2001. Tokyo is shaken by an inexplicable event: 54 schoolgirls simultaneously throw themselves under a subway train, holding hands. Inspector Kuroda and his team launch an investigation to determine the origin of the phenomenon, but each lead leads to new questions: enigmatic clues, anonymous phone calls, and a mysterious online platform that seems to record, or even anticipate, the events.
Before the screening, an introduction by Stefano Locati (IULM), via video link
"Suicide Club" was intended to be part of a trilogy about the alienation of Japanese society, the second of which was "Noriko's Dinner Table" in 2005, but the third installment was never made.
"The opening scene, with fifty-four schoolgirls throwing themselves under a subway train, holding hands and smiling, is one of the high points of Sion Sono's cinema, a devastating passage in his conceptual language. [...] In this case, however, there is no trace of pain or depression; "Suicide Club" is, in fact, the mirror of a Japanese society that races toward well-being and at the same time makes (human) sacrifices, concealing its terrible nature." (Paolo Chemnitz)
