicide Club and save Saya from falling deeper into it.