Jisatsu Saakuru

Are you tied to you? Like between you and me, victim and assailant... you and your boyfriend. Can you relate to yourself? Are you connected to yourself? Are you sought by yourself? When the rain dries, clouds form.

Jisatsu Saakuru, (suicide Circle), a Japanese "horror" film by Sion Sono, is a puzzle. It opens with a scene of 54 cheerful teenage girls throwing themselves in front of a train. With ridiculously controversial material, many people think the film is just a sick attempt to get as much gore out of a movie as possible. Americans in particular have criticized the gruesome scenes (yes, it involves rape, killing animals, and suicide; three of the most taboo ideas today) and seen them as Sono's disgusting attempt to push lines as far as possible. However, I think that we as a people are getting too shallow to see the meaning underneath.

While the film, in all its racy glory, does contain gore (the main plot is that detectives are trying to understand why so many people have been committing suicide, what do you expect?), the movie's whole point is to make you question yourself, are you really connected to yourself?

However, to understand whether or not you are connected to yourself, you must first understand what it is to be connected and then how can you make yourself connected. It's a mind blowing concept, but Sono never reveals what the answers to these questions are, rather, leaving each viewer to try and figure out whether or not they are connected. Very appropriate, but infuriating at the same time. After pondering for months, I still can't fathom what it means.

What is connectedness?? Maybe it's when you are sincerely not ashamed of yourself; when you can fully accept who you are and not let what anyone else thinks about who you are matter in the slightest.

Maybe it's simply when you can say, "yes, I am connected to myself," without any hesitation, with no doubt in your mind.

Perhaps you are connected when you choose to live because it makes YOU happy, because you give yourself a reason to live, as opposed to living just because somebody else in the world needs you.

Even though I have musings, I think when I find it, I'll have no doubt that I've found it.

If you have any ideas, any ideas at all, even if you haven't seen the movie, please comment (, even though no one reads my blog haha.).

Can you ever be connected to yourself?

Sore de wa minasan, sayonara