Suicide Club

Suicide Club – Jisatsu Circle – 2001

Plot: In Tokyo, when fifty-four high-school students commit a collective suicide, jumping from a platform in Shinjuku Station, the police force leaded by Detective Kuroda has no clue to follow. Then he receives an e-mail from a young woman, The Bat, advising that there is a site where red dots mean the number of persons that died. Kuroda and his team investigate the deaths going nowhere

Suicide Club aka Suicide Circle aka Jisatsu Circle is a very popular 2001 movie directed by Sion Sono. This is exactly the kind of movie i used to just love as kid, because it was so gruesome and nonsense, and so typically Japanese. As i grew up and my taste for strong storytelling developed, i am now reconsidering my opinion a bit, and i’m gonna try to briefly explain why in the next couple paragraphs.

First of, the strong points: we have the always appealing schoolgirls (in uniforms!) butchering themselves deal, you know, that sort of thing that is just eye candy for the horrorhounds.

the opening sequence is one of the most impressive in J-Horror history, with over 50 little schoolgirls cheerfully singing and holding hands as they prepare to jump under a speeding train.

then we have that fascinating, typically japanese, over the top nonsense part, where a pseudo underground terrorist j-rocker doing his best David Bowie impression – complete with high heels and sequined suits – takes lead in a scene and just starts.. to sing a song. about suicide. about how suicide is good for you and death survives everything and stuff. I mean come on.. beat that:

now, the movie even goes deeper into the social propaganda, exploring the realms of disaffected youth and existentialist wonders. what is the meaning of life? are we all linked to each other? do these bonds still exist after we die? things that work in theory, but that are not played out at best as the story unfolds. The main problem is that  Suicide Club follows a pace that is remarkably slow, something that i don’t mind most of the times but in this case there’s a couple moments where the movie becomes simply boring.

I mean, at some point you’re just waiting and waiting for the next crazy gory scene to shake things up a bit. But it’s all good, because from time to time here we go with those bleeding schoolgirls again

Sono soon announced that this movie was going to be part of a trilogy, but so far we only saw one sequel: Noriko’s Dinner Table, that depicts events from before and after the happenings of Suicide Circle, and gives more insight on several plotholes of its predecessor.

Briefly, the weakest point of the flick is all the unanswered questions. But all in all this is another classic, and fits perfectly that J-Cinema revival i was just talking about.

Zombie Cupcakes out!

Zombie Cupcakes Select: Movie Bites

bentobjects.blogspot.com

Brains! Conquer!

Now that we’ve successfully brought 2009 over to the zombie side, here’s a little recap of the bloody gems the now old Mr Oh-nine entertained us with, in no particular order.

Thirst (Bakjwi):

First and foremost, Park Chan Wook’s new masterpiece. Thirst wins pretty much everything, with his absolute brilliance, cruelty, beauty, you name it, the list is almost endless. Almost as long as my epic wait for it through most of the year. Thankfully it was more than worth it! Park Chan-wook came back with this amazing picture and reminded us what vampires are really like (as in they don’t sparkle, people!! they just don’t!! no.no.no.), with their classic tragic sense of romance, internal struggle, irresistible sexuality, and a taste for Revenge. Full Review: here

Drag Me To Hell:

Sam Raimi.Gypsy curses. Exorcisms. Green gooey fun. Need i say more? When this movie came out, it was a little bit like christmas. Like horror movie jesus was born again to make us cry tears of bloody joy. Personally, i never gave up on Sam Raimi, but i know of a few people who did, and when Drag Me To Hell came out he just crushed everybody’s dirty mouth with his Mighty Fist. No, seriously. Every little movie geek like me who grew up with bread and Evil Dead, knew this day would come. Here’s my idea of how much this movie kicks ass. Full Review: coming soon

Martyrs:

Technically a 2008 movie, but the majority of us really discovered it in 2009, after its Dvd release. I like this movie so much it made me talk about it nonstop for months. It’s the journey of Anna Assoui down the terrifying spiral of abuse and torture. She suffers inexplicable pain. She’s a martyr, a fighter, a survivor, and pretty much my hero. Many labeled Martyrs as a “monster”, but here at zombie cupcakes, Monsters are good, and we love them plenty. Perfect 10. Full Review: here

Paranormal Activity:

There’s 2 very distinct school of thoughts for this movie; those who screamed amazing and those who screamed what the hell was that, also known as “i want my money back”. I  side with the amazing group. Maybe because I’m a believer. The movie is the modern Blair Witch Project. The story of a young couple haunted by a mysterious presence at night. Absolutely real and terrifying. I couldn’t sleep at night after i watched it, and i don’t care if you’re in the Poo-on-paranormal-activity party. Poo on you. I hope that demon comes for YOU next. Full Review: here

Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl:

Yoshihiro Nishimura teamed up with Naoyuki Tomomatsu of Stacy-Attack of the schoolgirl Zombies. These two need no introduction. They also don’t need a plot whatsoever, apparently. But we absolutely don’t care! Zombie schoolgirls, incredible gore, raining blood!! Fun for the whole family! This movie is the tale of two girls who like the same guy and bite to conquer his heart. But i digress. Did i mention unbelievable amounts of blood and gore? Featuring Eihi Shiina (from Audition) and Takashi Shimizu (Ju-On saga director), Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girls is not out on dvd (or on the net) yet, but it will be soon. In the meantime, try other Nishimura movies like Tokyo Gore Police, or Machine Girl.  Full Review: coming soon

What about you? What was your favorite this year?

