MovieChat Forums > Noriko no shokutaku (2006) Discussion > THE CIRCLE revealed!

THE CIRCLE revealed!

posted 14 years ago by amannino
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This is the introduction to a larger exploration of NORIKO'S DINNER TABLE and its themes...

Sion Sono’s NORIKO NO SHOKUTAKU (Noriko’s Dinner Table, 2005) by his admission, “fills in the emotional gaps” left by his previous cult-status film JISATSU SAKURU (Suicide Club or Suicide Circle, 2001). It’s a kind of soverign yet interwoven parallel timeframe narrative. With NORIKO, unlike the convolution and inconclusiveness of SUICIDE CLUB, Sono fashions a complete universe where emotional, situational, and metaphoric relationships chart themselves fully; where narrative, aesthetic, editing, incisive multi-perspective voice-over narration, commune to transmit Sono’s social criticisms with an unexpected sensitivity, saliency, and clarity. Despite its horrific depths, NORIKO is charged them with an inferable Buddhist/Taoist predilection while keeping its core ideologies modernly, if not universally, relevant.

NORIKO NO SHOKUTAKU concerns itself with the “seemingly happy” Shimabara family at the point where their veil of complacency has been worn thinnest. Around this time, the Shimabara’s only two daughters, NORIKO (the eldest) and YUKA (the youngest) separately run away from what they deem a dissatisfying, if not soul-crushing provincial home-life to seek new identities in Tokyo, to hold themselves to brand new standards, and to actualize themselves somehow. There are numerous dimensions to NORIKO NO SHOKUTAKU (making it quite difficult to discuss with any brevity or linearity), which ranges from a grounded-but-bizarre family drama, an aching multifarious coming-of-age portrait, a physically and psychologically visceral dissertation on the degenerating nuclear family, to the bearer of a philosophical dilemma comparable to that of Antonioni’s protagonist in THE PASSENGER in its dissection of a character denying them self their own identity with tragic results. Thusly, in NORIKO NO SHOKUTAKU, the core dilemma probes into the realm of personal identity; the relativity of the standards on which it is based, the particular existential necessity of its assertion in the convolution of modern society, and how much power a person has in its construction/ expression. Sono pilots this investigation with the recurrent open-ended and sparely confrontational inquiry, “Are you connected to yourself?” a question perpetuated by the mysterious networking website haikyo.com, which Noriko, the eldest Shimabara daughter, stumbles upon in her fervent quest to get her school to allow for extended computer usage hours. Though not translated in subtitle, it is thematically important to know that the word haikyo in fact means ruins.

If you want to discover all my thoughts on this phenomenal film, find the rest at...
http://proofsoflove.blogspot.com/2010/02/norikos-dinner-table-sion-sono-2005.html

"I'd hate to take a bite out of you. You're a cookie full of arsenic."

[–] hexedd 11 years ago

When I first saw the size of your article, I must admit I almost clicked away due to its sheer size. But after reading the first few paragraphs I was hooked and read it in its entirety. I must commend you. Your article is excellent, well-researched, and gives an incredibly in-depth and incisive look at the film from both a technical and artistic (if the two can be separated) standpoint. Thank you very much for providing this. I am a Sono fan but was quite tired when I watched this film (a mistake and injustice to his work which I will not commit again), and your article helped me both to link it to Suicide Club and also to examine it within its own confines. Your discussion of Buddhist philosophical thought was particularly interesting and well-stated. Again, thank you so much for the excellent review. Your analysis is, for lack of a better word (and I mean this in a complimentary way), intimidating. Great work.