road to hell is a 2008 action-fantasy film directed by albert pyun .

it was inspired by walter hill 's streets of fire and began shooting that same year in june at los angeles .

pyun states that the genesis of road to hell began when he and paré attended a film festival in spain .

road to hell ( film )

road to hell ( film ) <EOT> with the headline : film view ; today ' s yellow brick road leads straight to hell .

albert , thank you for the comment . i look forward to seeing road to hell .

you can always turn back or face the consequences of the road ahead . road to hell illustrates the effects of lung cancer .

there are no critic reviews yet for road to hell . keep checking rotten tomatoes for updates !

: 66 . 6 radio from purgatory , usa , highway 66 ; the road being described as the road between purgatory and hell . . .

road to hell is a fan sequel to streets of fire , directed by albert pyun and written by cynthia curnan .

here ' s the link to rent / stream road to hell . hope you like the film , my 50th film . and thank you for supporting not only road to hell but also , interstellar civil war . the rental price will count towards the blu - ray when it becomes available . - albert .

thanks again to albert pyun and cynthia curnan for talking to me about road to hell . the film is in post - production and the release date is still pending .

the in - film - documentary , " the last road to hell " , which features several executions , consists of authentic footage supposedly from nigeria and south east asia .

“we discussed the road to hell movie with paré in 2007 , in spain” at a film festival , says pyun’s longtime collaborator , cynthia curnan . “albert and michael had wanted to work together for a long time . ”

that said , road to hell is not what you’d expect . if you’re a hill fan , keep in mind that it’s an homage , not an official sequel . if you’re a pyun fan , you’ll love it no matter what . one viewing tip : if you never saw streets of fire , watch that first and you’ll appreciate road to hell even more . ( rent it . it’s $ 3 on amazon . ) for fans of both streets of fire and pyun , road to hell is totally worth the interminable wait .

suffice it to say that road to hell didn’t win pollygrind’s best effects award for nothing . much like streets of fire , many scenes have mesmerizing other - worldly backdrops . every color - saturated shot is carefully framed , almost like a postcard — a picture postcard from hell .

a group of talented young film makers attended a prestigious award ceremony at the bafta headquarters an ultimate accolade for a film they made about lung cancer awareness and smoking . the thrilled harrow youths created a short film called , road to hell , they were presented with their award on thursday , july 3 by harry potter director , david yates .

best of all , road to hell has a twist ending you’ll never expect . i foresee it winning a lot more awards . and fans . go see it . you’re welcome .

the yellow fever indie film festival is run by film makers , for film makers . the no . 1 independent film festival in northern ireland , created by george clarke ( of yellow fever productions ) in 2009 , the festival has went from strength to strength pulling in a host of amazing world wide film makers and industry names such as the prolific albert pyun ( cyborg , captain america , road to hell ) and mike leeder ( rogue one , rush hour 3 , man of tai chi ) .

among road to hell ’s other visual treats are the spectacular nevada desert , subbing for purgatory here with enhancements recalling a bad acid trip ( and cleverly referencing streets of fire ‘s original artwork ) .

but the new road movies are more ambivalent . they often have forced happy endings , which suggest a nostalgic longing for the road to oz even while the film ' s surface depicts a broken - down society . and their humor offsets the characters ' fear of a journey into the metaphorical darkness of the open road and of their own hearts .

content of this blog except where otherwise noted copyright ©2014 sydney schuster – all rights reserved . road to hell material copyright ©2014 albert pyun movies and curnan pictures ★ images used with permission streets of fire photo of michael paré and film poster art © rko universal pictures

it is easy to imagine ' ' somewhere over the rainbow ' ' as a heavily ironic comment on mad max ' s adventures , easy to see how far film makers have come from the road to oz .

while driving to the reading of her father’s will , a woman is faced with an anomaly on the side of the road .

but that’s pyun’s forté . shocking visual effects , coupled with edgy dialogue by curnan that makes you believe ordinary people can triumph in extraordinary circumstances . like streets of fire , road to hell is way , way ahead of its time .

hell or high water brutal scene . . hick beats the sh * t out of deathcore posers ! !

future learning and skills – giving everyone the opportunity to build a lifelong relationship with film .

hi michael , you sound like the perfect audience for road to hell . i made the film to be a study of an iconic character 28 years after we last saw him . i think it has a lot of truth and pain in it . i was always struck when i saw streets of fire a an early studio screening , how original and different it was . i wanted road to hell to be the same . not a rehash or recreation of sof but something totally original and as daring as sof was . hope you get to see it on the big screen ! albert pyun facebook / albert pyun movies

albert pyun ' s award winning film . the fantasy , thriller is centered on a mercenary soldier ( michael pare ' ) who is traveling home to find his sweetheart ellen ( anita leeman ) , believing she can save his soul . along the road , cody encounters two female strippers ( clare kramer ) who have turned spree killers . the road turns dark and into a literal road to hell . directed by albert pyun ( his 50th feature film spanning 4 decades of feature filmmaking ) . starring michael pare ' , clare kramer , deborah van valkenburgh , courtney peldon , roxy gunn , chris king , and joei fulco .

the film had its world premiere at the alamo drafthouse cinema in austin , texas in october 2008 . the chicago premiere of road to hell was at the patio theater on march 9 , 2013 . in november 2013 , additional shooting was done with singer joei fulco from abc ' s reality television show wife swap .

show begins at 7pm through midnight . patio theater , 6008 w . irving park road . 17 + event .

the tribe names in the film , yanomamo and shamatari , are actual native tribes in south america . neither tribe is accurately portrayed in the film .

hell valley , that is . that’s where we hook up with cody again , returning from his precious war with a bad case of post traumatic stress disorder . he still has too many weapons . hell , he is a weapon .

could turn out to be epic and oscar - worthy . some also say that making the film has been by far the worst experience of their careers — " a living hell , " as one bluntly puts it .

it is a dream that wrestles with reality and with other kinds of road movies . in some films the road remains a simple convenience , as in ' ' rainman , ' ' where it allows tom cruise and dustin hoffman to be isolated together ; the road and the landscape are mere backdrops . but in the australian trilogy ' ' mad max , ' ' ' ' the road warrior ' ' and ' ' mad max : beyond thunderdome , ' ' the road is a post - apocalyptic battleground for survival ; civilization has virtually crumbled ; cars have become weapons for futuristic gladiators , and gasoline is a commodity worth killing for . it is a cartoonish version of the journey to self and society , but one that is in tune with the new , subversive road movie .

road hell is a movie starring jaclyn marfuggi , jim hazelton , and john link . when a horrific accident forces a deeply dysfunctional couple to check into a decrepit motel , a lecherous and deranged desk clerk arranges for them to witness three unholy visions of the . . . see full summary »

albert pyun’s ode to walter hill’s streets on fire explores its hero’s dark journey through hell as he seeks the only thing that still matters to him : his only daughter .

claims of this being a snuff film are still rampant . even as recently as 1993 , authorities at a birmingham comic fair seized the film on this belief .

i need to see this movie i have been searching for it everywhere possible in the internet and apparently it ' s not available on dvd or anywhere for me to see . does anybody know when the road to hell will be out for the public to see i cannot wait to see this movie . i am a true friend i really love streets of fire movie .

just as it taps into a dying corner of american society , hell or high water resurrects the power of western mayhem done right .

road to hell is a movie starring michael paré , clare kramer , and courtney peldon . a soldier who has been fighting a long war is driven mad because he no longer believes in any purpose or righteous truth behind the killing . he comes home to a surreal world looking for his . . . see full summary »

with pyun directing , curnan writing and producing , and the preternaturally handsome paré in nearly every scene , they started shooting road to hell in 2008 . the result is more a tribute to streets of fire than a followup : not so much singing and dancing , way more violence and blood , all of it set against staggeringly beautiful scenery .

