Synopsis

Noriko Shimabara is an ordinary 17 year old girl. Her family consists of her younger sister Yuka, father Tetsuzou, and mother Taeko. Noriko couldn't help but feel unsatisfied with her ordinary suburban town life. One day, she discovers an interesting website on the internet where teenage girls from all over Japan gather. There, Noriko for the first time in her life feels that she is being understood by others. Noriko runs away from home to seek a new home in Tokyo. Arriving in Tokyo, she meets Kumiko, who is the center figure behind the website. Along with Kumiko, Noriko becomes a member of a strange business called FAMILY CIRCLE, which offers a rental family service. At FAMILY CIRCLE, members are dispatched to people with no family members to create an instant pseudo-family. Noriko finds the true beauty of family while role playing in a pseudo-family, and through that pseudo-family, she begins understanding more about the relationship between herself and her family, as well as her relationship with herself. Following her sister, Yuka also runs to Tokyo. Their father Tetsuzou then begins searching for his two missing daughters. After long searches, he finds out that his daughters are members of FAMILY CIRCLE.

Official Review

One of the craziest J-horror films of all time is the classic ‘Suicide Club,’ which opens with 54 girls jumping in front of a moving train. The genre-bending pic was so bizarre and out there that I never thought they’d make a sequel… but apparently they did- as a prequel. But there’s one catch, Sion Sono’s film is not a horror film, but more of a family drama. It the dissection of fractured human psyche within a nearly 3-hour coming of age story. But what can I say? I dug it… …Read More