The most obscure pick yet: 2001 cryptic Japanese horror Suicide Club! Joining me for this conversation is Cassiah Joski-Jethi, a writer-director whose previous credits include Catch a Butcher, a BFI Network funded horror. Cassiah's analysis is super interesting and makes this episode a must-listen.

If you have questions about the film, film in general, or anything indietrix-related, get in touch on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/Willwebbful
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Cassiah can also be heard on her podcast, One of Us Is A Filmmaker:
https://oneofusisafilmmaker.podbean.com/

indietrix film reviews is a movie review channel hosted by Will Webb with a wide view of cinema, taking in arthouse, indie and blockbuster movies with lots of analysis and discussion.

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Transcript:

00;00;02;02 - 00;00;24;10
Will
Hi. I'm Will Webb, and this is why you should watch. In today's episode we're talking about Sion Sono’s 2001 film, Suicide Club. As you might expect from the title, this is a very transgressive film with multiple content warnings around suicide, animal harm and sexual assault. So please be aware of that going into this conversation. In this subversive Japanese horror.

00;00;24;10 - 00;00;47;26
Will
A mass teen suicide sparks a spate of copycat incidents as police and the audience work to untangle the possible motives behind these disparate events. Joining me for this conversation is Cassiah Joksi-Jethi, a writer director whose previous film Catch a Butcher was funded by BFI Network and played at a load of BAFTA qualifying festivals. I can see how you do.

00;00;48;10 - 00;00;50;26
Cassiah
Hi Will, thanks for having me. I'm good. How are you?

00;00;51;09 - 00;00;59;19
Will
I'm really well. It's like I didn't mention in that intro that you always have your own podcast as well, which we should probably like. Let's plug it now and we can chat about it later as well.

00;00;59;24 - 00;01;21;00
Cassiah
Yes. So my podcast is called One of US as a filmmaker, and I actually do it with my brother. We get along like a house on fire and we essentially just chat nonsense about our favourite nostalgic films. So that's, you know, big franchises like Pirates of the Caribbean. But we're going to do episodes on like classics like George of The Jungle, and, you know, those films we watched when we were kids.

00;01;21;12 - 00;01;39;05
Will
George of The Jungle is like my go to when someone says, like, What's the film that really inspired you to be a filmmaker? And it's, I think, a bad answer because it sounds it is a bad film, I think, by and large, from an adult point of view. But I do have a distinct memory of it being the first time I realised that films didn't just like appear.

00;01;39;21 - 00;02;01;14
Will
They were made by people. There's like a talking chimpanzee character, right? Mm hmm. And I remember I was about six when it came out, and I was watching it, like, monkeys don't do that. So someone has taught that monkey to do that thing. And, yeah, it was a super, like, super formative moment. I mentioned it in my NFTS interview and that did not get in so that I really maybe a good thing to not mention.

00;02;01;26 - 00;02;22;14
Cassiah
I hate when people like I have two lists of favourite films, so I have my favourite films which are full of nostalgia that are fun and yes, objectively are probably not great films. And then I have myself more sophisticated group of favourite films, which Suicide Club? Probably falls under. I suppose that they're all valid, like even bad films.

00;02;22;14 - 00;02;32;23
Cassiah
If they get a kid who's five years old, I don't see it in the cinema. When I was five on my birthday. If it gets me into wanting to tell stories, you know, it's a valid film. You know, it's done its job, you know.

00;02;32;24 - 00;02;53;28
Will
I totally agree. And I also like my whole philosophy about film criticism insofar as I can call myself a critic, is that we ought not to talk about watching good films. We ought to talk about watching films. Well, regardless of their quality, like to think about them as attempts by people to tell a story or kind of like engage an audience, even if they suck.

00;02;54;12 - 00;03;17;05
Will
Like a lot of the stuff that I see does. I watched Ant-Man Quantumania the other day in the cinema, which was like just a completely sterile experience, really rough, but it was, you know, there was interesting failures in it, I would say. But it's just the attempt to do things. And there's some stuff I liked very little. But it was that you've chosen probably the most obscure film anyone's chosen for this.

00;03;17;17 - 00;03;39;21
Will
I'd certainly give you like a round of applause for that. This film is only available in the UK on DVD, where second hand copies at sea currently sell for about 28 quid, which is a extortionate price for DVD nowadays. And it's interesting. It's the first film from the director, see on Now, who is a very prolific Japanese director, made a number of very transgressive films.

00;03;39;21 - 00;04;00;29
Will
I think some of them actually kind of cross into like softcore porn kind of territory. He has also recently been accused of sexual misconduct, so we're probably not going to have any further films from him and not for a while. And it's interesting to go into that movie, this movie, kind of knowing that I will put a content warning on this podcast because there is a lot of stuff in this that is very transgressive.

00;04;01;12 - 00;04;15;14
Will
Even, you know, 22 years after it originally came out right from the opening, which I think is like saying that really bears a strong discussion. But what I wanted to start off with is just asking you how it came to be the case that you saw Suicide Club.

00;04;16;19 - 00;04;36;16
Cassiah
So I was staying at my sister's flat in London and back in this must have been 2014 or 2015. And she has an extensive cinema collection. If you went to both our houses, she looks much more than like a filmmaker than I do in terms of the stuff that she has. She has very upscale films, very international films.

00;04;36;26 - 00;05;03;28
Cassiah
And I was just I just that's how I just want to watch something different, you know, pick a film for me and the things you recommended, Suicide Club. And I was like, All right, so I know. And I watched it, and it was one of those films that just stuck with me. And I can't say I don't think again, like you were talking about whether it was a good film or not, I don't think I could quite quantify this film in that way.

00;05;03;28 - 00;05;14;16
Cassiah
It's almost too simplistic and I don't know if it's a good film. That's my honest answer, but it's a film that will stick with you and has a lot to unpack.

00;05;14;21 - 00;05;32;21
Will
I feel like sometimes those the worst films, especially talking from a filmmaking point of view, I often find that the films that really influence me are not films I particularly love. Like I eat the Gaspar Noé film and To The Void is a film that I talk about constantly, kind of like in the context of my work. But actually the film itself, I don't really like it.

00;05;33;04 - 00;05;53;20
Will
I mean, there's plenty of stuff that's interesting in it and I think this is absolutely like the opening I think is like fascinating and it is extremely attention grabbing is probably the way I would describe the whole film, but it starts off with introducing this mass suicide incident where 54 schoolgirls kind of all go and stand on a busy train platform...