in fact , the ending of ' ' wild at heart ' ' may be the best expression of how deeply oz has shaped the contemporary road movie . without revealing the film ' s ending , it is possible to say that it is more upbeat than the one in mr . gifford ' s novel and that it involves glinda , who tells sailor , ' ' if you ' re truly wild at heart you ' ll fight for your dreams . ' ' the creators of today ' s road movies recognize that the road leads to the nightmarish wilds of society and of their characters ' own hearts . but in their films ' happy endings , they fight for the persistent hope that the road still leads to a place where dreams come true .

hell or high water isn ' t just a great time at the movies , it ' s one of the year ' s best pictures .

cynthia mentioned that it was the result of an argument that she and albert had had about the ending of streets of fire . albert had thought it was one of the most romantic endings of all time . cynthia thought it was deeply tragic and showed that tom cody was doomed . she wrote " road to hell " to show what she thought would have happened to him .

a violent story of romance on the run , ' ' wild at heart ' ' both idolizes and undermines the most beloved of all road movies and points to a new twist in the genre . though few do so as blatantly as mr . lynch , some of today ' s most astute and talented directors have also created road movies that subvert the classic route to oz . their films reflect contemporary struggles against crime , violence and unemployment , yet they are unwilling to surrender the dreams of freedom and happiness the road has traditionally represented .

albert pyun has been working steadily as a director since his 1982 debut , the sword and the sorcerer . he’s got over forty credits under his belt , and has worked with actors such as dennis hopper , charlie sheen , burt reynolds , natasha henstridge and teri hatcher . now he’s putting the finishing touches to road to hell , a homage to one of my favorite films , streets of fire ( see my reminiscence about streets here ) . he was kind enough to speak to me about the project , and his memories of the original film .

official teaser for road to hell , starring michael pare ' , clare kramer , courtney peldon , roxy gunn and deborah van valkenburgh . an ex - soldier of fortune looking for a long lost love run into a pair of beautiful spree killers . written by cynthia curnan , edited by daniel ray gutierrez , and directed by albert pyun .

much to the relief of everyone except springsteen , there’s finally an actual song called “streets of fire , ” written for the movie by musical director tony riparetti and sung the hell out of by fulco . the whole score is quite good . two jim steinman songs from streets of fire were dusted off and performed again , this time by gunn , and arguably better : “ nowhere fast ” and “ tonight is what it means to be young . ” gunn is a guitarist and vocalist who wrote and performed many of the film’s excellent tunes . vegas rocks ! magazine called road to hell “one of the best music - driven films of the year . ”

writer taylor sheridan pens another impressive story in hell or high water . led by solid performances by jeff bridges , chris pine & ben foster , the film is an intimate and striking tale that can hit home easily and keep the audience engaged . 4 / 5

shanil said : " it was incredible to be in the presence of many creative film makers and receive an award presented by david yates and jack whitehall . making a film with a serious message was challenging but the results were great . "

road to hell - chicago premiere of this follow up to walter hill ' s cult hit streets of fire , written and produced by cynthia curnan . michael paré stars in this stylized unofficial sequel , reprising his role as tom cody ! word is , this may be paré ' s best performance yet . besides , who hasn ' t been obsessed with him since eddie and the cruisers ?

brittany farrell ( with megaphone ) in “whose streets ? ” the film is due out aug . 11 .

want to be a partner in albert pyun’s latest feature film project ? donate to his gofundme for bad ass angels and demons . it’s easy , and every donation counts !

but the film’s biggest attraction is the thrilling action shots of the seven - ton bedford lorries racing through the buckinghamshire countryside , screeching round the corners and running family cars off the roads . the bfi’s newly remastered presentation allows audiences to once again savour the macho exploits of the hell drivers on the big screen .

catastrophic loss of picture due to a defective hi - def camera . the flagship camera created a ghost that corrupted virtually every frame of the film . it continues to be challenging to correct every single shot .

the film features original music by tony riparetti and the roxy gunn project , with roxy playing the role of ellen ; michael pare and deborah van valkenburgh reprise their roles from the original film as cody and his sister reva .

the cody in road to hell is disillusioned and surly , seeking some type of redemption while questioning whether he even deserves it . he’s so discombobulated , he even toys with the idea of badgirl caitlin as a viable alternative to ellen , i guess in case his childhood sweetheart who’s probably an altacocker now doesn’t work out . caitlin’s hot . she’s there . she gives mre new meaning . so what if she’s depraved ?

hell drivers anticipated the social realism that was to dominate british films over the next few years but endfield is not interested in analysing the psychology of the working - class man . the film is a study in male pack behaviour , portrayed as a petulant childishness that spills over into violence and pranks that escalate into lethal acts .

hell or high water is one of the great modern westerns , joining unforgiven , no country for old men , true grit , 3 : 10 to yuma , and the revenant on that list of the genre ' s finest iterations in the past 25 years . i urge you to see it - - travel if you must , in order to find a theater screening the film ; or tell your local theaters to screen the film . because it deserves to be seen , it needs to be seen by audiences who rarely have a chance to experience this sort of filmmaking during summer months dominated by blockbusters that take up all of the space at multiplexes . i love blockbusters and summer popcorn entertainment as much as anyone , but my soul needs to be fed more than that , and hell or high water is just the sort of substantive food for the soul we all need to experience .

ascent experience mount fuji — through a selection of 4 , 000 photographs snapped over 150 years . the dutch artist fiona tan has built this experimental film out of those stills . screenings at film forum in new york will be free .

a brilliant cast of british actors , including a young sean connery , star in the newly restored hell drivers , a tough and thrilling trucking movie shot on the b roads of buckinghamshire .

films like ' ' the wizard of oz ' ' ( 1939 ) and preston sturges ' s ' ' sullivan ' s travels ' ' ( 1941 ) defined the standard pattern for road movies : whether the hero was a scarecrow or a rich film director bumming cross - country during the depression , characters traveled through danger and disillusionment to healthy self - knowledge and back to the safety of home . they followed an optimistic course as old as the american west and as deeply entrenched in our culture as whitman ' s ' ' song of the open road . ' '

a small segment of music from non si sevizia un paperino ( 1972 ) was reused by riz ortolani in this film .

the road to hell is paved with good intentions… and the road to the oscars is paved with precursor awards ceremonies like this weekend ' s 2017 sag awards . these precursors — also including the golden globes , the baftas , and the various other guilds like the pga and dga — ultimately have but a tangential effect on the oscar winners , since those honorees will be decided only by members of the academy of motion picture arts and science . but they are also invaluable in terms of publicity , momentum , and prestige ; and so they occasionally have the ability to change the entire landscape of the awards season in one night . so how did the sag awards affect the 2017 oscar race ?

the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans . it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .

camera obscura suffering from post - traumatic stress disorder , a war photographer begins to see real premonitions of deaths in his pictures . it’s a horror film , naturally .

hell drivers was shot in the vistavision format , as was marlon brando’s one - eyed jacks ( also showing in this year’s lff ) . indeed , brando’s film was the last to be shot in vistavision before the format was used for special effect backgrounds . this method had been devised by paramount studios in order to create widescreen images in much higher quality than contemporary alternative systems , primarily the anamorphic cinemascope .

removal of dirt and scratches is probably the best - known aspect of film remastering . certainly , plenty of those have been removed from the new master of hell drivers , along with a reduction in the flicker caused by the printer’s lamp . in all cases , we’ve chosen to leave the texture of the original negative as it was produced . it’s for that reason , that we reluctantly recognised this fly as having been squashed in the printer between film negative and fine grain positive under pressure of a roller .

streets of fire fans will delight in the strategic reuse of signature lines throughout road to hell . there are slick cross references , too : a flat tire that changes everything ; ott bondage ; ellen suffers idiotic fan questions about her creative process . her band sports the same name as torchie’s band , the blasters . cody coldcocks chicks . he even mentions his “dark side , ” a sly wink at another paré cult musical , eddie and the cruisers .

churchill brian cox may sound like a more natural fit for winston churchill than john lithgow did in “the crown , ” but can you picture john slattery ( roger sterling from “mad men” ) as dwight d . eisenhower ? both mr . cox and mr . slattery , plus miranda richardson as clementine churchill , play the famous figures in a film about the road to d - day .

