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Review

It’s best to clarify this right away: yes, Japanese director Sion Sono’s new film Noriko’s Dinner Table is indeed his long-rumored “sequel” to his cult favorite Suicide Club, but the two films couldn’t be more different in approach. Those expecting another surreal bloodbath should know that the filmmaker has opted to craft an intimate family drama instead –- and a film which, rather than following up on the action of the earlier film, takes place concurrently. Neither sequel nor prequel, but rather a parallel-time-frame equal, with a focus on the damaged family relationships that allowed the generation-gap apocalypse of the original film to occur. Noriko is the unhappy teenage daughter of journalist father Tetsuzo. Alienated from her family, Noriko finds her connection to the world through Internet activity, and she eventually runs away to Tokyo to join online friend Kumiko. Tetsuzo fears for his daughter’s safety and attempts to locate her –- particularly when he suspects that she may have been involved in the mass suicide of 54 schoolgirls in a subway station (an event –- directly reprised from Suicide Club — that Noriko witnessed). But Noriko has joined “Family Club” instead -– an organization that rents surrogate children out to parents who have lost their offspring. A family reunion is inevitable…and painful. Sono has stated that he wished to fill in the emotional gaps that would allow an audience to fully comprehend how the events of Suicide Club could have transpired –- and here, he has done so masterfully and movingly. (Japanese with English subtitles)

 -- Travis Crawford