When it comes to Japanese horror, Princess Jolene is our expert. But, I've decided to review Suicide Club, due to her busy schedule and my admiration for the film.
         I'm not usually one who enjoys watching a film in which the dialogue is entirely in subtitles, but Suicide Club was an exception I made because the premise was so intriguing. We view hundreds of people (mostly young girls) committing suicide in bizarre and sometimes inventive ways. Kudos for originality! The best detectives in Tokyo (Detectives Kuroda, Murata and Shibusawa) are on a mission to discover why, and how, this new and grizzly trend began. Their quest takes them on multiple strange paths through the city of Tokyo, mainly the path from a mysterious caller who refers to herself as "The Bat." She supplies information that a website is accurately predicting the suicides before they happen. Not only are people committing suicide in mass quantities, but after each surge of suicides a white purse is left in public containing a large coil of stitched flesh.
         I would continue with the storyline, but I wouldn't want to ruin the amazing ending to the film.
         The acting in Suicide Club is fantastic. I'm not sure if it's because I'm not used to watching Japanese horror, or because the acting seems so fresh, but it's 100% in my book. Especially from Ryo Ishibashi, who plays the main detective and spearheads the suicide investigation. His acting is so convincing, it's no wonder why he's so popular in Japan. As for the woman on the cover (see above), it's a mystery why they decided her part in the film was so important that she deserved the cover spot. She does play a part into the storyline, but her screen time is nearly nothing compared to the other actors. Oh well.
         You know those scenes where there isn't any blood or guts, no madman chasing after a big-titted teen or a mysterious phantom wandering through a mansion; but yet the scene is so disturbing it haunts you for days to come and you shiver while thinking of it? Take Buffalo Bill in Silence of the Lambs for example. You can't possibly convince me the scene where he shoves his dick between his legs, dances like a crack-whore and keeps repeating "I'd fuck me" didn't make you feel that special kind of horror. That horror that psychologically damages you to the point of your vital organs begin to fail? Well, Suicide Club has one you'll never forget. I'd like to explain, but you can't see it coming if you want the full effect. When a bleech-blond Japanese transvestite makes an appearance, singing the song which plays over this page when you enter, prepare yourself for brain damage.
         Overall, Suicide Club is well worth the money. It's a film which will make your friends grab it out of your DVD rack and proclaim, "I need to see this!" Why, you ask? Because it's main focus revolves around the destruction of our #1 instinct, self-preservation. All humans are intrigued by death on some level, some stronger than others, but when the back of the DVD tells you, "54 smiling high school girls join hands and throw themselves from a subway platform into an oncoming train", people take notice.