Noriko's Dinner Table (5 Stars)

In the beginning everything was dark. Then the door of Locker #54 at Ueno Station was opened. Amaterasu emerged from her hiding place, and there was light. When the police held the baby in their arms they didn't realise who she was, so they called her Kumiko. But she knew. She knew.

This film is sometimes called a sequel to "Suicide Club", sometimes a prequel, but neither description is correct. It takes place at the same time as "Suicide Club" and tells the story from a different perspective.

Noriko and Yuka live with their father in the small town of Toyokama by the sea. Their father, Tetsuzo Shimabara, is a reporter for a local newspaper and has no time for them. Noriko, aged 17, is shy and has no friends. She spends her time chatting with strangers in an Internet chatroom. She finds she can confide in a girl called Ueno Station 54, so she runs away from home and goes to Tokio to be with her. A year later Yuka discovers the chatroom and also runs away to Tokio.

At this time the mass suicides in Tokio begin. Noriko and Yuka's parents suspect they might be dead. The mother kills herself, so Tetsuzo quits his job and goes to Tokio to search for his daughters. He can't find them because they have changed their names. He meets Ueno Station 54, whose real name is Kumiko, and discovers that she's the head of an organisation that rents families to lonely people. In typical Sion Sono style the situation escalates into scenes of madness and slaughter.