Suicide Club is a horrible horrible movie
04-06-04, 06:03 PM
#26
DVD Talk Legend
SPOILERS--> here is a decent interpretation of the movie that i found on livejournal. it's worth a read.
Suicide Club is a good movie. The problem with it, it has it's flaws. Nothing is clearly ever explained. I'm all for putting together a puzzle in my mind when watching films (I'm all for Lynch-ian type flicks), but the problem with Suicide Club is that to put the puzzle together, you don't get all the pieces. You get pieces, but none of them fit together for you to finish that puzzle. The problem the writer/director has is he tries to fit too much in a 97 minute film.
One of the more positive things of the film is that it runs a quick 97 minutes. One of the more negative things of the film is that it runs a quick 97 minutes. The director gives no time for the film to develop. Things just come right at you with no reason or explination. Situations like the Frank N. Furter wannabe are just given to the viewer for the hell of it, as if it's there for the sake of it. While this does work as the scenes are entertaining (the musical sequence is one of the film's highlight moments), in terms of storyline and plot it fails. Suicide Club is a mixed bag when it comes to the material in the film. Some of it works, some of it doesn't. Just look at the whole situation with "The Bat" (which leads to the musical sequence). It didn't need to be in the film at all.
The film also has no clue what it wants to be. Does it want to be a dark comedy or does it want to be a serious mystery/thriller film? The set pieces with the pre-teen girl group Dessert/Dessart/Dessrat/however they chose to spell it are entertaining and funny (young girls singing about suicide is comic ****ing gold) along with the girls jumping in front of the train, the students all killing themseleves, and the suicide montage; but then the film tries to be serious (look at the third act). It makes the film feel akward, as if they were taking two different films about suicide and combining it into one.
Suicide Club is a movie that could've been out fantastic and outstanding if just executed correctly. But the final product is still an interesting flick to watch, even to see what worked and what failed flat on it's face.
04-06-04, 06:22 PM
#27
DVD Talk Hero
I've posted about this in another thread about the movie. I agree with Matthew. The 3rd act killed this movie for me...talk about a major disappointment. I'm still trying to decide if I want to buy the movie since I enjoyed a lot of it.
Yeah, it coulda been great. What WERE they thinking?
Yeah, it coulda been great. What WERE they thinking?
04-06-04, 09:14 PM
#28
Banned by request
I'm going to paste in my review from the DVD Reviews and Recommendations Forum thread from a few months back:
Let me start this by saying that Japanese cinema is my favorite cinema in the world. From Kurosawa and Ozu to Miike and Nakata (among others), I love Japanese cinema. I especially love Japanese shock cinema, I think that quite often these films take gore and sex and put them in a context that is surreal and unique.
I had a lot of people recommend Suicide Circle to me. They said if I liked Takashi Miike, I would go nuts over it. So I bought it and watched it.
And I have to say, I thought the film was HORRIBLE.
Now, it started off well. The first half looked like it was going down the Ring or Kairo path, with some unexplained occurances and mysterious voices on phones and odd internet websites. Great, I'm loving it. Then, suddenly,
and the whole film suddenly crashes and burns. What the hell was the deal with that terrible overactor Eddie Izzard impersonator Genesis? That whole subplot derailed the movie. It went from thriller to Rocky Horror. And there's nothing wrong with Rocky Horror, unless you're trying to scare or shock somebody. Because, come on, there was nothing shocking about those sequences.
Why? To what purpose? And what was with all the faulty logic about connections and the half-baked philosophy? The one thing the film didn't have was connections. How is the kid on the phone connected to the kids in the concert hall?
What was the point of this movie? I don't even think it was trying to say anything. The gore was good, but not as well done as dozens of other similar, better films that I've seen. Did anyone else have the same reaction? Am I the only one who thought that this was not a good movie?
Note: I love open-ended films that don't explain a lot of strange things...when it works. This film did not work in that way. Without any explanation, it just turned into mush. This was a film that was begging for some kind of resolution. Any kind. Instead, it just ended as an amorphous collection of images on celluloid. The original poster gave kudos to a film for stepping outside the boundaries, but I have to slam it. The premise was so promising, and the filmmakers decided that instead of delivering on the promise, they'll just give the audience a whole bunch of obtuse nonsense and drop the rest of the movie on them with a sickening thud.
I had a lot of people recommend Suicide Circle to me. They said if I liked Takashi Miike, I would go nuts over it. So I bought it and watched it.
And I have to say, I thought the film was HORRIBLE.
Now, it started off well. The first half looked like it was going down the Ring or Kairo path, with some unexplained occurances and mysterious voices on phones and odd internet websites. Great, I'm loving it. Then, suddenly,
Spoiler:
and the whole film suddenly crashes and burns. What the hell was the deal with that terrible overactor Eddie Izzard impersonator Genesis? That whole subplot derailed the movie. It went from thriller to Rocky Horror. And there's nothing wrong with Rocky Horror, unless you're trying to scare or shock somebody. Because, come on, there was nothing shocking about those sequences.
Spoiler:
Spoiler:
What was the point of this movie? I don't even think it was trying to say anything. The gore was good, but not as well done as dozens of other similar, better films that I've seen. Did anyone else have the same reaction? Am I the only one who thought that this was not a good movie?
Note: I love open-ended films that don't explain a lot of strange things...when it works. This film did not work in that way. Without any explanation, it just turned into mush. This was a film that was begging for some kind of resolution. Any kind. Instead, it just ended as an amorphous collection of images on celluloid. The original poster gave kudos to a film for stepping outside the boundaries, but I have to slam it. The premise was so promising, and the filmmakers decided that instead of delivering on the promise, they'll just give the audience a whole bunch of obtuse nonsense and drop the rest of the movie on them with a sickening thud.
I had to watch several Miike movies immediate thereafter to wash the taste out of my mouth.
04-13-04, 11:25 AM
#30
DVD Talk Platinum Edition
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HA HA HA
I loved this movie, and part of the reason is that I'm going to buy it and play it for friends just to be an annoying bastard.
But really, I did like it. I like movies that I can't figure out right away.
And Mail Me is the best song I've heard in ten years. I was dancing up a storm in my living room.
Sweet.
I loved this movie, and part of the reason is that I'm going to buy it and play it for friends just to be an annoying bastard.
But really, I did like it. I like movies that I can't figure out right away.
And Mail Me is the best song I've heard in ten years. I was dancing up a storm in my living room.
Sweet.
04-13-04, 06:23 PM
#31
DVD Talk Legend
And Mail Me is the best song I've heard in ten years. I was dancing up a storm in my living room.