how did you get the inspiration for road to hell ? i watched many anti - smoking adverts online from around the world including uk , thailand , and australia . i researched many articles online and discovered new and interesting facts and figures . i found out most people start smoking under the age of 18 ! i was overwhelmed with information and decided to take a break and go to the park . i was sitting on a bench in the park observing what was going on around me . i saw a lady walking her dog approaching me . the dog stopped and licked a cigarette butt on the ground . i wondered to myself , how disgusting would it be if a human being licked the road ? and why would you do that ? it was the perfect metaphor for the advert .

and the rest of america seems just as cramped . when willie and his friend eddie - both small - time gamblers in slouchy hats - drive to visit eva , the road to cleveland evokes a slushy industrial landscape that seems especially stark in the film ' s black - and - white photography . finally eddie realizes , ' ' it ' s funny . you come someplace new and everything looks just the same . ' '

lucky lucky , played by the film’s writer and director , bari king , is an undocumented immigrant who gets enmeshed in a crime web and has to fight his way out .

wind river taylor sheridan , the screenwriter of “sicario” and “hell or high water , ” directs this murder mystery set on a remote , mountainous reservation in wyoming . jeremy renner is a game tracker who teams up with an ill - prepared ( yet consistently underestimated ) f . b . i . agent ( elizabeth olsen , in her second film of the week ) to find out whodunit .

back in the icy january of 1957 , the b roads between hillingdon and slough witnessed some hair - raising scenes of road rage as hgv drivers terrorised locals in their race to deliver truckloads of ballast . this rather un - british behaviour ( at least for that more genteel decade ) was staged for the filming of hell drivers , the tale of ex - con tom yately who tries to go straight but gets sucked into a world of corruption and violence when he takes a job at a haulage company .

the film caused some scandal in italy at the time of its release . ten days after premiering in milan , the film was seized by the courts , and the director , ruggero deodato , was arrested and charged with obscenity . he was later charged with murder and faced life in prison on the belief that several of the actors were murdered for the camera . deodato contacted luca barbareschi and told him to contact the three other actors who played the missing film team . he presented the actors , alive and well , to the courts , and thus , the murder charges were dropped . the film remained banned in italy for another three years .

all of the performers in this film , right down to the bit players , are quite good , but bridges demonstrates yet again that he is one of the finest actors in america .

diary of a wimpy kid : the long haul the wimpy kid grew up , so hollywood found a new one . in the fourth film based on jeff kinney’s popular books , greg ( now jason ian drucker ) goes on a family road trip . alicia silverstone and tom everett scott , also on their first outings in the wimpy - verse , play his parents .

score : a film music documentary going behind the scenes of how film scores are composed , this portrait of the craft features some of the most familiar “music by” credits in the business , including hans zimmer , john williams , danny elfman , quincy jones , rachel portman and thomas newman .

" george & held have an indisputable shared eye for the minutiae of life that can ripple into major and even dominant facets of our emotional composition , and ' valencia road ' is a triumph of that kind of ambiguity . "

a low - budget production , hell or high water will open in 32 theaters nationwide this weekend , where it hopes word of mouth and critical acclaim will translate into high per - theater averages that help boost its box office potential . with a perfect 100 % score on rotten tomatoes thus far , the film continues to gain momentum from positive word of mouth and its unique combination of compelling genre entertainment and social relevance .

the film features original music by nick cave and warren ellis , but also some popular songs recorded previously . that means the score won ' t be eligible for an oscar nod . which is a shame , because it ' s a remarkable soundtrack surpassing anything else i ' ve heard all year . indeed , this is the best film score i ' ve heard since . . . well , since jóhann jóhannsson ' s score for sicario last year , which i loved as much as i love hell or high water ' s score .

now , let ' s talk about why i want this film to succeed , why it ' s getting such rave reviews , and why i ' m actually going to encourage each and every one of you ( yes , even dcu fans who might be considering a second or third viewing of suicide squad - - that one ' s doing fine already , and you can go back to see it on the third or fourth weekend ) to find a theater nearby that ' s showing hell or high water and see it this weekend . read on for my full review !

rank licensed vistavision in the mid - 1950s but hell drivers seems a curious choice for the format , especially when compared to white christmas ( 1954 ) or the searchers ( 1956 ) . there are plenty of reasons to be grateful today , however , for geoffrey unsworth’s powerful combination of black - and - white and widescreen photography .

the animal slaughterings in the movie were real , which ultimately resulted in the movie ' s being banned in its native italy after the snuff film rumors were proved false . the killed animals were a coatimundi ( erroneously referred to as a muskrat in the film ) , a turtle , a snake , a tarantula , a spider monkey , and a pig .

but today ' s best road movies are bizarre , comic , one - way journeys to the dark side of self and society . ' ' wild at heart ' ' and jonathan demme ' s ' ' something wild ' ' portray the road as a lurid , chaotic , criminal place where characters discover their worst nightmares come true . in jim jarmusch ' s ' ' stranger than paradise ' ' and in the young finnish director aki kaurismaki ' s current ' ' ariel ' ' ( strongly influenced by american movies ) , the road is a bleak and grimy landscape where hapless , unimaginative heroes seek out small grains of luck or love . these roads are fraught with dangers more real than flying monkeys ; botched robberies , prison cells and even death are surprisingly common .

but mr . demme ' s sense of the road is at its most astute and vibrant in ' ' something wild . ' ' like lula in ' ' wild at heart , ' ' lulu in ' ' something wild ' ' is dorothy turned inside out , hellbent on leaving home and finding sexual adventure on the road . when lulu ( melanie griffith ) kidnaps charlie , the buttoned - down businessman played by jeff daniels , she takes him from new york to pennsylvania along the kitschy roads of small - town america . in a motel room , she handcuffs him to a bed and wildly distracts him while forcing him to talk to his boss on the phone .

prompted by yesterday’s suspected chemical attacks in syria , national geographic has released footage from the upcoming doc hell on earth : the fall of syria and the rise of isis . filmmaker sebastian junger and producing partner nick quested made the call to release the 13 - minute preview , natgeo says .

" when you see the film , you will see the scale of it , " promises inarritu . " and you will say , ' wow . ' "

cannibal holocaust ( 1980 ) was the second highest grossing film in japan in 1983 , behind only e . t . : the extra - terrestrial ( 1982 )

the complicated camaraderie and the love between the troubled brothers along with the action - thriller elements , has made this my favorite film of the year so far .

as they run from lula ' s disapproving mother , who has put a private detective and a hired killer on their trail , sailor and lula ( nicolas cage and laura dern ) experience an ominous sense of death on the road . the radio news is full of reports of necrophilia and crocodiles eating corpses in the ganges . they pull over to a roadside accident and see a young woman die before their eyes . yet when they run out of money in big tuna , sailor leaves their shabby motel room to take part in a robbery that he says will give them enough cash to go ' ' far down the yellow brick road . ' ' the road , yellow brick or otherwise , still represents a bright future , against all the harsh evidence . and the robbery , one of the most violent scenes in recent movies , only proves how misguided sailor ' s hopes have been .

the film is divided into two halves . the first half is the crazed , nightmarish portion that feels completely out of tune to what made streets of fire so interesting . it has cody meeting two blonde female thrill killers on the shoulder of a stretch of desert in the middle of what might very well be hell itself . cody exhibits some very out - of - character behavior such as punching women ( repeatedly ) in the face , tying them up , berating them and stripping them , and later resorts to startling and unexpected murder . if this is the same cody from streets of fire , i’d like to see the flashbacks that made him this way . the scenes within this first portion of the film are haphazardly presented , but still strangely compelling in their hot and fevered manic depravity . this is the half that fans of streets of fire are going to hate . luckily , i’m not a big fan of streets of fire so i was able to be objective and see the entire film as simply a movie of its own , but more importantly as an albert pyun film . i went with the strange flow , which led to the second half of the movie .

