Strange Circus

Being as there is only 1 current review (as of November 2006), and a bad one at that, I feel compelled to write something. If you like to have a director mess with you, don't pass this one up. I'm not sure that this tops 2002's Suicide Circle (or Suicide Club) from Sono, but it's up there. I won't go into the plot here, but if you're into psychological thrillers or even more specifically the recent Asian stuff with those lovable twists like Takashi Miike's Audition or Chanwook Park's Oldboy (which I thought was overrated, though still good), this here's for you. Definitely not for those who would be offended by an underage actress involved in explicit scenes. What else? The cinematography in the first half is good too, as there are some nice shots during the horrific atmosphere of the story of Michuko. The 2nd half is all about the *unfolding* so to speak. I definitely need to watch it again.

Compared to the previous film, the production values here just scream out at you with its opulence from the opening scene , from its colourful sets and gaudy characters leaping out with a compère introducing some characters and acts in a strange circus indeed. Written and directed by Sion Sono, I have only had one experience with his Noriko's Dinner Table, and had primed myself for yet another tale of the bizarre, and one that touches on his pet subject, the erosion of identity and values in a traditional Japanese family.

This one though, had Sick written all over it, especially with the premise Sion had started off with. We are painted the picture of a perfect, rich household of three, before dad Gozo (Fumie Nakashima) starts to hatch an evil idea of hiding his daughter Mitsuko (Rie Kuwana / Mai Takahashi playing different age groups) in a specially designed cello case with a peephole, which he puts in the master bedroom in order for Mitsuko to learn the art of making love. Needless to say, throw in child sexual abuse, and a mother Sayuri (Masumi Miyazaki in a comeback role) who's just compelled to peep from the same case, and things are just not what they seem.

It gets even sicker through the complication of emotions and standing within the household, where Sayuri gets jealous with the attention that her child is getting from her husband, and a deadly tussle ensued, resulting in a guilt trip which Mitsuko, now assuming fully the role of a wife, starts to look at herself having the physical make up of a fully grown woman, taking the appearance of her mother. If you've made it to this point, that's great, since it's probably nothing more than a severely dysfunctional family being put on screen in an examination of taboo issues like incest.

Then Sion starts to turn things over our heads, with this seemingly one-track narrative being nothing more than the storyline of the paralyzed novelist Taeko (also played by Masumi Miyazaki), which makes one wonder if what we've seen thus far is but a figment of her imagination of yet another potential bestseller, or there's something more than meets the eye especially to her paralysis. Sion then begins to cut forwards and backwards a lot more, resulting in a tale that could go either way, depending on whether you're buying the story in the novel as a fantasy, or rooted in reality. The introduction of Taeko's androgynous assistant Yuji (Issei Ishida) also helped made this particular act stranger than usual, though you're likely to come off with a suspicion that he's got a lot more to do with Taeko than it seemed.

If you're comfortable enough with the inclusion on this act, then the last one that Sion throws at you, in an effort to gel this weird mother-daughter dynamics, will be the litmus test for each individual whether you like the film or not. To me, I thought it was fine, though confusion can arise because now all three arcs start to mash up against one another, and the lines between fantasy and reality will very much depend on which angle you prefer to adopt. I'd go for how sexual abuse will really warp a young, impressionable child's mind, and turn it into a long drawn out tale of mystery and revenge. Sion adds to the confusion through the use of perspectives, having different characters assume roles that we've seen before, and when you try to logically work things out, in comes the scenes of gore and torture for horror classification.

Don't be put off too early by Strange Circus, as there is enough material on hand to warrant multiple viewings just to test out the other hypotheses on who's actually who, and who actually did what. As mentioned, the production values are just great, though some scenes, or the thought of it since they happen off-screen, would make you nausea. Different layers being presented independently, then rolled together into one, makes Strange Circus quite a challenge to sit through, but with a satisfying payoff at the end.

This is a very fine and brave film but so extreme and at times confusing that it lost me at times. I see the film has won awards in Montreal and Berlin but I can safely say that it could not even be shown legally in the UK. Even apart from the extended sequences of implied and actual child sex abuse the degree of violence, especially when shown in a sexual context would have the jolly BBFC boys in somewhat of a lather. With all the effort put in by the director and leading actress, Masumi Miyazaki, who is sensational in her roles, it is a shame that the resulting film is not more coherent. Possibly it is because the material is so extreme that I tended to distance myself a little and thereby lose the plot a little, but only a second viewing will settle that one and I'm not up to that right now!

