Jisatsu sâkuru (2001)

Director:

Shion Sono

Writer:

Shion Sono (written by)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Sore de wa minasan, sayonara [Well then, goodbye everybody.]

Plot:

A detective is trying to find the cause of a string of suicides.

Plot Keywords:

Suicide | Platform | Train | Police | Subway

Awards:

2 wins

Cast

Ryo Ishibashi	...	Detective Toshiharu Kuroda (as Ryô Ishibashi)
Masatoshi Nagase	...	Detective Shibusawa
Mai Hosho	...	Nurse Atsuko Sawada (as Mai Hôshô)
Tamao Satô	...	Nurse Yôko Kawaguchi
Takashi Nomura	...	Security Guard Jirô
Rolly	...	Muneo 'Genesis' Suzuki
Joshua	...	Slave Boy
Masato Tsujioka	...	Genesis' Gang
Kôsuke Hamamoto	...	Genesis' Gang
Kei Nagase	...	Genesis' Gang
Yôko Kamon	...	'The Bat' Kiyoko
Maiko Mori	...	Kiyoko's Sister
Sayako Hagiwara	...	Mitsuko (as Saya Hagiwara)
Takatoshi Kaneko	...	H.S. Boy on the Roof
Mika Miyagawa	...	H.S. Girl on the Roof
Kei Tanaka	...	H.S. Boy on the Roof
Chika Hayashi
Nobuyuki Mihara	...	H.S. Boy on the Roof
Nahana	...	H.S. Girl on the Roof
Yôhei Katô
Sadaharu Kondô
Suzunosuke		(as Suzunosuke Tanaka)
Satomi Hisanaga	...	H.S. Girl on the Roof
Seiko Hashimoto	...	H.S. Girl on the Roof
Anri Maruyama
Mai Kanda
Noriyoshi Shioya	...	Masa - Mitsuko's Boyfriend
Kasumi Takahashi	...	Masa's Mother
Hajime Matsumoto	...	Tôru Kuroda
Mika Kikuchi	...	Sakura Kuroda
Keiko Suzuki
Yukijirô Hotaru
Miwa Ôtsuka
Makoto Utsugi
Ken Ishikawa
Rika Nakanishi
Kaede Tamiya
Atsushi Okuno
Takuji Suzuki
Madoka Arai	...	Genesis' Victim
Taihei Hayashiya	...	Rakugo Storyteller
Atsushi Numata	...	Stand-up Comedy Duo
Katsuhiko Watanabe	...	Stand-up Comedy Duo
Takamitsu Okubo	...	Father (as Takamitsu Ôkubo)
Yuhei Okabe	...	Son (as Yûhei Okabe)
Nono Yamada	...	Daughter
Tateo Moriyasu	...	Kiyoko's Father
Chieko Misaka	...	Theatre Troupe
Asami Hidaka	...	Theatre Troupe
Hiroko Yashiki	...	Theatre Troupe
Haruna Matsuoka	...	Theatre Troupe
Tomoko Shimazaki
Kikuko Sakurai
Satoko Tanigaki
Satomi Yoshida
Hideaki Hagiwara
Yûta Yamazaki
Tsudoi Nishi
Naoko Tsuchiya
Kika Nishimura
Miki Emura
Ayano Nakamura
Yûko Sano
Kôichi Tazawa
Ryuji Kasahara	...	Punisher (as Ryûji Kasahara)
Non Kuramoto
Tomohiko Amamiya	...	Children
Yuika Bandai	...	Children
Seiya Mori	...	Children
Takuya Utsumi	...	Children
Naoto Adachi	...	Children
Takateru Yashiro	...	Children
Noriko Shibagaki
Kaoru Kitada
Miuka Ono
Mariko Matsumoto
Natsuki Yoshino
Megumi Shôji
Sanae Morita
Chikako Arai
Nao Takai
Mio Sakurai
Chika Tajima
Miri Nanazono
Yaya Akiyoshi
Emiko Sora
Risa Tsuyusaki
Nao Nagasawa
Yume Otomiya
Ayumi Seki
Saori Tomita
Tomoko Chiba
Akane Noji
Kazuyuki Kitaki	...	Police Personnels
Taiju Okayasu	...	Police Personnels
Midori Shin'e	...	Police Personnels
Erika Tajima	...	Police Personnels
Chika Kumagai	...	Dessert
Saon Fujita	...	Dessert
Tomoe Adachi	...	Dessert
Miyu Sawada	...	Dessert
Kazumi Sekine	...	Dessert
Mitsuru Kuramoto	...	Oden Stand Owner
Yûna Natsuo	...	Girl By the Stove
Toshiyuki Kitami	...	Shinagawa
Kenjirô Tsuda	...	Mita
Kimiko Yo	...	Kiyomi Kuroda
Hideo Sako	...	Detective Hagitani
Akaji Maro	...	Detective Murata
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kyoko Baba	...	H.S. Girl on the Roof
Hiromi Eguchi	...	H.S. Girl on the Roof
Rina Hashiba	...	H.S. Girl on the Roof
Kanako Hiramatsu	...	Mother Slicing Vegetables
Mikiko Isa	...	Girl With Sign
Himeno Maeda	...	Boy
Toyotomi Maeda	...	Girl

