Mjeteconer
Just perfect...
Scarlet
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
davidhilley
If enjoy for example, the filmography of Takashi Miike but want something a bit more sophisticated I would advise you this is a must see. On the spectrum of those type of 'shock films', I would actually rate this a 10 star rather than an 8.
It is probably the most disturbing Japanese film I have seen, and despite what the movie poster suggests, that is accomplished without any graphic depictions of sex, violence, or gore (excluding the last scene). All this to say, it is a very intense movie that left my jaw hanging open throughout the entire viewing thinking "What the f***? What am I watching?". Great movie!
ebossert
I'm a pretty big fan of Sion Sono, with "Love Exposure" (2008), "Strange Circus" (2005), and "Hair Extensions" (2007) being amongst my personal favorites from his portfolio. Even his more recent exploitation-style films like "Cold Fish" (2010) and "Guilty of Romance" (2011) have enough to hold interest, despite their skittish foundations. "Noriko's Dinner Table" (2005) is a dramatic spin off to the gruesome "Suicide Club" (2002). I read up on the film before seeking it out, so I knew what I was in for in terms of style: a slow-paced, character driven art-house flick that was very different from its predecessor. What I got was a boring movie that outstayed its welcome within the opening hour, then dragged mercilessly for another hour-and-a-half.The plot is bland, the acting is spotty, and the primary psychological elements are unfocused and sloppy. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but this film abuses narration to such an extreme that massive amounts of superfluous verbiage are used when only a few mere images would suffice. What results is an unbearable series of events that seem to exist for no other reason than to show something during the unending narration. The dialogue is drawn out yet somehow empty – virtually nothing of interest is said. Even after 159 minutes of characters constantly yapping (they literally cannot keep their mouths shut for more than 10 seconds at a time), the viewer inexplicably comes away from this movie with almost no additional understanding of the primary themes behind "Suicide Club", a film that also suffered from meaningless psychobabble but overpowered its flaws with horrific imagery.Subsequent to my initial disappointment, I attempted to rewatch "Noriko's Dinner Table" on two separate occasions, but simply could not make it past the opening hour. I'm frankly amazed that I made it the whole way through the first time around.
tedg
Magical spaces in Hispanically influenced films are easy to locate. We as viewers find it easy to place ourselves there it seems natural. Only Medem challenges.There are three similarly structured magical traditions in modern Japanese films, and I find them tantalizing, sometimes difficult, visceral. This is squarely within one of these traditions, a small unsettling masterpiece. There seem to be many such, films that have not escaped the island. "All About Lily Chou-Cho" is my favorite, but this has a notable reverse fold.A common fold is that of performance in life: we all are acting a role that we are drawn to. "Audition" is a great example of where life performance slakes the life that contains it. This construction goes there and then reverses itself.Imagine a setup where two sisters end up working for a gang which hires out actors to play roles in families for pay. Pretty standard stuff for this tradition, and many of the ordinary girl-sex-angst-parent dynamics are acted out, some symbolically. But now imagine an overlain setup where they are unknowingly hired by their father to play themselves. There's more. Imagine that the film is broken into a collection of first person narratives, each reporting what they discover, and one of these leverages the fact that the father is a reporter- detective (who discovers the gang and sets up the inverted acting gig).The gang, incidentally, is from a previous movie that is not particularly relevant, except in that it occupies the same magical universe of lost girls.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
Paul Celano (chelano)
Director Sion Sono had done a film called, "The Suicide Club" that had an interesting story, but was just a mediocre movie. In fact it had seemed like there were holes in the story. This film pretty much fills in all the holes and has so much more added on. This movie is almost three hours long and jam packed with dialog. But really good dialog. It almost had a poetic feel to it. This is called semi-sequel, but actually it more or less takes place during the other movie. This film is listed as a horror film. But it is not the gore fest that "The Suicide Club" was. The movie had no scare factor at all. But mentally it was creepy. Two sisters run away from home and get into a business where others rent them to be part of their family. The creepy part is that they take on different names and personalities and they get so use it, they become these alternate people. It really does give the movie a creepy warped feeling at parts. The sisters are played by Kazue Fukiishi; who is a nerdy type girl who becomes more open with her other personality. Then you have Yuriko Yoshitaka; who basically turns into someone else, but mostly stays the same personality wise. The girl who runs the business is played by Tsugumi who has the most warped mind in the film. She loves role playing in these families because she never had one. She likes it so much, it is like she is trying to find the perfect family to stay with. The movie does run a bit long, but in some ways it is worth it because the words spoken and the meaning behind the movie are pretty powerful.
