I'm just not quite sure what to make of Suicide Club. I'm sure some of the nuances are probably lost in translation (it's a Japanese film) - but I suspect it's just kind of a weird movie anyways. So while I didn't always understand what was going on, I definitely dug it. It's a bold film with a lot of style and manages to pack in a lot of creepy imagery without ever leaning too heavily on ghost/paranormal stuff (a la Ringu and the other tech/ghost flicks that were coming out at the time).
It starts out at the Shinjuku train station, where 54 school age girls simultaneously jump onto the tracks, committing mass suicide. The police investigating the incident aren't sure what to make of it. Cult? Somehow Murder? They find a large bag with some pretty gnarly evidence in it... but that only muddies the waters further. Meanwhile, more and more people are just sort of up and killing themselves - sometimes solo, sometimes in groups. A random caller alerts the police to a website where dots appear whenever a person commits suicide - surely it's tied in, but how? Also in the mix? A cop's family, anonymous callers who constantly clear their throats (it's creepy!), a J-Pop group of five girls who may be sneaking subliminal messages into their music, and a gang of Clockwork Orange-ish thugs who kidnap people, wrap them up in sheets, and bring them to their home base (a bowling alley). Said thugs are also responsible for the musical number that is actually pretty cool but comes out of nowhere.
So there's a lot going on in Suicide Club... a lot of interesting characters, and a lot of big ideas. For me, it never really cohered in any meaningful way on a macro-level. (I'm still not sure if you ever really get an "answer" as to what's going on, or if I just missed it. I lean towards the former.) But a lot of the individual characters had intriguing stories with satisfying endings. With the sheer amount of "stuff" happening, you'd think the film would be a mess. But while its themes are kind of ambiguous, the action is pretty straightforward and easy to follow. You can track the "what" and "when" relatively easily - it's the "how" and "why" that are confusing.
Horror-wise? It's a pretty decent mix. The concept of synchronized teen suicides is so horrible that in order for it to palatable at all it has to be kind of cartoonish (i.e. gallons of blood splashing up on windows on of the train platform). It's not funny, but it certainly makes you perk up. But you also get some grotesque crime scene stuff (the bag bit is particularly nasty), and a kind of supernatural feel to the mysterious internet scenes. And also: a little bit of good old-fashioned maniacal guys terrifying people. It's especially creepy here, because the living victims are all wrapped in white sheets, just kind of moving blobs on the floor. Again, these goings on don't always tie in with each another. But just about everything is effective, so it's easy to give it a pass.
The overall tone of the Suicide Club is (unsurprisingly) pretty dark, but not oppressively so. There are times where it sort of cribs a grim vibe (I was reminded of Se7en on a couple of occasions), but those are balanced out with less dreary scenes - a musical number, or when the film takes more of a police-procedural approach. Now, it's never light-hearted or anything like that, but it's not a complete drag like you might expect.
Yes, Suicide Club is dealing with some heavy subject matter, but it's fascinating enough that it's never too depressing, you know? It'd be easy for someone to copy this plot and make it a staggering downer, but writer/director Shion Sono gives the film an undeniable sense of forward momentum and populates it with interesting characters. So even though it maintains some weight, the subject matter isn't the *only* thing you're focusing on. As a viewer, you spend your time thinking "what happens next" or "how will this tie together" rather than dwelling on a bunch of kids committing suicide.
And even though those questions you ask yourself may not be satisfactorily answered, it's still a really fascinating and engaging watch. It probably deserves it's reputation as a "weird" film, but if you're open to that side of cinema it's absolutely worth a watch.
I would highly recommend this film.
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