Suicide Club

Just as teen Japan goes wild for an idol band called Desert, who have secret messages in their visuals and lyrics, 54 schoolgirls join hands on the Yamanote Line platform in Shinjuku Station and jump in front of an oncoming train. The resulting tsunami of blood heralds hundreds more mass and individual suicides. Three shop-worn cops (Ishibashi, Nagase, Maro) investigate and discover any number of potential triggers, even as their own lives collapse around them. Is it all caused by a dangerous website? By a deranged glam rocker? Or just by living in contemporary Japan? Sono has been making weird, formalist indie films for more than a decade, but this represents a shift into weird, free-form exploitation. None of it makes any real sense, but it sure does keep you watching.