I
finally got around to watching Shion Sono's 2001 film
Suicide Club, and I have to admit, at the end of the movie, I am left feeling a little disappointed and empty - As though either there was some kind of resolution that was missing OR I just didn't "get" the film in its entirety to appreciate it in full.
Granted, I realize that the movie's ending was left purposefully vague, but at the same time I felt myself wondering, well,
What was the whole point of this macabre journey that Sono just took me through?
Obvious themes that the movie wishes to discuss:
- Suicide, particularly focusing on students, which is incredibly purposeful and risque due to the high amount of suicide amongst students in Japan
- Peer pressure - While the concept of "peer pressure" might seem to belittle the film as a whole, I think that it's incredibly poignant, especially when we watch the second mass school suicide from the rooftop - What starts as a "joke" ends with most of the students hurtling themselves to the ground. I found that to be quite possibly one of the most disturbing scenes in the film - It's about peer pressure and saving face (the girl who doesn't jump immediately but then grabs a schoolmate and tells him, "We HAVE to jump now!" as she flings themselves both off
- The collective and susceptible unconscious - Clearly there is a connection to the girl group Dessert, their songs seeming being a constant backdrop to the suicides... Plus in the climactic scene Mitsuko discovers the "code" S-U-I-C-I-D-E in the Dessert poster in her boyfriend's room, which leads here to the concert
One theme that I honestly didn't "get" was this concept of being "connected to yourself." It's the discussion between detective Kuroda and the boy on the phone about being "connected to yourself" that honestly baffled me. We have this concept that you are connected to your loved ones, even after death, but whether of not you're connected with yourself is left up for interpretation. Of course, Mitsuko says that she IS connected with herself, but that only leads to her skin being lathed off, which implies that she's next on the Suicide bandwagon...
But yet she DOESN'T do it... So what's the message there? That there isn't a concept of pre-destined suicide... That you still have control over yourself and you can stop it (unlike previous scenes in the film where it seems as though no one is able to stop the suicide once people have been "marked"). I don't know. Sure, we can say that it's open for interpretation, but I'm curious as to what YOUR interpretation is... Of the movie... Of its themes... Of the ending...
Because I'm baffled... but yet incredibly interested. That's the thing; I can't just write off this movie - It's too intelligent... therefore I really want to know what other viewers of the film thought/felt about it. What am I missing? What did YOU think?
Let's discuss.