M wrote:MAY-BE SPOILERS
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I don't understand a lot of stuff in that movie....
1) Okay, so the 1st mass suicide (54 high school girls jumping off the platform onto an oncoming train together) is a planned suicide and they did it because of a fad.... or pressure? The 2nd mass suicide (a row of another high school students jumping off the school building) is obviously unplanned and done because of fad.
2) There is no suicide club. So who is Genesis and the other guys? Some obscure rock singer? And what are the things wrapped in white cloths in the bowling alley?
3) The person who phoned the cop is a small kid. What is the whole meaning? Why are the kids forming up stupid suicide groups and calling the cop about it, asking stupid questions like "Are you connected to yourself?" And why is that kid coughing after every single sentence?
4) Who is The Bat? What is her role in the movie? I certainly don't see the connection when she first appeared to be all mighty and telling the cop about this unusual website that tracks the suicidal attempts before they happened, and then later she got caught by Genesis's men?
5) What about the nurses in the early part of the story? I don't see them listening to Dessert but they committed suicide too?
6) The girl's boyfriend committed suicide. The cop's family committed suicide. There are six mass suicides. A girl killed herself with paper shredder. A girl killed herself with the kitchen stove. Three ladies hanged themselves in an empty room. A mother deliberately cut her fingers while cooking. And I can't really remember the other suicides. ALL THAT BECAUSE OF "DESSERT"????????
7) What about the rolls of skins?
8) What is the ending all about? WHat does it mean???
To answer your questions, M:
SPOILERS HERE AS WELL!!!
1) I think one of the main themes in this film is finally being able to gain an identity w/like peers amongst ambiguous crowd. Somehow, these fools imagined suicide as part of this defintion. But, remember, there's some kinda' cult going on in this film as well.
2) Yeah, I thought that one delusional, Gackt-like (or I SHOULD say Gackt-lite) guy, Genesis and his gang, hiding out in an abandoned bowling alley stole the show. They actually end up kidnapping the aforementioned "The Bat." Genesis's little musical number'd fit real nicely into a scene from
Battlefield Baseball or
The Happiness of the Katakuris (both also Japanese films, incidentally) if you ask me. Genesis steals the show from asking for a hammer -- after beating an animal tied up in a bag (I don't condone such action in real life, not to mention every other vile act in this film; this is fiction, please remember) -- to fix his "throne" to singing one of Dessart's (a featured J-pop girl group in the film; more on them in a few minutes) "hits" on TV news as he's being hauled from the bowling alley/hideout by the police.
I figure he's taking credit for these "sensationalized" suicides . . . remember, they don't stop once he and his gang are caught.
3) I think initially the viewer asks him- or herself "why is the kid coughing." Soon enough, though, you just see the act as a denizen amongst all the other (some, obviously, more shocking and provocative) oddities going on. Might've just been done to irritate those detectives, eh? The question the kid asks (are you connected to yourself?) . . . I dunno if you'd call it a "theme" of the film . . . it's certainly something we're meant to see as the motivation for these lost souls. In other words, the way I saw it is, if you know yourself, then, you don't need something as measly as your body, or your life. The whole shaving of the skin off their back is symbolic of their beliefs. They certainly wish to show the world their actions.
Weren't those cops great? All three happenings (they aren't immediately classified as "crimes," by the way) are handled by a group of cops already that seem to instantly infer a "League of Extraordinary Tokyo Detectives" if you will, not necessarily with regard to their respective abilities, mind you; but only to infer detective types that we've seen before -- the womanizer with the shoulder-length hair (Shibu); the seasoned veteran with the open collar (Kuroda, played by the versatile, international Ryo Ishibasi; Kuroda's story is most tragic in
Suicide Club); the bald, tough cop (Murata), the smart-aleck suit, and the uniformed utility pole. These characters are emphasized just enough, not totally.
4) I dunno. I think The Bat, too, was trying to become part of this "trend." Everyone seemed to be paying attention to "the suicides" and, for some of those in society who want to be part of the sensationalism but are less willing to do the exact same things, they'll go to the edge but won't fall off. That's who I think The Bat and Genesis represented. But, then again, they probably weren't attuned to Deseret the same way the school kids were, let's admit.
5) and 6) Now, the thread that holds all of the ongoings together finds itself in the music and the music videos of the J-pop girl group in the movie, known as Dessart. Or Dessert. Or "Dessert," "Dessret," "Desert," and some other variations. As I read it, the instances of such misnomers were intentional -- quite honestly, they're a comment toward those of us who enjoy J-pop; sometimes our expectations of how provocative some of these J-pop artists are, we don't care what the name of the group is. How they dance around, yeah? Anyway, if you've paid even 1/2 as much attention to J-pop within the last 5 years, when you first see Dessart, you'll automatically think, "Morning Musume" knockoff. And that's OK. I actually kind of liken them to a "Folder 5." Then, again, they seem like a female SMAP or Arashi. I guess such confusion (especially when paired with the aforementioned misnomers) is intended to keep the copyright counsel at bay at the most, meant to present a generic J-pop icon at least. I suppose this goes without saying. Anyhow, Dessart's presence, while as sugar-pop as their persona intends to suggest, is quite crucial to the telling of this story. Above all, see if you can manage to get the snappy, catchy "Mail Me" out of your head a day after watching this film.
7) [explained above in "4)"]
8) Yeah, the ending is too good to give away. Actually, the way this film ends is sobering and refreshing at the same time.
Director Sion Sono's direction is . . . oh, man . . . lemme just say that the direction of this film and of
Twilight Samurai (also known as
When the Last Sword Falls or something like that, which I saw at last Fall's Hawai'i International Film Festival) hath helped me restore my faith in Japanese cinema as an aesthetic force within its own country and throughout the international scene as well. Methinks, though, that Sono's masterful eye in
Suicide Club has the slight advantage as this film's mood is a throwback to 1970s J-films (i.e., a bit of a shaking camera). From that horrifying first scene, you're actually encouraged to believe -- rightfully so, as such encouragement strikes deep into the heart of your cinematic soul -- that you're on the tracks, watching these girls talk story, laugh, then get serious, hold hands, walk over the yellow line, and do their hideous duty). The music score is used economically as well (i.e., doesn't get in the way of your mood toward certain parts of the film). Yes, indeed, the film respects you as a witness to these unique events; and you're captivated as much as you would privy to such events, fictional or otherwise. The direction is gritty without losing style. I think I'm repeating what I just said, but it can't be stressed enough (especially at a time when I was beginning to lose faith in J-cinema), and I'm about to commit a cliché, so I don't care anyway: the mechanics in this film are as welcomed as a cold cup of water after a few hours in the desert (really, REALLY no pun intended; seriously, this is a first draft).
I dunno if I'm stating the obvious -- still, you can almost predict the horde of studies that'll reference
Ringu,
Battle Royale, AND
Suicide Club in the near future, if they aren't already here -- but this current crop of shock/horror type Japanese films -- which finds a big worldwide audience, no? -- that also deals with the theme of too much attention to media and a discovery of a self (long enriched with the group mentality) that was always there is something to be watched and reckoned with. All of these movies reminds me of Heidegger's proposition at the beginning of his landmark
Being and Time with regard to how essential it is with regard toward formulating a sound question on the subject of "being" (how we need to ask with Da-sein at hand) while also proposing that a knowledge of the answer must already be known (I know, I'm generalizing). Well, it looks like these recent J-films have finally formulated their own question akin to Japan societal aspects and idiosyncrasies.
I mean, Dessart knows.
MAIL ME, DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA-DA (sorry, I don't know most of the words)