(2005)
Overall: MEH
For the sequel follow-up to his exceptionally disturbed debut Suicide Club, filmmaker Sion Sono went a rather unorthodox route that recalls very little of the bizarre tone previous established. Noriko's Dinner Table, (Noriko no Shokutaku), takes place before, during, and after the events of Suicide Club and alludes to equally mysterious, clandestine cult activities that are shown from a different angle that only makes them more impenetrable to comprehend. The focus here is on the title character who along with her sister, eventually run away from home, join a family rental service organization, and persistently struggle with their identity while crafting a new form of life for themselves after becoming disenchanted with their simplified family upbringing. What exactly Sono is trying to say about generation gaps between Japan's youth and their parents is never made remotely clear and at nearly three hours in length, it is asking quite a lot to be led in so many strange directions with no semblance of a payoff. Certainly challenging by nature, it is rather a pretentious, psychological character study that could benefit from a more streamlined approach to make its serious subject matter gain the proper footing that it desperately needs.
(2005)
Overall: MEH
Sion Sono's next work in the horror genre outside of his two Suicide Club installments was the deliberately demented Strange Circus, (Kimyō na sākasu), a psychological thriller basking in its tabboo subject matter. The twisty plotting may not be as shocking as intended since the framework recalls many a story where an author's written work blurs the lines between reality and fiction. By the time the inevitable rug-pull is revealed, the audience may have put the pieces together much sooner which is probably why Sono goes for more of a viscerally appalling finish to jolt the viewer into having a jaw-dropping reaction all the same. The material itself which deals with incestual rape is anything but tasteful, yet the most nasty moments are dealt with in an arthouse manner where classical music, flashy editing, and surreal visuals create a symbolic atmosphere to make it at least watchable if not still boundary pushing in its disturbingness. Both Masumi Miyazaki, (fresh out of a decade long retirement), and a sexual ambiguous Issei Ishida deliver impressively outlandish performances, with Hiroshi Ohguchi making a slitheringly vile villain for those that can stomach his character's atrocities. Too campy to be outright torture porn, (mercifully), it is still not for the faint of heart in any capacity, but fans of over-the-top, midnight movie madness may champion it for its grandiose style and willingness to challenge people's tolerance for unpleasantness.
(2007)
Overall: GOOD
Though once again dealing with abused children as his previous entry Strange Circus more prominently did, Sion Sono's follow-up Exte, (Ekusute, Exte: Hair Extensions), has such a ridiculous premise that it can only be played for laughs, at least in a significant fashion. Here, human hair itself becomes a badly CGIed vengeance monster after the jet-black mane of a woman who was tortured and killed by organ traffickers supernaturally animates to devour, (from the inside out), those that are unfortunate enough to cross its path. Considering that one of the common motifs in J-horror is ghosts with long hair hanging down in front of their twitchy, bowed heads, this can be seen as a spoof in some respects that exaggerates such a trope to unforeseen territory. Sono still has an agenda to make his audience uncomfortable, whether it is from numerous, close-up moments of hair pouring out of peoples mouths, eyeballs, and fingernails or just plain ole horrible people being incredibly horrible to kids, but his trademark, midnight movie bizarreness is more dominant and quite fun in such a setting. The fact that this is also genuinely surprising and even occasionally creepy in a few instances is an appreciated plus as well.
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