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middle man we’ve seen plenty of movies about unfunny aspiring comedians ( “the king of comedy , ” “mickey one” ) , but in this case , the would - be comic ( jim o’heir ) , on the road to an audition in las vegas , picks up a hitchhiker , with murderous results .

while an unfinished version was screened in 2008 , the writers tweaked the script to add the character of ellen dream and roxy gunn ' s music , and additional scenes continued to be filmed . the final cut of the film has a late 2013 release date .

harmonium a prizewinner at cannes , koji fukada’s film captures the ripple effects on one family after the father ( kanji furutachi ) invites an acquaintance ( tadanobu asano ) , a recent ex - convict , to work with him in the garage next to his home .

cut films 2014 is the first film competition shanil kawol entered whilst he was at his first full time day job as a technical consultant for a major american it company . the theme of cut films was to produce an anti - smoking advert in 2 minutes or less targeted at youths 11 - 25 years old . as an aspiring film maker , shanil wanted to showcase his ability to deliver a powerful message about a challenging topic and express his view in a captivating style .

jesús after committing an assault , a teenager ( nicolás durán ) in santiago is forced to confront his father ( alejandro goic ) in a film inspired by a real - life hate crime in chile in 2012 .

she crashes her old green convertible into a flashing sign that reads : ' ' whoa ! you just passed the best scrapple in penna . ' ' they travel along a road filled with liquor stores , signs for real - estate companies , used - car dealers and gas stations with convenience stores that sell drinks , baseball caps and souvenir t - shirts that read ' ' virginia is for lovers . ' ' this witty , cluttered , tacky route redefines the idea of the romantic , wide - open road .

the film is a spin - off of " streets of fire " : michael pare returns in his role as tom cody and deborah van valkenburgh as his sister .

inspired by real events , revenant follows dicaprio ' s character through deep snow and ordeals including battles with native americans and a near - fatal mauling by a bear . inarritu , 51 , made the unusual choice to shoot the film in sequence , using only natural light . while the plan was to film dicaprio ' s trek entirely in canada , the weather did not cooperate , so the filmmakers now are headed to a location at the tip of argentina in quest of snow .

and just when lulu seems transformed into a girl with an all - american past , her criminal ex - husband appears . soon charlie is implicated in an armed robbery , is forced to confront his own uneasy attraction to lulu ' s disreputable life , and finally engages in a violent confrontation with the ex - husband . ' ' something wild ' ' suggests that being dragged onto the road frees charlie from his repressive , unnhappy past . but the upbeat ending is undermined by the film ' s dark and violent episodes .

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where was the advert shot ? ironically the advert was shot at beachy head , eastbourne , which is a known location for suicide . i was looking for a long empty road where we would not be disturbed when filming so we shot there at 5am during sunrise .

hearing is believing the star of this documentary is rachel flowers , who was born prematurely and went blind , but learned to play music and grew into a vibrant performer . the film follows two years in her family’s life .

deodato was inspired to make the movie after seeing his son watching the violent news on tv and noticed how the journalists focus on the violence . he also believed that some news angles were actually staged to capture more sensational footage , hence the similar angle seen in the film .

hell drivers was a very personal project for director cy endfield , who penned the script with john kruse , based on kruse’s own experiences driving lorries for a local authority . the film was a genuine departure for british cinema . endfield was american , a refugee from the communist witch - hunts , and created a raw masculinity rarely seen on british screens , an antidote to the typical english gentlemen seen in rank offerings like genevieve ( 1953 ) and doctor in the house ( 1954 ) . made independently but funded by rank , the film established endfield as an accomplished action director who went on to make films like sea fury ( 1958 ) , jet storm ( 1959 ) and , most famously , zulu ( 1964 ) .

a soldier who has been fighting a long war is driven mad because he no longer believes in any purpose or righteous truth behind the killing . he comes home to a surreal world looking for his first and only love from his youth , believing she will rescue him from his demons . on the road to edge city he encounters two seductive spree killers who oppose his efforts to find his love and the redemption he desperately seeks .

select cities august 12 urltoken # hohwmovie in hell or high water , two brothers , toby ( chris pine ) and tanner ( ben foster ) , go on a calculated bank robbery spree that puts them on a collision course with a west texas ranger ( academy award© - winner jeff bridges ) determined to take them down .

dawson city : frozen time in the silent era , the gold rush town of dawson city in the yukon was the last stop on the film - shipping circuit . the creative solutions used to dispose of flammable nitrate stock resulted in the inadvertent preservation of 500 films — forgotten reels were excavated in the 1970s . bill morrison ( the found - footage collage “decasia” ) uses those clips to tell a story that interweaves film history and a sociological history of dawson .

and when they land in dusty little big tuna , the lovers sense they can ' t outrun their bad luck anymore . ' ' i know it ain ' t exactly the emerald city , ' ' says sailor , and soon lula has to admit , ' ' seems we sort of broke down on the yellow brick road . ' '

but i don’t believe he would always be with her , except as the ‘one who got away’ . if he had stayed with her she would have wanted to go back to rock and roll . he had to let her go because he held an idealized version of her in his head that she could never live up to . the real ellen was too shallow and sour ; she couldn’t be bothered with the feelings of other people . she never thanked mccoy for saving her ; she exploited fish when she kissed him to hurt cody . cody was all about ellen and ellen was all about ellen . he let her go so she could fulfill herself . even when she said she’d leave it all for him , it was to get what she wanted then but she would eventually have thrown or driven him away . for someone like ellen , the unavailable is more attractive than the available . deborah van valkenburgh’s character wanted him to hook up with ellen in so she could stabilize him . his sister chose ellen for cody to keep him off the road to hell .

pop aye the first feature from the singaporean filmmaker kirsten tan is set in thailand , where an architect ( thaneth warakulnukroh ) reunites with an elephant he knew in his youth . and , of course , elephants never forget . he buys the animal and takes it on a road trip .

great festival , run by people who care . it was fantastic to have been given the opportunity for my first film " seize the night " to play on a large cinema screen so early in its festival run back in 2015 . met some wonderful fellow filmmakers , and had an incredible time .

a princess is on a quest to unite the five greatest warriors to save her kingdom from a demon sorceress .

this movie has gained the title of the most notorious movie of all - time , and is often claimed to be banned in over 50 countries worldwide . if true , it would easily hold the world record for the most heavily banned film .

like mr . lynch ' s films , especially ' ' blue velvet , ' ' jonathan demme ' s are also marked by a strong sense of the texture of american life . even more than mr . lynch , he finds america on the road . in ' ' melvin and howard , ' ' melvin dummar drives along in his pickup truck and stops for a straggly old man who claims to be howard hughes . this is the basis for the classic demme scene in which melvin and howard bump along the road in the pickup singing one of melvin ' s original songs , ' ' santa ' s souped - up sleigh . ' '

this low - key comic approach to life on the road - the road to limited possibilities - also informs mr . jarmusch ' s ' ' down by law , ' ' in which three men find themselves in a shared jail cell where they dance around and sing , ' ' i scream , you scream , we all scream for ice cream . ' ' they escape to become fugitive companions in the louisiana bayou . except for the trees , they might as well be in cleveland , too . and as the hero of mr . kaurismaki ' s ' ' ariel ' ' drives a cadillac convertible through the snowy landscape from lapland to helsinki , it looks like all roads lead to cleveland . ' ' ariel ' ' features a landscape as bleak as mr . jarmusch ' s and an unemployed hero named taisto , who is even more bereft of imagination than willie and eddie .

hell on earth : the fall of syria and the rise of isis directing jointly , the author and filmmaker sebastian junger and his frequent producing collaborator nick quested ( “restrepo” ) examine the origins of the islamic state , with a particular emphasis on the civil war in syria — an exceedingly timely topic .

