Suicide Club (2001) film review - a gruesome satire of pop culture

★★★★☆

Opening with the shocking mass suicide of 54 schoolgirls, ‘Suicide Club’ follows police as they struggle to uncover the cause behind a wave of suicides occurring throughout Japan.

Director: Sion Sono. Starring: Ryo Ishibashi, Masatoshi Nagase, Akaji Maro, Saya Hagiwara, Yoko Kamon. 18 cert, 99 min.

The first rule of Suicide Club is: You absolutely should talk about Suicide Club. The more people that know about this gem of a movie, the better. The independent Japanese horror ‘Suicide Club,’ otherwise known as ‘Suicide Circle,’ is a gruesome, bloody satire of pop culture. Opening with the shocking mass suicide of 54 schoolgirls, this film follows police as they struggle to uncover the cause behind a wave of suicides occurring throughout Japan. The question the police face is whether there is in fact a sinister Suicide Club operating in the underbelly of Japan’s youth culture, or whether the string of suicides is a hyperbolised showcase of the impressionability of young people. Either way, ‘Suicide Club’ can be viewed as a morbid caricature exploring the extremely high rates of suicide in Japan and the superficiality of pop culture. 

‘Suicide Club’ (2001) film poster artwork

Director Sion Sono on cults and his 2001 film ‘Suicide Club’

'Suicide Club’ was directed by Sion Sono, a subversive filmmaker who has claimed he was once part of a pseudo-Christian Communist cult, an organisation that has inspired many of the films he has worked on. When talking about ‘Suicide Club’ and the influence B-movies have had on his filmmaking, he said ‘I hope Japanese hate me. This is a hate movie. I hope almost all people hate this movie. This title is Suicide Club. So, I made it. Yes, and truly every Japanese person hates it.’ Engaging in disturbing surrealist imagery and incredibly sensitive topics, it is no surprise that ‘Suicide Club’ has sparked controversy. However, it has also garnered a cult following as a result of its fearless, rather radical portrayal of the media, human connection, and the ongoing suicide epidemic that continues to sweep across Japan. The success of his 2005 follow-up to ‘Suicide Club,’ ‘Noriko’s Dinner Table,’ helped to solidify this cult following and attempted to answer some of the questions left open at the end of his 2001 film.

Blood, guts, and sickly sweet pop groups

Sono’s film begins and ends with performances from fictional pop ensemble ‘Dessert,’ a group of young girls that wouldn’t be out of place in pop culture today. Their songs, with sickeningly catchy vocals and upbeat tunes, would almost be endearing if it wasn’t for the fact that they are sandwiched between a series of grisly suicides. Because of this, the girl group ‘Dessert’ takes on an unsettling tone that leads the viewer to suspect that they may be somehow connected to the aforementioned suicides. The mystery behind whether they are or not is what makes ‘Suicide Club’ so successful. Suicide is an enigma that can’t be fully explained by looking at just one factor or aspect of Japanese culture, so Sono instead leaves it very much open to interpretation. However, it is equally clear that he points fingers at the vacuous nature of celebrity figures, as well as the susceptibility of young people to follow the latest fad or trend, regardless of the consequences. 

Warning: contains spoilers. ‘Suicide Club’ is one of those rare horror films that is successful in providing both a strong, if ambiguous message and a deranged gore-fest. It starts as it means to go on; with the gruesome suicide of 54 Japanese schoolgirls. Holding hands, the girls cheerfully jump in unison onto the train tracks of a busy Tokyo platform, getting crushed by an approaching train and soaking horrified bystanders in blood and guts in the process. However, what is perhaps more disturbing is Sono’s use of eerily upbeat music as the backdrop to this mass suicide. Music plays a huge role in ‘Suicide Club,’ as seen in the later appearance of a David Bowie glam rock era lookalike who goes by the name of ‘Genesis.’ Performing a somewhat corny power ballad as a girl is raped and killed in front of him, Genesis later claims that he is the leader of the mysterious Suicide Club, calling himself the Charles Manson of the new age. 

The meaning of ‘Suicide Club’ explained

As the suicides continue in an increasingly disturbed and creative fashion, it is evident that the police have not succeeded in capturing the true leader of the movement that has now killed hundreds of people across Japan. In fact, the film ends without the police discovering anything substantial except a sinister website that appears to keep count of the deaths that are taking place. So, was the Suicide Club a legitimate organisation? Many of the victims are found with perfect rectangles of skin removed, which are stitched together to make a morbid chain of Frankenstein-like appearance. Left behind at the multiple mass suicide scenes for the police to find, this could be interpreted as a sign that some concealed figure is pulling the strings behind the scenes of ‘Suicide Club.’ However, I think this is unlikely. It is reminiscent of cult behaviour, but does not necessarily point to the existence of a coherent group. 

It is more likely that the supposed ‘Suicide Club’ is something of an internet fad, born from a desire to be a part of something bigger. There is a certain irony in Sono’s film as the question 'do you feel connected to yourself?’ is repeatedly posed to the characters in ‘Suicide Club.' The stitching together of multiple victim’s skin prior to their suicide implies a need to feel connected to others, something that is believed by many to happen after death. Instead of viewing ‘Suicide Club’ as a film incomplete and lacking a satisfying explanation, I believe it was intended to instead explore the deep-rooted desire that people have for a sense of togetherness and community. However, its power as a simple, comedically satirical J-horror film should not be discounted. Leaving behind a trail of corpses, ‘Suicide Club’ is an exquisitely gory, often shocking film that provides viewers with an enthralling blood-fest. 

Should you watch this before you die?

Overall, ‘Suicide Club’ is a sanguine portrait of Japanese pop culture and suicide that can best be described as an excellent mash-up between the thriller, crime, satire, and of course horror genres. Its director Sion Sono replicates a style similar to that of B-movies, with his relentless displays of sleazy violence and gory deaths. There is a lot to unpack in this kitsch film, and I’d recommend it to any fan of horror looking for something gory and unique. ‘Suicide Club’ raises a lot of important questions about the role the media and internet plays in suicide, and displays the difficulty in pinning down the true cause of suicide; an impossible job considering the real villain lives in the minds of its victims.