Is it wrong to laugh?


Now don't get me wrong. I didn't find this movie to be some sort of Airplane!-style knee-slapper, but just like "Suicide Club," there were certain scenes that I just couldn't help but laugh. Is this all part of Sion Sono's style? I've only seen two of his films, and on one hand I thought they were completely disturbing, but I also found them simutaneously hilarous as well. When a film goes that over the top, it's nightmarish, but the grotesque absurdity of it can be pretty funny. Is it just me, or is it deliberate? Please someone say its deliberate, I feel bad about getting dirty looks from people in the theatre. Especially this one, at the Philly Film Festival, people were walking out while I was biting my lower lip and turning red. I'm not saying this in some sort of stupid teenage "Oh I'm so demented, look at me laugh at serious things" sense, I would just like to know if anyone else finds this and "Suicide Club" to have very humorous aspects to them. Please someone say its not just me...

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I haven't seen this movie yet but I know exactly what you mean...I still laugh at parts of "Suicide Club" and I've owned it for over a year and a half now. In fact, when I first watched "Suicide Club"...and for a long time after...I was completely convinced it was a dark comedy and there was no telling me otherwise. Actually, I considered it the best dark comedy I have ever seen because it managed to be much more dark than any other movie I'd seen and still remain funny at the same time (to me). Genesis' song, the woman happily cutting off her fingers with that cheery song playing, and the massive spray of blood when the students jump off the school...hilarious I think. Don't worry...you're not alone in finding Sono's films funny.

It’s ironic that in this age of “tolerance” we are the most afraid of offending people.

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Hai!

















Because dead...


Because dead...


BECAUSE DEAD GET TO SHINE ALL NIGHT LONG..!!!

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Haven't seen this one yet but Suicide Club also made me laugh. While disturbing it used some awesome (extremely) black humor to address serious matters.

Did you ever notice that people who believe in creationism look realy un-evolved? - Bill Hicks

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I think Suicide Club was intended to partially be a parody and it was so over the top that the director would have to be totally bonkers if he intended it all to be taken 100% seriously. I laugh at extreme moments in various films (especially Asian cinema) and a lot of times I think the director's intentions are to make you laugh and vomit simultaneously (Miike's a great example), which is never a bad thing. Suicide Club was a bit pretentious at times and it never fully got to its point, but its still one of my favorite new-wave Asian flicks. I've had Strange Circus for a while now and I'll probably watch it tonight.

And Desert owns your soul.

Anybody know about the gay porn that Sono directed?

Pete Wentz, you're such a failure. You couldn't even succeed at taking your own life.

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Suicide Club's sequel is out on DVD in Japan (with english subs). It's called Noriko's Dinner Table and focusses on The Bat as she comes to Tokyo before the events of the first movie, then what happens during the events and eventually what happens afterwards. (from what I understand atleast)
I hope to get the DVD sometime this month.

Anyway Suicide Club is over the top yes. But that humor is a good way to address a serious topic like suicide. It will reach many more people than 'boring facts'.

Did you ever notice that people who believe in creationism look realy un-evolved? - Bill Hicks

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In the 'making of' video on the dvd (about an hour long), Sono says that his object is Fellini-esque -- to capture the "cinematic beauty" in the grotesque. I think absurdity is a natural byproduct of the marriage between the beautiful and the grotesque (in this film and in Fellini's late works), and laughter is a symptom of our discomfort with the absurd.

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I think Sion Sono has a VERY dark sense of humor. Like, just take the famous opening to Suicide Club. He sarcastically put that accordion song in it to have SOME humor.

As for Strange Circus, I laughed at the abrupt cut (no pun intended) to scissoring.

He does it on purpose. So it's disturbing, but not to the point where it's REALLY disturbing.

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Mmm Exactly what scenes made you laugh? Just curious. I dont recall laughin when I watched Strange Circus, but I did find some scenes amusing.

