Strange Circus
by Sion Sono
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DVD details
Actor: Fujiko, Issei Ishida, Mai Takahashi (II), Masumi Miyazaki, Rie KuwanaDirector: Sion Sono
Brand: TLA Releasing
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Japanese (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Anamorphic, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 109 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-03-06
Audience Rating: Unrated
Model: TLAD172
Studio: TLA Releasing
Product features:
- Suicide Club's maverick cult director Sion Sono returns with a disturbing, visually electrifying shocker about a sexually abused young woman and her hallucinatory reality. This surreal shockfest just gets more disturbing as it progresses. even before the amputations, bondage imprisonment, and secret transsexuality! Teenage Mitsuko is forced to watch her parents' lovemaking through the peep
DVD Reviews of Strange Circus
DVD Review: Strange indeed.
Summary: 5 Stars
I should have written a review for this movie long ago. It's an amazing film that deserves a well rounded critique from someone who is a huge fan of Sion Sono's work. For those of you who are unfamiliar with his movies, he's made the notorious SUICIDE CLUB (aka SUICIDE CIRCLE) and it's equally dark follow up, NORIKO'S DINNER TABLE. Both films I consider to be my favorites in terms of the Japanese Horror scene, something that I think only Takashi Miike (ICHI THE KILLER) and Shinya Tsukamoto (TETSUO : THE IRON MAN) could ever top.
Recently I showed the movie STRANGE CIRCUS to a group of my friends and the end result was mixed opinions. Some people were disturbed by it's graphic scenes of sexual depravity and bloody revenge towards the end of the film. Other people just seemed bored by it's slow pace and confusing execution. My one friend even claimed during the movie that they didn't need to watch a film like this, because the real world is already full of this kind of sadistic depravity. In the end, only three of my other friends seemed genuinely moved by STRANGE CIRCUS and actually liked it. I guess you could say that this movie isn't for everyone.
The films basic premise is about this young girl named Mitsuko, who is sexually raped and abused by her Father, who also happens to be the principal of her school. At home, her Father forces her into a large violin case (or maybe it's a cello case) and cuts a small hole in it for her to look out and breathe. He places this case in the corner of his bedroom and makes his daughter watch him have sex with her mother. Eventually Mitsuko's mom finds out what her husband has been doing, but it doesn't matter because he's a psychotic tyrant who does what he wants. After he show's his wife that Mitsuko has been forced into the instrument case the whole time they were having sex (this seems to go on for weeks, maybe even months) he then forces his wife into the violin case, so that she can watch Mitsuko being raped by her Father.
These trade off's (mother and daughter in the case) go on for an undistinguished amount of time, furthering Mitsuko's obvious mental break down. These scenes are interspliced through the movie in a dream like state, showing scenes of a grotesque circus and the loud creaking of a ferris wheel. These seem to symbolize Mitsuko's dwindling sanity, emphasized by the creaking of the ferris wheel. Meanwhile, her Mother has turned into an abusive monster herself. She feels that her husband is more attracted to their young daughter and takes it out on Mitsuko, beating her and sometimes almost killing her.
Eventually the movie slips into it's own delirium, bluring the lines of fantasy and reality that sometimes make things hard to understand for the viewer. Some scenes have Mitsuko acting as the mother role and vice versa, making you question if the mother or daughter even existed as two separate people to begin with. This could be the "kiss of the death" for some people who watch this movie, considering it's all very complicated and sometimes hard to follow. Yet, by the end of the film, things do start to make sense and eventually all the pieces start to fit. I like to call these type of movies "slow burners" because nothing is ever rushed. STRANGE CIRCUS is a demented little film that takes it's time and has an amazing pay off.
Gore Hounds, there really isn't anything here for you in terms of blood shed. Some of the scenes towards the end of the movie deal with dismemberment but it's nowhere near the blood bath that is SUICIDE CLUB. Even without all the blood and guts, this movie is amazing from start to finish. STRANGE CIRCUS is disturbing, shocking, disgusting, beautiful, ugly and unforgiving. I feel it's on the same level as SUICIDE CLUB and sometimes I have a hard time picking out which one I like best.
If you're looking for an interesting film that holds your attention from the very beginning, give STRANGE CIRCUS a try. It's a heck of a lot better than most of the garbage that fills our movie theaters these days. Yet, it's not one of those cocky "Indie" films that take themselves too seriously either. STRANGE CIRCUS is just a dark and morbid movie that doesn't try to hide it's true intentions. Which are to disturb and revolt the viewer.
Five stars without a doubt!
Over and out!
Description of Strange Circus
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