though mr . kaurismaki has been compared to mr . jarmusch , his sense of the road is both more dangerous and more hopeful . almost at once , taisto is robbed of all his money at a hamburger stand . later , his luck changes when a meter maid who is about to write him a ticket falls in love with him instead . yet other twists of bad luck follow a pattern typical of the subversive road movie : prison , an escape , a bank robbery and eventually a murder in self - defense . along with the meter maid and her son , he escapes on a cargo ship called ariel , which will take them to mexico , while ' ' somewhere over the rainbow ' ' in finnish is sung in the background . as in ' ' wild at heart , ' ' this pointed reference suggests how far film makers have come from ' ' the wizard of oz , ' ' even while the song acknowledges the movie ' s tenacious hold on our imaginations .

scenic , well - paced and rich in dialogue and character , the film is coen brothers for the squares , and maybe the best middle - of - the - seat drama of the summer .

wonderful genre film fest . we severely regretted not attending , but everything we experienced with them was absolutely fantastic . lots of communication and they truly care about you as a filmmaker . highly recommended !

summer movie season is still in full swing , as we enter the second weekend of release for warner bros . ' dc comics movie suicide squad and disney ' s pete ' s dragon flies into theaters to offer family audiences something new . but amid all of the cgi spectacles of summer blockbuster season , there are always a few smaller pictures - - usually in the form of comedies or horror releases - - that serve as counter - programming . this year , we get one of the finest such films to hit theaters in a long time , as hell or high water enters limited release across the u . s . the only question is , will audiences pay attention to the arrival of the best film of the year to date ?

the iconic image for the film shows a " cannibal " girl impaled on a stick . upon being summoned to court in order to assert that no actors were harmed during production , deodato explained that the girl simply sat on a bicycle seat attached to the pole ' s base , while holding a small pointed balsa wood piece in her mouth . the fake blood was then added . deodato commented that the girl had an unusually calm temperament to be able to remain so still during the filming .

sailor and lula , the strangely sympathetic misfits in david lynch ' s ' ' wild at heart , ' ' drive a big old convertible from cape fear , n . c . , through new orleans and on to big tuna , tex . they are preoccupied with making love and steering clear of the law , but they always keep an eye on the yellow brick road .

great festival and wonderful people . good communication and very down to earth . would recommend mostly to anyone making genre films .

though uncaring towards the nature of his film during shooting , ruggero deodato now regrets everything he did , mostly the actual animal killings . he said once that he wishes now that he never made the movie .

in ten days after its release , the movie grossed approximately $ 1 . 9 million in february 1980 ( what would be about $ 5 million dollars today ) before the film was seized by the courts and deodato arrested . because of its infamy and several subsequent re - releases , it is claimed that the film has grossed $ 200 million worldwide ( inflation not adjusted ) , though this has never been verified .


suicide club , known in japan as suicide circle ( 自殺サークル jisatsu sākuru ) is a 2001 japanese independent horror film written and directed by sion sono .

the film explores a wave of seemingly unconnected suicides that strikes japan and the efforts of the police to determine the reasons behind the strange behavior .

suicide club gained a considerable amount of notoriety in film festivals around the world for its controversial subject matter and gory presentation .

it has developed a significant cult following , and won the jury prize for " most ground-breaking film " at the fantasia film festival .

suicide club ( film )

suicide club ( film ) <EOT> buy the kindle ebook edition of santa monica suicide club from amazon . . .

love the suicide club ? subscribe to read more to find out about similar books .

next month , our attention turns to hayao miyazaki’s 1997 animated film princess mononoke , which shares themes with kurosawa’s dersu uzala . the full film club schedule is available on the film club page .

offscreen : i remember when i read about the suicide club that you were thinking at that point of making three films that were connected . is this film part of a trilogy with the suicide club & noriko’s dinner table ?

sion sono is a master of strange . suicide club is nothing short of weird . . if you don ' t know sion sono then i recommend you see strange circus and leave suicide club last .

who are you ? an analysis of sion sono ' s suicide club and kiyoshi kurosawa ' s cure .

our film club title for the month of july is akira kurosawa’s 1975 dersu uzala , the only film that kurosawa filmed outside of japan .

who are you ? an analysis of sion sono ' s suicide club and kiyoshi kurosawa ' s cure . : truefilm

suicide squad is undergoing reshoots to add ‘humour and lightness’ into the film , according to reports .

kyoto mourns about this and she tells saya that she knows the truth . she is seen as taken captive by the other suicide club members , and the following day her ear was pierced with the club ' s ceremonial tattoo .

2007 el club de los suicidas / the suicide club ( santiago ) director : roberto santiago production : tornasol films , spain cast : fernando tejero ( master of ceremonies ) [ a group of men and women in present - day madrid who would like to commit suicide for various reasons come across a copy of stevenson ' s " suicide club " and decide to imitate it . but they find it is more difficult than they thought . 104 mins . ]

a man joins a secret club for those who are seeking to end their lives , only to rediscover his will to live upon meeting the club ' s only female member .

one of the members of a suicide club learns he has inherited some money , but only after he drew the fatal lot and is expected to kill himself .

kyoto finally got it . saya was becoming the new mitsuko , she is now the leader of the suicide club . one member of saya ' s club found kyoto with takeuchi , and reported it to saya . saya thought that kyoto had betrayed her and the following day , it was reported that takeuchi had committed suicide as well .

suicide club has been described as ‘muddled’ and sono criticised for not making his satire of pop culture and denunciation of the media clear enough . but the ambiguity of the film is precisely what makes it interesting . the suicide club is an elusive phenomenon that cannot be attributed to any specific group of people with any certainty . it is a diffuse idea that pervades the whole of society and is not controlled by any one person or group . it’s this idea that makes the film so powerful and disturbing . the suicide club remains very abstract and impossible to pin down to any material reality or evidence . the website that seems to count the suicides before they happen is only a collection of coloured dots on a screen . the name of the pop band dessart is spelt differently in roman characters throughout the film : ‘desert’ , ‘dessert’ , etc . the police officers are unsure whether the phenomenon they are investigating is accident , suicide or murder . and when a new website appears with the aim of fighting the suicide club , it consists only of a revolving white circle : the counter - suicide club can be nothing but another abstract geometric pattern to combat the indefinable , insubstantial threat . the intangible nature of the suicide club is at the heart of the film , and it is therefore logical that there should be no final resolution .

[ 1932 " the suicide club " ( universal ) a film planned for bella lugosi and boris karloff in 1932 and mentioned again in 1933 before being abandoned ( gary don rhodes , lugosi ( mcfarland , 1997 ) , p . 218 ) . listed by s as an actual film ]

what ' s great about japanese horror , is that no matter what the films they will scare you blind . now with suicide club , they take a whole new concept of what we ' re afraid of the most and they create something that horrifyingly effective . a very original film compared to all the new reimagining ' s of classic horror films , suicide club is an original scare fest , and it genuinely scares you and there ' s plenty of great tense moments to be had within the film . a must watch . suicide club is a harrowing nightmare of a film , a truly terrific concept for its plot with a decent cast make this a terrific little known gem in asian horror . if you love these types of horror flicks , then give this one a shot , suicide club is an intense film from start to finish , one that will keep you interested from beginning to end . this is an entertaining film and one that should appeal to fans of this genre of horror . a fine low budget film , suicide club is a film that has an interesting idea for a film , and the directors clearly have an idea what makes an effective horror film by conveying a new type of fear on their audience . this film is disturbing and chilling , and this is one film that will surely appeal to genre fans . director sion sono is a good director and he has crafted a memorable that will be hard to forget long after you ' ve seen it . a film definitely worth your time , one that has a very chilling concept and is hard to forget .

the only way to get into this exclusive club is to play it very , very cool .

the original form of suicide circle is a novel from 2002 , jisatsu saakuru : kanzenban ( suicide circle : the complete edition ) written by sion sono .

the santa monica suicide club is a crime novel set in what raymond chandler used to refer to as bay city – what he meant , of course , was santa monica .

