Suicide Club

TLA | minutes | | | Standard DVD reviewed by: Fusion3600

A line of over fifty young girls stands on a subway platform, holding hands and beaming radiant smiles. When a train starts to charge out of the station, the girls begin to jump down and right into the path of the transport. This leaves a blood soaked scene behind, as the girls are demolished by the train. The apparent suicides of such a large group of people in such a ritualistic fashion has the authorities baffled, to say the least. Detective Kuroda (Ryo Ishibashi) is in charge of the case, which turns out to be more than just an isolated incident. Instead, the mass suicide proves to be the first of its kind and soon after, other suicides follow suit. Now Kuroda and his fellow officers have to contend with waves of suicides across the nation, none of which seem to be have much in common, but a bond of some kind seems evident. A phone call turns into the case's best lead, a conversation which leads investigators to an unusual internet site. The site logs all of the current suicides and even charts them before they take place, as if the suicides were planned out and then executed, if they were indeed suicides, that is. Can Kuroda somehow manage to uncover the dark truth about the suicides, or will the bloodshed continue?

The rash of group suicides in Japan is unnerving to say the least, the kind of topic that sends chills down your spine, even if you're nowhere the actual events. So it should be no surprise that a movie about mysterious group suicides would surface and as such, we have the dark Japanese picture Suicide Club. But while based on the real life events, Suicide Club takes reality and makes it more cinematic, with mixed results. So instead of a psychological profile of these troubled youths, the film turns out to be a suspense thriller of sorts. That means you'll have numerous suspects, red herrings, wild theories, and all the usual elements, but at least they're all wound up inside of a dark, blood soaked shell. The first half hour or so of Suicide Club is excellent, the kind of content I had hoped to see from such a praised production. The tone is eerie and tense, with the kind of scenes that almost hypnotize. But after that, the movie takes a turn downhill and shifts gears a little, which ends the high level performance. Suicide Club is still a well crafted and effective picture, but I had my expectations a little too high. The eerie tone and intense visuals are worth the price of admission, but don't anticipate a traditional style movie here. I recommend Suicide Club as a rental to first timers, but fans might want to shell out and own this one.

Suicide Club is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen, which is not enhanced for widescreen televisions. This is a good overall effort, but the lack of anamorphic enhancement has a negative impact on the visuals. I saw more jagged lines than expected, while the image isn't as crisp as I had expected. I think a new anamorphic treatment could have cleared up those woes, but even as it stands, this is a more than solid transfer. As I said, the sharpness isn't as high as I'd like, but the image is by no means soft, just not that refined. That lack of refinement hits the contrast though, which means black levels are a tad soft throughout. I found colors to be bright and natural, but the visuals here have a darker scope. In the end, this is a solid treatment in all respects, but I would have loved an anamorphic edition.

The original Japanese soundtrack is preserved here, but this film isn't designed to be an audio powerhouse, not even close. The tense atmosphere allows for some subtle touches, but this mix doesn't take full advantage of that potential. A few scenes have added atmosphere, but I expected a well crafted, eerie soundtrack. Even so, the elements come across in passable fashion and no real flaws were evident. The sound effects don't have as much kick as I would like, but have a solid presence throughout. The music has some life also, which gives some depth to the experience and of course, that is always welcome. I found no troubles with dialogue either, as vocals were clean and never muffled or drowned out. This disc also includes optional English subtitles, just in case you don't speak fluent Japanese.

This disc includes some still photos, as well as the film's trailer.