After watching Suicide Club, I have decided to watch its spin-off film directed by the same director, Sion Sono. Unlike the "action-filled" Suicide Club, Noriko's Dinner Table was a lot different as the only thing that two films had in common was that Noriko's Dinner Table was looselybased on the mass suicide event in Suicide Club.The films' main protangist, Noriko was a normal high school girl who was living a normal life in Toyokawa, Japan. She found her life boring and meaningless in the countryside of Japan. She did not have a boyfriend and she had an authoritian father that tried to tell lecture her in a way that she did not like. She seemed to live in a life that forced herself to be a happy normal girl but she was more adventurous than that. Her boredom with her life led her to make internet friends through the computers in school. She eventually ran away from home to Tokyo, hoping to persue a happy life.
I would not like to spoil the rest of the plot as it was unpredictable and I would certainly like you to enjoy the film yourself. Noriko's Dinner Table went more depth than Suicide Club as it talked about the lack of communications between family members, lonely teenagers, and lonely elders that could spend much time with their family. The film was very emotional as both daughters showed different attitude toward their father when they reunioned. The ending was not told explicitly and was left for the audience to speculate.
The film was a good example to show the hidden bomb behind a seemingly-happy family. Tetsuzo was a responsible and protective father on the surface. He loved his family so much that he moved into a peaceful place in Toyokawa. The film showed its sacarsm when Tetsuzo neglected his daughters' feeling and eventually cause them to runaway from home. The peaceful place of Toyokawa was the boring place that caused his daughters to runaway. This problems in the film are realistic to the problems in Japan. Japanese men usually work for long hours and are only able to spent little time toward their family. As a result many Japanese teens are emotionally distant with their father. I would definite this film to those who are interested in psychological films and films that reflect family problems. 7.5/10
