Suicide Bus

1998
6.9| 1h41m| en| More Info
Released: 11 August 1998 Released
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Synopsis

A young girl named Mitsuki receives a ticket for a bus tour from her uncle. The tour appears to be normal (expect that everyone appears to be quite sombre), but Mitsuki learns its true purpose: the other passengers and the tour manager have a suicide pact to send the bus over a cliff so their families can collect the insurance money.

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Reviews

Wordiezett So much average
JinRoz For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!
Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
dreist Finished viewing right now! I think that the kind of "suicide" within film has been treated in all ways and in all possible genres but this time we are in front of something original, in fact, this Japanese film did not give me a sense of already seen, the director He has chosen a particular style and also unpublished, a sort Road Movie dramatic but with a hint of humor. The 90s were for Japan (economically and socially) particularly dark, with the peak of the highest suicide history, the film in question makes it clear complaint and the director shows it openly. There are white-collar workers laid off or reduced in pavement, fathers of families who can not make ends meet, the sociopath who does not believe in anything ... any for all tastes! The film is very slow, but for myself it was not a problem, d 'on the other hand a high amount of Japanese films are structured and filmed so especially if you are facing the dire and dramatic arguments as in this case the suicide. I liked it? It is the movie I liked, but you could tell better and in a way a little more complex the story of the characters, inserting maybe another twenty minutes longer and bringing the film to a total duration of two hours, would have helped to make "Ikinai" even more interesting. It is not a movie for everyone, the film leaves important messages, I do not recommend it to those looking for a relaxing and movies fast.
tacosauce0707 this movie was nothing less than a roller coaster ride. since the beginning the audience is introduced to the situation and the macabre desire for whats-his-name to collect the insurance money. the rest of the extravagantly plotted movie is mitsuki slowly but surely making discoveries about the passengers. as an American there were several times in which i was completely confused as to what it was that was funny about a group of people wanting to kill themselves and many other obvious jokes along the way that left me feeling like a fifth wheel or as if these were inside jokes. (which if you think about it they are, you almost have to be Japanese to understand them i suppose). but not all of them. there are some really hysterical screwball comedy as in when they are at the traditional dinner and they all one by one get up on the stage and present their own special talents or lack thereof. perhaps to show the incompetence of these people to be successes in the real world and therefore showing what was the cause of their downfall? the ending was absolute masterpiece. they begin to play a word game to try and calm down a passenger who has overdosed on a tranquilizer or something thereof and commenced to have a seizure. through the game, the audience and all the passengers are illuminated to the fact that the "tour-guide" is actually pregnant. maybe the reason why she wants to kill herself: she sees herself unfit to be a mother or perhaps she cant afford a baby? anyway the banterings from mitsuki toward the passenger's consciences (i think thats how you spell it) finally hit a nerve with the announcement of the childbearing and the driver decides to abort the mission just in the nick of time as the bus hits the railing on the side of the road. all are saved but whats-his-name decides to get off and kill himself. however, mitsuki gives him an origami crane. the moment is tense as the tour bus leaves him behind and the camera makes it seem as though nadaka or whatever his name is has has harakiri-ed himself. then the news announce that the bus was in a collision with a eighteen wheeler and everyone aboard. then at the same time. it is shown that nadaka has not killed himself but rather he threw the crane down in exasperation to deciding not to kill himself. the audience is torn between exhilaration of nadaka keeping his life, grief of the other passengers dying (especially the innocent mitsuki), and the guiltily funny irony that the passengers died anyway and nadaka was the one to live. all in all this movie was truly amazing and it is just a darn shame that movies of this kind aren't made in Hollywood. although i don't think they can since suicide is seen differently in the American culture. on another note **i apologize for the length of my user comment**
Jugu Abraham This is a most unusual Japanese film, showing a new side of serious Japanese cinema--treatment of black comedy.What is more unusual is that it deals with suicide--no laughing matter for the Japanese. Hara-kiri is almost revered.And here is a first film from a young director that tackles this "deadly" subject with wit. Hiroshi Shimuzi has guts and talent, which I wrote about in January 1999, while reviewing the film (for India Abroad, New York) shown at the Indian International Film Festival at Hyderabad. I was pleased that it got recognized at other film festivals as well--including Locarno.It reminded me of Cuban filmmaker Tomas Alea's black comedy "Death of a bureaucrat" made so many years ago.I wonder how the Japanese reacted to the film.
Oriental-3 This film made me "laugh out loud" and also quite sad and introspective too. Equal amounts of both as the journey progressed, both of the audience with the characters, as well as the characters towards their planned accident. There were a few scenes which I wasn't sure came across to the western perspective on a cultural front (mainly the tin can episodes). But the rest was quite wonderful with good characterisation. Well worth seeing!