1973 wide world of mystery : the suicide club ( glenn ) director : bill glenn production : abc cast : peter haskell ( florizel ) , margot kidder ( young woman ) , joseph wiseman ( club president ) [ adapatation in a tv drama series ; 73 mins . ]

cure ( kyua , dir . kiyoshi kurosawa , 110 mins , 1997 , japanese ) suicide club ( jisatsu sakuru , dir . sion sino , 99 mins , 2002 , japanese )

regrettably , the film ' s place - setting opening lays the scene for a different , more exciting film that never really unfolds .

usually , the film names are not revealed until the final time of screening so as to maintain a level of curiosity in trainees . however , this is not mandatory and the film names can be revealed beforehand ; trainees may then choose to watch these films themselves before the club and re - watch it during the club screening in a group , and actively partake in the discussions giving insights into different aspects of the film .

attempts to take on suicide without so much as a token mention of the word “depression” .

suicide circle is a . . . . superb film ! is it easy to understand ? definitely not ! but i think it was designed that way on purpose .

you clearly dont know sion sono very well . a lot of his movies do this kind of mixing of diferent tones and styles . its a truly unique individual , and suicide club is a great movie .

this film ultimately demands the audience to reconsider preconceived notions about suicide and question what it actually meant to truly know yourself , offering the rather skewed idea that death allows you to stay grounded and rooted with you and everyone around you . “suicide club” also provokes you to consider the role of masses when it comes to your own ideals and personal feelings towards death and its elusive nature .

the suicide squad reshoots were first ordered following the incredibly positive response to the trailer , featuring queen’s bohemian rhapsody , that reportedly wasn’t really that representative of the final film .

noriko ' s dinner table ( noriko no shokutaku ) is japanese director sion sono ' s prequel / sequel to his cult hit suicide club . noriko ' s dinner table opens in select us theatres beginning june 2007 . urltoken

2000 robert louis stevenson ' s the suicide club / the game of death director : rachel samuels production : roger corman / new concorde cast : david morrissey ( henry joyce = florizel ) , neil stuke ( capt . may = geraldine ) , paul bettany ( shaw = young man ) , jonathan pryce ( mr . bourne = club president ) , catherine siggins ( sarah wolverton , female club - member ) screenplay : lev l . spiro [ retains the basic elements of s ' s story with added elements including a female member of the club , as in trouble for two ( 1936 ) ; generally judged a disappointing film despite production by roger corman ; 89 mins . ]

a woman traumatized by her brother ' s suicide is inducted into a world of games involving murder .

london 1899 - devastated by the loss of his beloved wife , captain henry joyce joins the highly secretive suicide club , a place where one can be ushered into eternity quietly , and without scandal . this highly secret society caters to an elite , decadent group of aristocrats . it is run by mr . bourne , who provides his clientèle with whatever last vices they desire . membership in the suicide club is an irrevocable contract with only one exit clause - death . however , captain joyce begins to regret his decision after he meets sarah wolverton , the club ' s only female member .

fifty - four japanese schoolgirls leap en masse into the path of an oncoming subway train . this is just one of the indelible images from sion sono’s 2001 film suicide club . sono has since proved himself one of the most daring filmmakers today , exemplifying the japanese concept of “ero guro nansensu” ( erotic grotesque nonsense ) .

large ham : genesis and his gang . also the four women who hang themselves during the suicide montage .

suicide circle ( 2001 ) is part of a trilogy . the second part , a prequel , is noriko ' s dinner table ( 2006 ) . the third film was never been made .

1970 el club de los suicidas director : rogelio a . gonzález cast : enrique guzmán [ contemporary setting for rls ' s story ]

the ebert club is our hand - picked selection of content for ebert fans . you will receive a weekly newsletter full of movie - related tidbits , articles , trailers , even the occasional streamable movie . club members also get access to our members - only section on urltoken

locked in her flat for several years , a reclusive young woman stumbles upon a mysterious web community . according to an urban myth , the suicide club grants death to those wishing for it . unless these " cyber suicides " are actually murders .

i would love to read this , but i haven ' t seen the cure yet and don ' t want to spoil anything for myself . pretty anxious to read any analysis of suicide club , though , what a bizarre ride that movie was .

1909 the suicide club director : d . w . griffith production : american mutoscope and biograph co . cast : herbert yost ( the chosen one ) screenplay : frank e . woods [ no prints are known to exist , n ; 4 mins . ]

offscreen : you also wrote the music for the film . do you play an instrument ?

wahl of , lefkowits jy . impact of a television film on attitudes toward mental illness .

1914 the suicide club ( elvey ) director : maurice elvey production : british & colonial kinematograph co . cast : montagu love ( florizel ) , elizabeth risdon , fred groves , m . gray murray [ " no prints are known to exist " , n ]

tuesday , news broke that suicide squad director david ayer will stay in the dc film universe with an all - female film called gotham city sirens , which will star margot robbie as harley quinn . but buried beneath that news is the potential of two other films based on this summer’s dc team up .

according to the hollywood reporter , in addition to gotham city sirens , dc and warner bros . are working on a suicide squad sequel and a spinoff featuring will smith’s deadshot . that’s three films that will directly follow up on suicide squad .

it honestly feels like suicide club is playing a game with its viewer . amidst ( seemingly ) randomly picked up and abandoned plotlines , unexplained plotholes , and general restraint from even quietly uttering its own point , it ' s easy to dismiss this movie as a trashy gore - fest . but you shouldn ' t ! while the theme of modern - day alienation through internet and mass media isn ' t exactly new , suicide club confronts it in a way that will intrigue at least some people : a mysterious website that displays dots representing suicides ; a j - pop band of 10 - 12 year old girls singing saccharine songs and dropping ominous lines like " i need to hear from you right now or i ' ll die " ; and a gang of kidnappers calling themselves " suicide club " who decide…

sion sono : well , the starting point was that i want to make a poetic , artistic type of film . i wanted to use film as the tool with which to express myself to the audience , and so i started to change the style of my film to suit this .

’s staff and readers to share their thoughts , observations , and opinions on film and tv .

suicide club is a japanese 2001 horror thriller that makes you as an audience bring a lot of theories , with a story that is a mix of bloods and gore fest and detective crime thriller , and with a cute pop group singing songs that are not what they seems .

if one was to ever question how amazing suicide club is , look no further than the first few minutes to get your answer . in it ' s opening , a line of 54 japanese school girls join hands and jump to their death in front of a speeding train .

sion sono has always been a master at shock films , inciting gruesome reactions to his love affair with gore and lakes of blood . his films are perhaps the most outlandish experiences i ' ve had , from four hour masterpieces about upskirt photography to violent cinema parodies about the yakuza , there really isn ' t much that he hasn ' t already tackled . suicide club is a more intriguing entry in his filmography , with a plot completely shrouded in a tantalizing mystery that is just waiting to be unraveled . no sono film is complete without its outlandish and innovative death scenes , and suicide club naturally is about as fascinating in its showcases of demise as they can…

the last time we discussed dersu uzala at the film club was in march 2009 , with the introductory post and its discussion found here and the other discussions accessible through the dersu uzala tag . you can also find much more about dersu uzala at urltoken .

after 2016’s suicide squad took home more than $ 745 million usd at the box office last year , warner bros . and dc comics are reportedly working on a spin - off film that showcases the joker and harley quinn as bitter rivals instead of lovers . according to reports , the film is set to take place alongside the suicide squad sequel as well as the all - female gotham city sirens following the stories of catwoman , poison ivy and quinn .

a splatterfest with frighteningly cheerful deaths . people , including but not limited to japanese school girls , who are brainwashed by teen pop and internet forums start committing mass suicides . the fact that a horror film like suicide club was made in the early 21st century comes off as not surprising at all considering how at that time the world is charging full speed into the electronic information age .

book ends : footage from a fictional pop group named " dessart " opens and closes the film .

