Suicide Club

Suicide Club opens with a shocking event: fifty-four schoolgirls join hands and throw themselves in front of a train at a Tokyo subway station. Detective Kuroda is assigned to the case, and what first looks like an isolated incident soon appears to be the start of a wave of suicides spreading across Japan. His investigation leads him toward a website that seems to predict the deaths before they happen, and toward a pop group called Desert, whose connection to the events remains unclear as the deaths continue.

The film is the second of nineteen features directed by Sion Sono, following The Room and preceding 0cm⁴, and he also wrote the screenplay. Masatoshi Nagase and Ryo Ishibashi lead the cast as Detective Shibusawa and Detective Kuroda, with Sayako Hagiwara, Mai Hosho, Tamao Sato and Takashi Nomura in supporting roles. It was produced by Toshiie Tomida, Seiya Kawamata and Junichi Tanaka for Omega Project, and runs 99 minutes.

Released in Japan in October 2001, the film mixes drama, horror and thriller elements. Its ratings sit at a middling level on both IMDb, where it holds 6.5 out of 10 from around 24,000 votes, and TMDB, where it also has 6.5 from roughly 590 votes. A critics' rating of 5.5 out of 10 from eight reviews places it close to the audience scores.