Zombie Cupcakes out!

The Machine Girl

The Machine girl (2008)

From Imdb: Ami is a typical college girl. She’s bright, friendly, popular and athletic, with nothing to set her apart from other girls her age other than the fact that she is an orphan, left to care for her younger brother after her father committed suicide after being falsely accused of murder. But while there is tragedy in their past, the siblings’ future looks good, except for one thing. Ami’s brother has racked up a considerable debt to another boy at school, and that boy just happens to be the heir to a clan of vicious ninja-yakuza. Ami’s brother can’t pay, violence breaks out and in the course of trying to avenge her brother, Ami is captured by the clan. They torture her and hack her arm right off. Ami escapes, barely alive, and is taken in by the owners of a machine shop who build her a customized, bullet-spewing arm. From that point, the quest for revenge is on in earnest

The Machine Girl is a 2008 japanese movie directed by Noboru Iguchi. For some reason that is unknown to me, it keeps getting compared to Shaun of the Dead.. i really didn’t see it. And believe me, i tried hard, since Shaun of the Dead is just brilliant and knowing there was a movie out there just as good but with japanese schoolgirls (in uniforms!!) making a mess of blood and guts, was the best thing i had heard in a long time.

So definitely no, if you’re looking for smart sarcasm and real jokes, you’re not gonna like this. On the other side though.. come on guys! It’s a japanese schoogirl (in uniform!!!!!) with a mechanical arm shooting bullets and creating copious amounts of gore!! If you ask me, that is still amazing. Plus i don’t think you really need the smart plot to enjoy upskirt shots of a hot young killing machine.

or do you?

Tokyo Gore Police

Tokyo Gore Police (2008)

Are you ready for some serious gore? Probably the goriest and weirdest movie you have seen in a long time, if not ever? Tokyo Gore Police is here to blow your mind with urinating chairs, penis cannons, tons and tons of raining blood (it really rains!!)  and most of all.. brains shooting brains!!!

The plot is completely unnecessary to enjoy this movie, but i’ll write it down just for the records:

from imdb: Set in a future-world vision of Tokyo where the police have been privatized and bitter self-mutilation is so casual that advertising is often specially geared to the “cutter” demographic, this is the story of samurai-sword-wielding Ruka and her mission to avenge her father’s assassination. Ruka is a cop from a squad who’s mission is to destroy homicidal mutant humans known as “engineers” possessing the ability to transform any injury to a weapon in and of itself.

Now, i’m not gonna pretend that the story thickens throughout the movie, BUT the gore and the psycho and the weird (therefore the awesome) just keeps getting better and better until the very last second. there’s not much to really WRITE about this flick, but i sure can show you some images and you be the judge. Tokyo Gore police presents:

Ruka, the heroin of the movie. (remember Audition? same girl)

the gorey schoolgirl!!

she has acid shooting nipples!!

that’s what the acid does:

my personal favorite: THE S&M HUMAN DOG

raining blood!!!!

you will totally need an umbrella for it

if you’re not at least a little interested in this yet, you don’t know what real fun is. and don’t forget the super hot mutant girl..

Tokyo Zombie

Tokyo Zombie (2005)

This is japanese movie directed by Sakichi Sato in 2005, and tells the story of Fujio (a guy with no special talents and a big afro) and Mitsuo (his bald mentor who’s an expert of Jujitsu). After they accidentally kill their boss, they decide to bury his body on Black Fuji, a mountain that’s a result of all the trash and dirty laundry piled up from Tokyo’s inhabitants. As it turns out, the mountain is full of dead bodies and a weird chemical reaction results into a full blown zombie attack, and their odd adventure begins..

Today i was really sick and as i was laying in bed i realized it was about time to update my site. As you might have noticed, i decided to talk about a Japanese movie for a change. The main reason why i did this is a special person who told me i shouldn’t miss it. The second reason is that probably comedy and laughter are a better cure for sickness than my usual korean ultra-violent drama. Not to mention the ZOMBIES! hello? Zombies are the cure for everything.

So if you ever asked yourself: can a zombie movie be awesome? hilarious? sentimental? post apocalyptic? just plain fucking weird? – and hoped that there would be one day where you could answer all these question with a YES, well then look no further. Because Tokyo Zombie has them all!

It might be also interesting to remind you that the main actor in this movie is Tadanobu Asano, who (other that being extremely  hot) already starred in really good movies like Ichi the Killer and Survive Style 5+.. and that Tokyo Zombie also originally comes from a manga, and follows its pace. if you’re looking for entertainment, dark comedy, and flesh eating zombies all mixed up Japanese style, this is definitely the movie for you.