: the movie jumps headfirst into this territory towards the end . the penultimate scene of the film is

the american mutoscope & biograph company bought the rights to this story back in 1908 . the company plans in the near future to do a " feature " film remake of this 1909 unusual short film .

by the end of the film , the only thing that seems clear is that the suicide club has introduced chaos and disorder into society . the fact that there is no rational or criminal explanation for the suicides upsets and unsettles assumptions about the nature , stability and functioning of society . in many suicidal fictions , the impulse for self - destruction stems from a loss of meaning , a disillusion with the values offered by society , and corresponds to a distrust for language ( see the various spellings of ‘dessart’ ) , seen as a vehicle for the authorities that govern that society , and therefore perceived as corrupt . so while for one person to decide that life is meaningless is an act of nihilism that may cause some disruption to the social fabric , when a group of people decides to form a society devoted to self - destruction , it becomes an all - out attack on the values of society at large , almost an act of existential terrorism . this connection between organised self - destruction and the threat to social order is an idea that runs through fictional depictions of suicide clubs , from robert louis stevenson’s 1882 short story ‘the suicide club’ to sono’s film , via quasi - suicide clubs such as fight club ( 1999 ) . and yet , despite their fascinating implications and subversive potential , suicide clubs remain a surprisingly rare kind of secret society in cinema , with sono’s film one of the most formidable , labyrinthine and provocative examples .

the a . v . club : thanks for taking the time to talk today . let’s discuss lights out and how it deals with the subject of depression .

driven to suicide : the main premise of the film is that people all across japan are committing suicide at an alarming rate and is deliberately gruesome ways to get attention . as all but two of the hundreds of deaths in this movie are suicides . the message of the film seems to be getting the authorities and public to open their eyes to the country ' s high rate of teenage suicides , even if it is disturbingly played for laughs half of the time .

shooting the film began in may 1974 on location in siberia , and lasted for almost a year under demanding conditions . dersu uzala premiered in japan on august 2 , 1975 and did relatively well at the domestic box office , although the critical reception in japan was muted . abroad the film was better received , winning both the golden prize at the moscow international film festival and an academy award for best foreign language film .

offscreen : wow , that’s very interesting ! what about kenji fukasaku , for example black rose mansion which features a transsexual man playing the part of a woman , who is always performing . it has a lot of theatricality , like your film . the circus sequences in your film reminded me a bit of this film .

an excellent foreign film . strange though , with some upsetting imagery . not for the faint of heart .

it boggles my mind somewhat that this is the movie of his that won the best foreign film oscar .

a while back , i watched a rather intriguing japanese horror film called “suicide club” . the plot centers around an impending wave of mass suicides that threaten japanese society , creating a sense of mystery and source of panic for authorities who desperately struggle to discover the roots behind these seemingly unmotivated deaths . the film was enjoyable because of how crazy weird it is , with some obscure , almost nonsensical ideas presented without any coherent explanation . as such , the film provides a perfect opportunity for me to go on a philosophical rant to make sense out of ideas that wouldn’t make sense otherwise . before i continue , i would like to disclaim that i do not share nor advocate some of the controversial themes explored by the film , and rather aim to present , as honestly as i can , my interpretation of what the film is trying to convey .

kiyoshi kurosawa’s cure and sion sino’s suicide club are successors of that very tradition . both films disguise themselves as straightforward and typical mysteries that both hinge on a “hook” to draw the viewer in . in cure , there have been a spate of random killings , where the victim is slashes across the neck in an “x” pattern . the perpetrator is always found nearby , and is always different . although the culprits confess to the murder , they are unable to explain adequately their motives for the brutal , bizarre murders . sino’s suicide club has a similar strange premise : gangs of schoolchildren , a lot of them girls , take to committing mass suicide . in the opening scene , close to 50 schoolgirls hold hands and leap in front of a speeding bullet train , seemingly for no apparent reason . what follows is an investigation into this phenomenon as more and more teenagers take to committing mass suicide .

sounds just a tiny bit like heathers , that old christian slater vehicle . high school students kill their rivals and make it look like suicide . the thing is , since all the popular kids are supposedly taking their own life it becomes a trend , the cool thing to do . while heathers is obviously satire , suicide club is something much darker i feel . you must be a riot when there are balloons and needles involved . homemade anticipation .

“ suicide squad , ” directed by david ayer and produced by charles roven and richard suckle , will begin shooting next april in toronto .

both films end on inconclusive notes , there is no neat wrapping up of the plot . there are plot holes , loops and subplots that are wholly abandoned , more in the case of suicide club than cure . while cure might be a technically and philosophically superior film , suicide club holds its own , despite often being dismissed as mindless gore - fest . i am certain that these films will make much more sense to a japanese , for they seem to tackle very distinctly japanese topics . it would be a sin to compare these films to the work of ozu , for ozu is in a class of his own , and there will never be another like ozu , but in terms to japan - ness , they appear similar .

1964 curse of the stone hand director : jerry warren , using footage from carlos hugo christensen ( " suicide club " sequences ) , carlos schlieper ( " house of gloom " sequences ) production : adp pictures inc . / chile films s . a . cast : carlos cores , guillermo battaglia screenplay : jerry warren [ " patchwork film " by inferior b - movie horror - film producer jerry warren ; the " suicide club " segment consists of about 35 minutes lifted from the " brilliantly atmospheric " la dama de la muerte ( 1946 , see above ) filled out with " nonsense hollywood - filmed sequences " starring john carradine and katherine victor ( the " house of gloom " sequences are from schlieper ' s la casa esta vacia ) ; information kindly supplied by jean - claude michel ; see will laughlin ' s braineater horror - movie site ]

awesome , i fucking was nearly blown away by suicide club when i watched it not all that long ago . it ' s so surreal and creepy , it makes my skin crawl , but at the same time , it makes me smile at certain points . there are some scenes that are purely amazing in how they unfold and you are never remotely sure as to where the film may go . when i watched it , i hadn ' t watched an asian horror film in a while with the cluster fuck of asian horror from a few years back . i thought suicide club would be just another seen it all before horror film , but boy was i wrong . there is so much depth and thought in this film , but there is so much left open , that it leaves one to only ponder what it all means . i did a review of it sometime back , and looking at it now , you commented on it . i ' ll take credit for you watching and loving the movie . you ' re welcome . great review , by the way .

kick the dog : a villain in the film , genesis , almost literally does this with a guinea pig .

2014 ( 14th ) marrakech international film festival - dec . 5 - 13 , 2014 - tribute to japanese cinema

if it seems like literally everyone from the breakfast club has worked on psych at some point or another , it’s because everyone has - - emilio estevez being the only exception .

ordinary high school student : most students are just ordinary teenagers with not much to set them apart from others . they still commit mass suicide .

honestly , this all kind of makes sense , though . suicide squad may have been savaged by critics , but it did very well financially . and even critics of the film admitted that smith and robbie were highlights . plus , they’re massive movie stars . you don’t cast them for one film , as popular comic book characters , and then put them on the shelf .

warner bros . & dc are reportedly working on a ' harley quinn vs . the joker ' spin - off film

i do believe that the film requires a bit of suspension of disbelief , but i ' m okay with that .

suicide is a difficult topic to tackle without being sensationalist or reductive . but 13 reasons why manages to fall into both of these categories at once .

i loved the opening scenes of the film , with all the school girls jumping to their deaths . the movie was insane , but so confusing ! as you mention in your review , its not easy to completely understand what this film is about , but like a good david lynch film , the experience is more important then " getting " the movie .

every time i watch suicide club i love it more . it can be hard to grasp the first time , but if you watch closely , this is a gorgeous film - definitely a favorite of mine now . it ' s not a good movie if you ' re in a specific mood - there are elements of b movie gore , touching moments , horror , and social commentary . stick with it and you might find it really gets to you .

since its inception in 1997 . totaro received his phd in film & television from the university of warwick ( uk ) , is a part - time professor in film studies at concordia university ( montreal , canada ) and a longstanding member of

sono is particularly interested in secret societies and cults , which is partly to do with the fact that he joined a cult when he was younger and later became a member of a terrorist group ( as he explains in the 3am interview ) . his early experiences inspired his film love exposure ( 2008 ) , which features the catholic church as well as a sinister religious cult . in fact , the suicide club could almost be a sect : the children and presumed members ask questions such as ‘are you connected with yourself ? ’ and pronounce nebulous statements that would not be out of place in a new age cult . talking about love exposure in the japan times , sono explained : ‘i like exploring borderlines . in this film , it’s the borderlines between perversion and normality , the catholic church and cults . ’ that statement can be applied to suicide club too . sono does not simply use a religious cult as the perverted contrast to the normality of the catholic church , but the cult serves also to highlight the perversions in what we perceive as the norm . in the same way , the possibility of the existence of a secret society called the suicide club reveals the fault lines of the supposedly ‘normal’ society , notably the seemingly unbridgeable divide between youth and adults .

