ebossert I'm a pretty big fan of Sion Sono, with "Love Exposure" (2008), "Strange Circus" (2005), and "Hair Extensions" (2007) being amongst my personal favorites from his portfolio. Even his more recent exploitation-style films like "Cold Fish" (2010) and "Guilty of Romance" (2011) have enough to hold interest, despite their skittish foundations. "Noriko's Dinner Table" (2005) is a dramatic spin off to the gruesome "Suicide Club" (2002). I read up on the film before seeking it out, so I knew what I was in for in terms of style: a slow-paced, character driven art-house flick that was very different from its predecessor. What I got was a boring movie that outstayed its welcome within the opening hour, then dragged mercilessly for another hour-and-a-half.The plot is bland, the acting is spotty, and the primary psychological elements are unfocused and sloppy. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but this film abuses narration to such an extreme that massive amounts of superfluous verbiage are used when only a few mere images would suffice. What results is an unbearable series of events that seem to exist for no other reason than to show something during the unending narration. The dialogue is drawn out yet somehow empty – virtually nothing of interest is said. Even after 159 minutes of characters constantly yapping (they literally cannot keep their mouths shut for more than 10 seconds at a time), the viewer inexplicably comes away from this movie with almost no additional understanding of the primary themes behind "Suicide Club", a film that also suffered from meaningless psychobabble but overpowered its flaws with horrific imagery.Subsequent to my initial disappointment, I attempted to rewatch "Noriko's Dinner Table" on two separate occasions, but simply could not make it past the opening hour. I'm frankly amazed that I made it the whole way through the first time around.

Tokyo-1997 This movie was quite entertaining, but I have got one very major complain about this movie. This movie did not really show how the father was bad to his daughters. The father just cared about his work, so when the daughter, Noriko and her sister ran away, did not bother him much. That showed how cruel Noriko's father is. The father even asked his wife to help him do his work, so you can see how obsessed the father is at work. As mentioned towards the end of the show, Noriko's father may even hit her if she asked him something. However, the character development for Noriko's father to see how distant he is towards his daughter could have been made much better like the movie "Click". I thought this movie should also focus more on the "Problem" rather than just the "Solution".Click really shows that when when the main character was obsessed with his work, and when his kids ask him a question, he would scold them and shout at them loudly. The movie also shows how obsessed the main character was obsessed with his work(when he got back home he just did and did his work without even caring about the kids). So you can see how distant their relationship is and feel touch for the characters. This movie did not really manage to make me feel touch because they focused too much on the solution rather than the problem. I did not really feel that the relationship of the daughter and father was very far unlike the movie CLICK. The first half an hour of this movie could have used to build up development instead of long boring dialogs. This movie still managed to be interesting though, it managed to be touching at times, especially when they are trying to solve the problem by doing some 'acting'. This movie is unique and entertaining. It is fun to watch due to its rather good storyline though poor character development. Furthermore, the ending pratically spoiled the entire film. The ending was extremely aggravating and terrible. I thought the whole problem was solved. A lot of effort was put in to solve the problem. What wrong with Noriko's sister? Why did she do something so stupid? Why did she run away? This ending is just horrible and extremely aggravating. This film somehow did not impact me as much as suicide club. I preferred suicide club to this film. Though this film was still good because it was very very entertaining though not convincing enough for me. Score: 7/10

ctizon Wow. I must say, of all the films out there, this one has a concept that has never been done before.When this film was released, most of its recognition stemmed from it being the director's follow-up to his cult favorite "Suicide Club" (2002). In fact, that is what sparked my interest, as I am a die-hard fan of "Suicide Club". However, after viewing this film, I have to definitely recommend not going in and expecting a sequel. This film takes place in the same universe, and its story may clear up a bit of the whys in "Suicide Club", but it has a different story completely. Different characters, different timeframe, different genre, everything, but standalone film or sequel - this is one of the best films I've seen.We pick up the story a bit of time before the events of "Suicide Club" (6 months prior to be exact). A 17 year old girl named Noriko Shimabara lives with her father Tetsu, her mother Taeko, and her sister Yuka. Utterly bored with life, she spends hours contacting various teenage girls through the website "haikyo.com" (present in the first film). Aching to leave home and meet those like her, Noriko packs her bags and runs off to Tokyo. The very next morning, she meets Kumiko - the founder of the website haikyo. But she is immediately swept into a bizarre game of acting as part of a family and getting paid for it. Eventually, she contacts her sister Yuka, who runs off to be with her sister. Their mother commits suicide, and 6 months later their father hears about a suicide cult in Tokyo that caused 54 girls to jump in front of a train. Tetsu has a feeling that Noriko is involved, so he starts a very long journey to get his daughters back. However, by the time he reaches them, 2 years have passed, and they have become completely detached from reality and from themselves.This is where the movie reaches its climax, and goes into the bizarre and gruesome territory that anyone familiar with the first film would be expecting. But this is NOT a horror movie in any sense of the word. It's almost pure drama. Even though it has a seemingly complicated plot, at heart it is simply a story about a girl's journey to her own soul and to the heart of life. And what a dark journey it is.The ending is a bit like the first one's ending, with a sense of accomplishment. It is quite the uplifting ending for an otherwise depressing film. But it gives no easy answers. I'll be looking forward to the third one, where the events from this film and the last film are finally tied up.The symbolism and messages in this film are incredible, and the plot was perfectly crafted to convey them all. I don't see how anybody could NOT like this movie. It is the perfect embodiment of all human emotion.10/10

DICK STEEL This Japanese film is my closing film for this year's SIFF. It tells of a compelling family story, where "safe" is boring, and a child is off looking for that spark in life to spice things up. Turning her back to her family, Noriko makes her way to Tokyo to look up her internet friends, friends she came to know through an online forum. At first everything seems puzzling, until she realize that they are all "actors", folks providing "rental family" services to lonely people out there, yearning to belong.It's ironic that Noriko had turned her back on her real family, only to join a surrogate one, pretending to be close knit to a lot of other strangers. She takes on her online persona, and forgets about "Noriko", the life she left behind. Which makes it really strange - why would anyone want to abandon their own family, and comfort zone, to make believe with others? It's a social exploration of alienation, and on a separate note, tries to look at the trend of suicide clubs in Japan.One harrowing scene that was replayed, was that of 54 female students jumping off a train platform in unison. Taking on pseudo-security camera views, and plenty of blood with the smashing of heads on track (in full glory), it'll make you wince, yet wonder in astonishment, the question of Why.ßRunning parallel to Noriko's narrative, are a few others, like her dad's, her sister Yuka's (who also joined Noriko in her new role), and a forum founder Komiko. Taking on parallel and different points of view, it is no wonder that this film clocks in at slightly more than 2 1/2 hours. The father seeks Noriko and Yuka and wants to start afresh by welcoming them home, but find that the siblings have already disowned their lives thus far, preferring to pretend to be someone else, someone they have total control over, someone that they have created for themselves.The movie started off strongly, but the pace sagged around the half way mark, before picking up again for the grand finale. It also helped that almost all the female cast in this movie are eye-candy, contrasting the seriousness of the issues presented, with their outward cuteness and pretty faces.It's a pretty weird story, with strange characters, those who don't bat an eyelid over suicide, taking it as a form of higher calling. However you'll still be stuck at the Why question, as the movie doesn't offer any concrete answers, and somehow teased with an ending hinting of a possible sequel, that probably wouldn't be made.