The movie is weird, insane, controversial, challenging and as the title itself says, strange.

I was preparing my brain to watch this because after reading the reviews, I knew I'm up for a good psychological thriller. And yes, to anyone who hasn't seen this yet, you should set your mind that you'll be watching a masterpiece. This will set your bars higher for psychological thriller movies. You need to focus and go beyond the erotic scenes if only to find out that this movie is well-crafted, well-thought, and well-directed one. This branch of movie-making(what they refer to as ero-gro) has kinda grown on me. Perfected by a montage of scenes and a puzzle of events integrated for a quest to bind the movie to a whole, make sure you don't miss a scene. The movie features a play of scene-shifting..luring and confusing the viewers which is a plus for those who have short attention span. From a sex scene you are then transported to a circus ride, cut to a girl who becomes her mother, to a picture of a lifeless naked woman, to a bunch of circus performers, and I could go on and on.

This movie is an extremist one. It will show the sex scenes leaving nothing to imagination, steeled by realistic moans and very accurate portrayal by the actors. If the story can't keep you up, the amount of sex will. It will also show extreme levels of no-holds-barred morbidity, goriness and insanity. It also depicts extreme levels of themes only a masterpiece could feature. Actually, I found the movie creepy. No there are no white ghosts or jump scares on this one, but creepy in a way that you would start questioning the sanity of the director. He's not human.

Gathering the viewers' attention through a sequence of events that could possibly be the worst thing that could happen to a family, the movie caters to viewers of every genre, of any age. What I actually find appalling is having a minor(the girl who played young Mitsuko) play the part of having to witness and digest such morbid scenes. Isn't that disturbing to begin with?

The premise of the film as a psycho-thriller is to bring out the inquisitive, theoretical selves of the watchers. You start questioning why did such scene happen? Why did such character say those lines? Which one was the dream? Which one was reality? What's the bigger picture? Who's who? Who's THE ultimate character? This movie is a challenge. And the ending steeled it. The movie possesses the basic protocols of good movie-making; that is, a good beginning to introduce the conflict and hold the viewers' attention, a climax which highlights the main conflict/s and leaving a handful of questions to our minds, and a surreal ending that will answer these questions(not to mention leave us dumbfounded). I can't even write a synopsis of the movie. Just thinking of writing it seems very exhaustive. I can't put into words the details of the movie. That's how complicated and well-developed the story is. Story-telling won't do.

The themes of the movie are also as disturbing as the scenes itself. Incest is the most noticeable theme of the movie. But the inclusion of other minimal themes (but still disturbing as they are) such as dismemberment, revenge, self-denial and what appears to be schizophrenic characters all add to the complexity of the movie. Hell even the soundtrack was creepily weird. What brought this movie to its high level though was the acting. Its like everything just fell into place. A deep story and stellar acting from the cast(especially Masumi Miyazaki who perfectly played 3 personas), this movie is undeniably a masterpiece. 10/10.

I knew absolutely nothing going into this flick. I was recommended this movie by a friend who has some unique tastes in movies. I tend to enjoy everything he likes, so I decided to blind buy this and give it a shot. What followed was a movie that's bizarre, extreme, and kind of confusing.

Strange Circus starts out as a story about a quiet young girl named Mitsuko. One day she hears some strange noise coming from her parents room. Curiosity gets the better of her and she witnesses them having sex. Her Dad catches her in the act and from that moment this movie gets really crazy. I'd rather not tell you what follows, but it's definitely not for the average movie-goer. At some points Strange Circus gets pretty confusing, you are led to question who's who and what's happening. By the end of the movie many things have risen to the surface, but there are still aspects to ponder about. Which is rare these days, there aren't many movies when the credits are almost done rolling and you're still sitting there thinking about what just happened. Personally I appreciate when movies do this. It's not frustratingly challenging, but it definitely will keep you up a little longer.

Strange Circus was extremely well acted, well directed (same director as Suicide Club) and well told. It's also sick, perverted and down right screwy. If you're into extreme movies, Japanese movies, challenging movies, or just looking for something different, give this baby a shot. 8.5 outta 10