Directed by
Shion Sono

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Shion Sono		written by

Produced by
Seiya Kawamata	....	producer
Atsushi Numata	....	executive producer
Junichi Tanaka	....	producer (as Jun'ichi Tanaka)
Toshiie Tomida	....	producer
Toyoyuki Yokohama	....	executive producer
Seiji Yoshida	....	producer

Original Music by
Tomoki Hasegawa

Cinematography by
Kazuto Sato		(as Kazuto Satô)

Film Editing by
Masahiro Onaga		(as Masahiro Ônaga)

Casting by
Mamoru Ito

Production Design by
Yoshihiro Nishimura

Art Direction by
Yoshihiro Nishimura

Makeup Department
Yoshihiro Nishimura	....	special makeup effects artist

Sound Department
Masami Nishioka	....	sound recordist

Special Effects by
Yoshihiro Nishimura	....	moldmaker

Production Companies

• Omega Project
• Biggubîto
• For Peace Co. Ltd.
• Fyûzu

Distributors

• Earthrise (2002) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Daiei Motion Picture Company
• I-On New Media (2005) (Germany) (DVD)
• KinoVista (2006) (France) (TV)
• SBP (2009) (Argentina) (DVD)
• TLA Releasing (USA) (video)

Special Effects

• Nishimura Motion Picture Model Makers Group

Also Known As:

Suicide Circle (International: English title) (literal title) (Japan: English title) (poster title)
Suicide Club (International: English title) (USA) (festival title)

MPAA:

Rated R for disturbing thematic elements, strong violence/grisly images and some language.

Runtime:

99 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

New Zealand:R18 | Canada:16+ (Quebec) | Japan:R-15 | Argentina:16 | Singapore:R21 | Germany:18

Filming Locations:

Tokyo, Japan

Company:

Omega Project

Trivia:

The Bat's computer is a black Apple Macintosh PowerPC 5500/225. This model was already discontinued in 1998.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: When the students jump to their death on the school roof, you can clearly see crew-members throwing buckets of fake blood at the window.

Quotes:

Genesis: I'm Charles Manson of the information age!

Movie Connections:

References The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

Soundtrack:

Raito wansu

Good, but not entirely coherent

First of all, I looked at another comment by someone named rrobins2-1, who said that this movie is "not for the Japanese ignorant," that it has a lot to do with Buddhism and Shintoism, and that it's perfectly understandable from a Japanese point of view.

Mr. rrobins2-1 obviously doesn't know what he's talking about. I have lived in Japan, I speak the language, and I know that his comments are ignorant, which is ironic because that's what he claims others are. First of all, many Japanese people don't follow any religion, nor do they know a great deal about them. Second, every Japanese person I spoke to said the same thing about the movie: "I didn't understand it." So much for that perfectly understanding Japanese point of view. Anyway, now that that's finished, on to the review:

The beginning parts of the movie show a lot of promise. Teenagers are killing themselves, and being happy about it to boot. The police are looking into it, believing that it's more of a murder, and someone is causing it. Throughout the movie, you see their futility in trying to figure things out, and the scenes that feature mass suicide are very intense and well-done, but there ends up being so many different things in the movie that don't amount to anything, and their is no real conclusion to the film.

First off, there's a girl who informs the police of a website that's connected to the suicide. She attempts to find out the cause of the deaths. It seems that she would be an important character, but she's not in very much, and she doesn't do anything. This goes with all the characters. There are many characters in the movie, but none of them are developed, and many times you're left wondering why they're in the movie to begin with. There's a weird Rocky Horror-esquire musical performance about halfway through the movie, which many people believe is way out of character for the rest of the movie. Anway, I don't want to spoil anything, so I will just say that the story doesn't end, and with the way things stand at the end of the movie, it's impossible to understand how these people were convinced to kill themselves the way they were.

Going through all the stuff in the movie quickly: There's the mass suicides, Cops that are out of touch, a giant roll of stitched together human flesh of the people who have or will commit suicide, a weird j-pop band who's name is misspelled numerous times throughout the movie, the weird, gay cultist who sings wants to be famous, coughing children who know everything about the situation and give cryptic clues about it. All of these, as well as the stuff I neglected to mention, either come out of the blue, or are barely in the picture (or both), with no explanation (and almost no clues), leading you to wonder what they are doing in the first place. I know it's supposed to be a satire, but if half the people who watch it don't understand it, how are you supposed to get your message across?