missraze Just want to say as different as this film is Sono is human and could've made a mistake and didn't explain some things, using "interpretation" to justify some potential holes, or to provide a disclaimer to the film being a negative influence. The only two reasons I can't give the two extra stars and give this an 8/10.Anyway for non-Japanese, apparently there are scenes with chicks running around is symbolism for death, and the color yellow is symbolism for bravery.Well, some simple people accused the film of being stupid because, "why would they just kill themselves?!" Firstly, Japan has a killer (excuse the pun) suicide rate/seppuku is seen as honourable while still also taboo. After all many samurai for example committed seppuku when the chips had fallen. So people doing this in modern time is seen as understandable but a horrible choice, also very sad.Well in this film there are how many suicides we actually witness? OK (this won't be going in exact order, it's from my memory): 1. the group of girls in the beginning with the beautiful score playing in the background, before they jump off the tracks 2. Then the boyfriend of the girl in the film poster 3. Then the group of school children off the building roof 4. Then the mother chops herself to pieces with a smile 5. Comedians slash their necks in front of the audience 6. Spoken word poets I assume they were hang themselves 7. A chef swallows pills 8. A lady suffocates herself or something 9. A detective's children and wife I assume 10. A nurse 11. A woman holding a sign calling people to kill themselves 12. A sociopath says he took to the internet to get people who joined to kill themselves, and so Bat calls and tells the police about them, so then people might switch and say, "OK it's not paranormal. It's a cult. Like the title implies." 13. Anyone else I missed out doesn't matter but is included in this interpretation: OK so these suicides make people think they're all killing themselves because they're all linked in this cult to do so, and there's some mysterious, probably paranormal force summoning or a charismatic leader brainwashing them to do so, right? If that were the case every suicide would probably iconically be the same, I'd think, as were those tattoos. That's the only thing I don't get based on my interpretation. What is the chain of human skin with all the tattoos? Who were the tattooed people? It's probably more symbolism. But the girl at the end got the tattoo and is still alive, she just gave skin. So the skin is irrelevant to the suicides. And the tats aren't symbols of a cult like when gangs get matching tattoos lol Well my interpretation of the other suicides is that these suicides have nothing to do with a club; that was just Sono being tricky. The beginning with the security guard screaming as the power goes out was to falsely foreshadow a demonic presence. This isn't Pulse, another Japanese horror, where there is a supernatural force convincing people to kill themselves! The weird glam rock dude at the end kidnapped people and killed them; they are irrelevant to the suicides and the tats.The two different groups of schoolgirls and children: they killed themselves because of peer pressure and mindless obsession with trendsThe boyfriend was not connected to himselfThese following suicides all happened together in an adrenaline rushing montage. So it makes people think, "yes the cult is getting out of control and suicide is now an epidemic threatening Japanese humanity for inexplicable but soon to come reasons!" -The mother chopping herself to bits could be because she's a bored and unsatisfied housewife, and she was smiling content with her choice. No other people committing suicide were smiling in this film. Because they all did for separate reasons.-The comedians could just be too dedicated to their role of surprising people and also could be dealing with issues offstage. Their suicide was very dramatic.-The lady was by herself in her kitchen depressed and suffocated herself. That's not an easy way to go. It also has nothing to do with the other people, obviously.-The chef was staring into space at a food truck he runs. Easy to see why he would kill himself to be honest.-The lady standing around scantily clad holding a sign, I mean she might just be loopy.-The female spoken word poets are just being different, or it was staged as part of a performance they were doing.-The nurse seemed pretty done with life. Plus being a nurse and a young female doing standard work in Japan, at night, might be unfulfilling as well as jading when she's around sickness and death all day. Her smiling before she kills herself (not while she kills herself, like the mother) shows serious depression and disassocation as she goes along with a burdening routine.There's also a girl group who all along had a subliminal message (although, realistically, impossible to notice). The children are enigmas or something I suppose. They ask if people are connected. If you say, yes, if I remember properly, you get to have your skin removed and attached to a chain, symbolising connection. If you fail I suppose you can think about how DISconnected to yourself you are, and then you kill yourself as the boyfriend and detective did. So it is creepy in that sense.But this has nothing to do with a suicide club. When I saw its sequel, Noriko's Table and a scene confirmed this I had a huge "OH!" moment, though the film up to that point was hard to sit through because it was so saturated with narration and uneventful images (yet fulfilling for intellectual exercise).

George Rowan The movie starts off in a relatively typical gruesome gory Japanese style and promises to be an interesting investigative thriller. However as soon as you've seen the 50-odd schoolgirls voluntarily jump to their deaths, you're greeted with footage that makes it blindingly obvious what's behind the whole thing. So that's the whole thriller aspect of the movie gone within the first 5-6 minutes and you might as well stop watching then, because nearly all further events contribute nothing more than vague symbolism and gore and stick out as some kind of agenda the movie is trying to desperately push. The story is illogical, none of the events seem plausible even in it's own universe with extremely persuasive cryptic children, it never really goes anywhere with the plot and then just ends for no reason.Having read some of the other reviews that claim this movie is some kind of masterpiece of social commentary, I have to say that just because a movie tries to address issues in society does not make it good by default.

ElTotor As someone on the topic explained it, this movie adapt the pied piper story. Nothing to deal really with Japanese culture as somebody must say. Inform yourself about the pied piper before watching the movie, then everything will be clear!It will allow you to discover plainly the quality of this great movie which is really, really close to the tale. However, it's not a perfect movie,some actors are not totally convincing (but you know, Japanese actors have sometimes a special way of acting, and it appears that in japan, people use to exaggerate reactions in real life to, like a big living theater).The gore stuff are "fun" and still work in a way, but they look flashy and cheap.

Ryan RyRy Richards all i was told about this film was "50 Japanese school girls throw themselves in front of a train in the first 5 minutes of this film" and i was hooked! so i found a copy of the film and began to watch. it seemed like a typical Japanese horror film at first but then it started to become a tad weird when the school kids were all trying to one up the others and get more people to kill themselves. the film was great, the camera work and editing made it even more creepy than it was. but some things just seemed bizarre to me. like why did some guy resembling Lady GaGa decide to kidnap 2 girls and hold them in a bowling alley and decide to kill animals while singing a song?!?!?!?!?! not many thins were explained during this film, but that happens a lot in Japanese horror.but all in all a great film. a definite must see before you die. or one of those films that you have to show your friends.