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Well, with the exception of the scenes that were supposed to be funny, like the woman's sudden burst from the wheelchair, there were other scenes that had me laughing, not in a sense of "oh that's so funny," but more of a "What the hell is going on?!" kind of way. The scene when the father's orgy is interrupted by the self-mutilation of imaginary Mitsuko or when the girl EATS the lost earring, I just started laughing. Don't get me wrong, I don't find anything funny about abuse or molestation or anything like that, but when a movie goes that absolutely over-the-top KER-AY-ZEE, laughter is a natural reaction (at least I think so, but then again I'm not 100% sure on that, which is why I started this topic). Kind of like in Suicide Club, or Ichi the Killer or the Overfiend movies, its just so INSANE, you have to laugh, it's all part of the "freak out" reaction the director's going for. But again, not 100% sure on that.

"But, hey, that's me, I could be wrong."

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Everyone reacts in their own way, some people laugh when they are nervious others seems to find humour everywhere, nothing wrong with that.
I didnt laugh at any of the scenes you mentioned but that doesnt mean you are crazy. I found the older Mitsiko, the way he/she moved, talked, etc amusing.
The same with Genesis in Suicide Club.

--------------------------
Been there, done that!

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I guess I should only get worried when this kind of stuff doesn't provoke a reaction from me at all. To be so jaded and desensitized that it doesn't even affect a person is more troubling than any sort of laughter.

"But, hey, that's me, I could be wrong."

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I just remembered laughing at a scene that wasnt supposed to be funny. I recall laughin alone. It was in Signs, when Mel Gibson is crying and eating and taking food from his brother's and children's plates. Sometimes I remember it and still smile.







Been there, done that!

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I had that problem all throughout Michael Clayton recently. I thought Tom Wilkinson's rants were friggin' hilarious. I don't know if they were meant to be as funny as I found them, or even funny at all, but I was cracking up, and I mean, LOUDLY. I hope I didn't disrupt anyone's moviegoing experience, it was in one of those rare theaters where people DON'T constantly talk or mess around on their cellphones.
And I don't know what it is, but for some reason, a person crying and eating simultaneously is just funny. If memory serves correctly (which it sometimes doesn't), I think there was a website that was around a while ago that consisted of clips of nothing but that. People eating spaghetti, chicken, ice cream, you name it... and crying their eyes out (or at least pretending to) while they ate. Odd, but hilarious none-the-less.

"But, hey, that's me, I could be wrong."

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OMG I want to find that website...do you remember the address?










Been there, done that!

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I didn't find parts of suicide club or Strange circus funny. To me the whole smiling while being headed or happy pop music isnt made to make people laugh but more of a "Why's she so happy that she's dying", kind of thing.
It's odd how when ever someones dying in strange circus or suicide club they're always somewhat happy, but again all this is just my opinion.

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Yep it's his style, and I laughed at some of it too. People expecting coherence and "normality" may sadly not be able to enjoy this films. Here's what he says about it in an interview with Offscreen.com:

Offscreen: Again I think the film is very sophisticated in this way, but there are parts of the film that are comic and parts that are serious. I thought the first part of the story up until the part where the girl is to be guillotined, because she wants to die, was very serious. And if it had been funny, it might have been a problem but other parts of the film were funny and it was OK. Did you know which sequences you wanted as comic and which as serious? Was it difficult to switch from comic to serious?

Sion Sono: I think film has the power to make audiences realize that if you are alive you will have painful experiences, and you’ll get hurt. Showing the audience that you can laugh about it helps audiences laugh at their own pain or sorrow as well. I don’t want a film to go too deeply into terrible experiences or a person’s sorrow, but a shifting and balancing between them.

Read the whole interview here (it doesn't provide much insight as to what Strange Circus is about, but it's quite interesting nonetheless): http://www.offscreen.com/biblio/phile/essays/sion_sono/

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It depends which parts you laughed at. There are some scenes in movies that are serious/horror that are funny.

Which parts were they?

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I can't say I recall laughing out loud, but In retrospect there were some genuinely humorous scenes. (There were probably more few horrific ones that I snickered at, specifically when Yûji was beating his dismembered father on the bed.)

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I only saw this movie recently in a Horror Festival in Lisbon, but I can certainly say I had a smile on my face for a good part of the duration.
It is brilliantly twisted in black humour in several parts, which only made that much disturbing when I noticed the smile being out of order in moments of pure suffering for the characters.
It's all part of the game, the calm pleasure of twisted humour just before it shows you are (partly) just as delighted in pain as anyone else.

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