Suicide Club (2001)

Australian Premiere - 4K Restoration

“Sion Sono’s first major film…one of the great expressions of 21st Century psychosis, along with films like Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales and Fruit Chan’s The Midnight After.” – InReview Online

This subversive horror-thriller from infamous J-horror director Sion Sono (Love Exposure) is an atonal and somewhat prophetic portrait of the loneliness of metropolitan life and a nation’s obsession with social trends and increasing dependence on technology as a means of connection.

After 54 smiling schoolgirls join hands and jump off a subway platform into the path of an oncoming train, Detective Kuroda (Ryo Ishibashi, Audition) attempts to unravel the bizarre mystery and the wave of unexplainable suicides sweeping Tokyo in its wake. Are the dead members of a cult? Is there a link to the bubblegum pop music of teen sensation Dessert? How does a website know about all the deaths…before they happen?

Allegedly inspired by Japan’s rising suicide rate and the influence of pop culture on the nation’s disaffected youth, Suicide Club ranges from a moral examination of the disturbing social phenomenon to a grotesquely comical splatter movie.

Festival Appearances/Awards
Chicago International Film Festival 2002 – Official Selection
International Film festival Rotterdam 2002 – Official Selection
Fantasia Film Festival 2002 – Official Selection

Screening as part of FLESH//GHOST//MACHINE: Japanese Nightmares.