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Directed by: Shion Sono Starring: Ryo Ishibashi, Kimiko Yo, Rolly, Saya Hagiwara Upon watching this movie for the first time, I banged my head into the chair in annoyance. Yet, something kept me watching the movie, some tiny hope that it would have a resolution and the world would come back into focus. Upon the second watching, I started to pick up the subtle reasons for the sheer confusion in this film. It has a very intriguing start. 50 highschool girls line up past the yellow line, happily count to three and shout "Wheee!" as they jump in front of the subway train. All of them explode like waterballoons full of ketchup. Some of the onlookers seem oblivous to what is happening, but most scream. The investigators are stumped as to why this has happened, their only clue being a white sports bag left at the scene. It contains a large roll of skin that is stitched together out of little strips from the people that killed themselves. Next, we keep hearing from a teenybopper band called "Dessart", or perhaps it is spelled "Desert" or Desart or dessert or desret, it changes pretty much every time it's on screen. Meanwhile, a girl who has put herself to the case goes on the internets and discovers that there is a site with dots that track the suicides before they happen. She contacts the police with the alias "the bat" and gives them the info. Pretty soon the investigators get confused and start commiting suicide themselves, after hearing from a little kid on the phone who coughs at then end of every sentence. Characters are thrown into the mix from left and right, seemingly at random, and yet it all still seems like it will make sense in the end. Next, there is a happy montage of suicides from all sorts of people set to a dessart song. "The bat" is abducted by a gang and taken to an abandoned bowling alley. Here lives Genisis, who looks like he just arrived from Rocky Horror. The alley is littered with small animals wrapped in sheets, that he steps on as they squirm. Next, he starts to belt out some kind of sad showtune, as some girls get knife-raped under the sheets. It goes a little something like: "The sky is blue, and still people fall in love Because Dead Because of dead Joan of Arc died beautifuly in a film Because Dead Because the dead" Pretty soon the police get him, and he proclaims himself the "Charles Manson of the information age!" We think that the plot has been wrapped up at this point and that he orchastrated this whole thing, but its not over. I don't even understand why he's in the movie. Maybe because dead. The movie actually contains quite a bit of subtext. I think it pokes fun at how fickle the interest of teenagers is. They hop from one bandwagon to the next, and this one just happens to be killing yourself. The name changing of the band is another hint at this. I'm pretty sure the bowling alley was chosen because of how popular bowling used to be in japan, but its pretty much dead now. I still have yet to fully comprehend the movie, but I'm sure there's a resolution hidden in there some where. Have any of you found it? RATING: 4 PROS: So incomprehensible that it must be genius! CONS: The plot commits suicide along with 90% of the cast ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0312843/
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Dec 24, 2005 19:37
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 08:50 |
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This film has not only one, but two threads in the Film Dump already. :ultramon: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1351471 http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1511411 loving do a search before you post. It's not that hard.
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Dec 24, 2005 22:05
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Sorry, I didn't realize this had been done before. I don't have an account upgrade, so, from what I understand, I can't use the search function.
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Dec 25, 2005 06:04
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