Suicide Club (2001)

A large number of Japan's teenagers commit suicide en masse. Is someone orchestrating them or is it merely the pressures of society?
Also known as Suicide Circle, this odd film has some terrible acting and some laughable plot, but it also had a mysterious hold over me much of the time because a small number of deeply personal moments were perfectly placed throughout; they managed to convince me that Dir. Sion Sono knew what he was doing even when it seemed like he didn't.
It's a shame the surreal moments had a tendency to turn into the outright ridiculous, as they could've really heightened the tense atmosphere.

3 icky chains out of 5

Cold Fish (2010)

When compared to Love Exposure, Cold Fish feels almost ordinary. Sure, it's a movie about tropical fish salesmen and old man sex and ghastly murders, but it has a reasonably coherent plot and a 2 and 1/2 hour runtime. Sounds like fun for the whole family!

The editing is spectacular, full of rapid back and forth scene changes that feel completely fluid. Shamoto very hard to read, but that makes him fascinating, and his transformation is riveting. However, the violence in the film is brutal, intense, and misogynistic in a way that can be excruciatingly uncomfortable to watch. Sometimes I felt like Sono was more interested in cruelty than his characters, but it's called the Hate trilogy for a reason. Still, the black comedy is well executed, and if I have the stomach for it, I might go back and watch this again.

3 bones covered in soy sauce out of 5.

Love Exposure (2008)

When a movie is nearly four hours long, it's fighting an uphill battle. Even a well-paced, smartly written movie  can start to wear on you after 200 minutes. Love Exposure is many things, some good, and some bad, but the one thing it never is is boring.

Love Exposure is perhaps the weirdest, most complicated love story ever told. It probably also has the most pantyshots ever seen in a single film. It's hard to tell if it's a complex exploration of Japanese culture, or an exploration of director Shion Sono fetishes. There's way too much shaky cam, and the plot is problematic, but the characters are surprisingly entertaining and the soundtrack is a lot of fun. I'm not sure if I liked this movie, and I don't think I'll ever sit down again, but it kept my interest, and that's saying something.

2.5 erection epiphanies out of 5.