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Noriko’s Dinner Table (aka: Suicide Circle 2) movie review

by Chris   ⋅   August 21, 2007   ⋅   Comment now   ⋅    RSS

A pseudo-sequel, existing somewhat on the periphery of Suicide Circle, Noriko’s Dinner Table takes place before, during, and after Sion Sono’s landmark film. It is the tale of a young bookish country girl who, fed up with her life of un-fulfilling relations, disinterested parents, and general country life, heads off to Tokyo in hopes of connecting with a group of internet friends, found through a internet bulletin board called Haikyo.com (according to another writeup, this means An Empty Place). Once there she is introduced to a new and strange world of Family-role-playing-as-a-service, as provided through her friend Kumiko (screenname: Ueno Station 54)’s family-for hire company, Family Circle. While initially fresh and fascinating, the complex nature and intensity of the role playing eventually leads Noriko to lose touch with her real self. As things spiral out of control, Noriko will witness first hand the horrors of the Suicide Circle. But will she be able to restore the connection to her own self before it’s too late?

Adapted from his own novel, Suicide Circle: Complete, Sion Sono’s follow-up is an effort to tie up the dangling threads of Suicide Circle, while further exploring the philosophical ideas presented in that film. Clocking in at just over two and a half hours, it does quite the nice job. Naturally, not everything is tied up as nicely as possible (the flesh roll factory is never featured, for instance), but given the ideas presented in the film these “failures” prove completely negligible. With Noriko’s Dinner Table, Sono has created an unsettling piece of work that completely transcends the original, in style, content, and focus.

The film is divided into five chapters, the first four each focusing on a central character: Noriko, her sister Yuka, Kumiko, and Noriko’s father. The final chapter sees all the characters in confrontation. The film is near constantly narrated, with each chapter’s characters musing on their hopes, dreams, and motivations, providing the audience with a central pipeline to their thoughts. It’s an interesting method for an adaptation, more audio novel with visual accompaniment, but in the case of this film, it works quite well.

While Suicide Cirlce was notorious for its gory set pieces, its philosophical inclinations more often than not were lost on audiences (myself included, sad to say.) With Noriko’s Dinner Table, however, it is identity and the notions of the self that serve as the film’s main hooks — in particular the nature of the search for the self, and the inherent dangers in following those who purport to have all the answers. In exploring this, Sono draws from many contemporary issues, from message board addiction and religious cults, to fissures in familial relations, as well as the classic Jungian introspection. As such, proves the most satisfying existential meditation I’ve encountered since Kobo Abe’s The Face of Another.

The main question of the film is thus: If the individual is defined by their social connections, between family, friends, and acquaintances, how does one hope to know themselves in their absence? Take your teen social outcasts, overworked parents, and other individuals whose social outlets prove few and far between. If they cannot have the time to know their peers or their own family in more than a passing fashion, what can they hope to really know? And if a person in turn dons a persona, a false identity through which they seek to facilitate connections with others, and people then react favorably to that identity where they would have rejected the original, does that new identity gain legitimacy over the original? Does it become the new real identity?

All this meditating on the nature of the self may seem diaphanous and masturbatory to some, but there are real life cases where this is a very real problem. Take for instance your Indian Tech Support workers forced to role play “American.” Many practice so hard, keeping up with American baseball stats, perfecting American accents, memorizing American colloquialisms and locales, that when they leave work, they can’t turn it off. Or take the older example of the 1980’s Dungeons and Dragons scare, with players getting so lost in their characters a simple altercation ended in murder. Or the sense of identity found in religious cults, such as the Branch Davidians or Aum Shinraku. This corrupted sense of self and belonging found in these cults more often than not leads to dire consequences.

Which brings me back to the film. Kumiko, the circle’s leader, would stand to epitomize this disconnect, being an abandoned “coin-locker baby.” Her Family Circle service seeks to establish connections for those who have none, but coming from such an absence of connection, the ones supplied by her and her companions are inherently warped. It’s no secret that her organization ends up responsible for the mass train-suicide depicted in Suicide Circle, but it is exactly how they got there, and where they went from there that is so fascinating and horrific….But alas, I fear I say too much. In the interest of remaining relatively spoiler free, I’ll just leave you with that teaser.

In a film that is so concerned with acting, good performances prove integral to the story. Kazue Fukiishi (One Missed Call) is completely amazing as Noriko. Her (de)evolution from cute, nerdy, day-dreaming bookworm to brainwashed freako is completely real, profoundly disturbing and tragic. Tsugumi (Screwed, Hair Extensions)’s Kumiko is equally frightening and dangerous, with an ever so slight splash of sweetness — a sociopathic seducer and destroyer. Lastly, Ken Mitsuishi’s turn as Noriko’s father Tetsuzo is nothing short of admirable. His pain, frustration, and raw determination is manifest entirely. I won’t delve into the particulars, but the scenes involving these three actors have a palpable tension and danger that literally had my heart racing. For, in this film all the rules are suspect, and due to the sheer believability of the persons on screen I could not be sure what would happen next. Very very exciting.

And Sono’s no slouch in the visual department either. While certainly not as ornate as his subsequent work in Strange Circus, the work here is no less impressive. Sono plays with light and shadow, reds and blacks, to create some visually striking compositions. Color schemes and camera movements are more playful toward the start of the picture, while far more oppressive and focused toward the end. It’s absolutely wonderful to watch.

In closing Sion Sono has amazed me again. Noriko’s Dinner Table is smart, beautiful, and fascinating film that provides ample food for thought, both during and after the film. As unimpressed as I was with Suicide Circle as I was, Noriko’s Dinner Table further cements Sono’s status as his generation’s most impressive auteur. Having gone from this to Strange Circus and on to Hazard…It’s safe to say Sion Sono is now one of my favorite directors.

About the Author

Chris Nelson has been a film fanatic since age six. A former film and English major, he is now a Software Engineer and contract Technical Writer living in the Silicon Valley.