1936 trouble for two / the suicide club ( ruben ) director : j . walter ruben production : mgm cast : robert montgomery ( prince florizel ) , rosalind russell ( miss vandeleur / princess brenda ) , frank morgan ( colonel geraldine ) , reginald owen ( president of club ) , louis hayward ( young man with cream tarts ) screenplay : edward e . paramore jr . , manuel seff photography : charles g . clarke [ loosely based on " cream tarts " and " hansom cab " episodes , adds love interest for prince florizel , a female member of the club who is his chosen assassin ; " hollywood hokum . . . arrant nonsense . . . parade of clichés " , n ; 80 mins . ]

offscreen : somebody once said that ero - guro is half beautiful and half grotesque , so i assume masumi would be the beautiful aspect of the film ? in other words , the film is supposed to be very beautiful but also very horrible .

i feel as though the dc comics franchise may have publicly performed its suicide with this film . what began with a few interesting characters , dragged on into a 40 minute exposition of the film ' s universe and a census of the overpopulated neighborhood . then the big baddie is revealed - - and it makes no sense . the wheels fell off the wagon from there . dreadful . absolutely dreadful .

in the dark , dull shadow cast by zack snyder’s batman v superman – news of suicide squad perhaps aiming for something a little different sounds incredibly promising .

saya koto was an ordinary teenage girl until she joined a certain club , as her best friend , kyoto , had narrated . saya started acting pretty strange , and worshiped the club ' s leader and founder , mitsuko , even going to the point to sell her body to give money to mitsuko . she hides this by telling kyoto that she needs money because her father is sick .

when mitsuko died on the train jump , saya lost her happiness , and she started to gain many more admirers , considering she survived the mass suicide . when a girl was seen picking on saya , it was reported that the very next day the girl allegedly committed suicide , but many speculate she was murdered .

the tomatometer score — based on the opinions of hundreds of film and television critics — is a trusted measurement of critical recommendation for millions of fans . it represents the percentage of professional critic reviews that are positive for a given film or television show .

genesis is the leader of his group which seems to be a suicide cult , but he rather is a poser than having any involvement in the mass suicides .

although i have watched dersu a couple of times from the artificial eye dvd , for some reason i still mentally associate the film with a very poor quality cropped vhs copy that i had in the 90s . it didn’t do the film justice at all .

domino g . impact of the film , “one flew over the cuckoo ' s nest , ” on attitudes towards mental illness .

as for dessart , the innocuous - looking pop band seems to hide clues in their lyrics and promotional posters that would appear to point to some sort of cult of death led by children . however , there is no resolution , no explanation of any kind , and the suggestion of this unlikely conspiracy is left open to interpretation at the end . more important than knowing whether the suicide club is really a secret society of children is the total separation and incomprehension between young people and adults that its possible existence reveals . whatever it is that may lead young people to commit suicide , the film suggests that the adults will always be inherently unable to comprehend it .

as suicide club progresses , the plot becomes increasingly murkier . more and more levels are added , to the point of distraction . suicide club is not as polished as cure , it is rough and often loses its point . but the central theme , that of dislocation , makes itself felt as well . there is a strange boy who often calls the detectives , a boy with a cough that becomes more and more irritating as he talks . this is probably deliberate , the director wishes for us to feel irritation . it is meant to dislodge us , just like the boy is dislodging teenagers from their own lives . he too asks a question , “are you connected to yourself ? ” to the detectives he poses this question , “i know you are connected to your family , to your children , to your wife , but are you connected to yourself ? ” once again , the question becomes one of identity . while cure seems to blame society , in suicide club , it is pop culture and television that seems to be at fault . there are many subplots that don’t serve much purpose , except distraction , but the theme of connection is threaded into each of them . the detectives find a long roll of skin at the scene of the suicides , the roll composed of squares of skin from different people , most of them the ones who just died . in death , this is their connection to each other . even as they leap off buildings and in front of trains , the teenagers hold hands , it is an act of a group , not an individual . in this way , suicide club is often at odds with cure . while cure desires an individual , suicide club wishes for a group identity , a connection to each other that is often lost in the mindless drone of the television and the mass - marketed media .

offscreen : i’m curious because yesterday when you introduced the film you said the japanese do not like this film . i wonder if it is because of the western aspects to the film , especially thematically in terms of the psychology . and with some of the settings , like the circus , there is a lot we can relate to as westerners . is it perhaps too western for japanese audiences ?

i am an idiot for avoiding this for so long . i ' ve always ( incorrectly ) seen sion sono as some kind of second rate , less interesting takashi miike . he ' s not . he ' s definitely not . suicide club is a fascinating , disgusting , wild piece of cinema and a sad reminder of how pathetic and boring japanese films are now compared to the incredible highs of the early 2000s . this was nothing like i expected it to be . though it starts with lots of goofy squelching sounds and a terrible exploding cgi head , suicide club quickly makes it clear that it will be an unpredictable , totally engaging mystery filled with angry satire and no easy answers . some may find its messy structure and tonal jumps difficult…

unflinching , but tender and often humorous , the suicide club is an examination of the last taboo in our society – as well as our deep human desire to connect . it explores why we feel the need to extinguish our lives , how we can pull back from the edge , and how – by saving ourselves – we can sometimes also save the people we love .

also , thank you , vili and ugetsu , for the information on where to find out more about the making of this film .

following the disappointing commercial reception of the 1970 dodesukaden , kurosawa was at the low point in his career . the japanese film industry was quickly shrinking , and unable to find funding for new projects while also suffering from poor health , kurosawa attempted suicide on december 22 , 1971 . the attempt was unsuccessful .

when presented with scenes of scores of teenagers gleefully holding hands and jumping to their deaths in enthusiastic orgies of suicide , i was not disappointed . dismembered body parts were numerous…

having promised a few years ago to revive his decades - old tradition of class , low - budget ( and usually period ) dramas , roger corman makes good on that pledge with the satisfying , if awkwardly titled , “robert louis stevenson’s the suicide club . ” pic is a throwback to corman cinema a la edgar allen poe as well as a forward - looking model [ … ]

i would go as far as to suggest that more than any other kurosawa film , dersu uzala is first and foremost intended as a visual and aural experience . early on in the film dersu scolds the russian soldiers for watching but not seeing , and i think that we as an audience also easily fall into the same trap , criticising the film for its rather uncomplicated plot and somewhat loose structure while not realising that these are , ultimately , secondary to the film’s core intention , which is to present us with the world as dersu experiences it .

i would go as far as to suggest that more than any other kurosawa film , dersu uzala is first and foremost intended as a visual and aural experience . early on in the film dersu scolds the russian soldiers for watching but not seeing , and i think that we as an audience also easily fall into the same trap , criticising the film for its rather uncomplicated plot and somewhat loose structure while not realising that these are , ultimately , secondary to the film’s core intention , which is to present us with the world as dersu experiences it… .

what ' s most chilling about suicide club ? the anticipation and the question of whether or not someone is actually going to do it . i used to be terrified of loaded guns in movies being pointed at someone ' s head . that idea of not knowing just when something is going to explode is extremely nerve wracking , suicide club takes those anxieties and doubles them . introducing you to character ' s , only to see them take their lives for no apparent reason other than the fact that they finally figured something out that you didn ' t . blood ? guts ? gross ? yes . but i wouldn ' t call it the driving force behind the film . and as a matter of fact i was tickled pink at the sight of some technicolor like , red as paint blood during one very wonderful scene involving a knife and some fingers . sure there are moments of fleeting nausea - - - human skin cinnamon roll anyone ?

the cinepocalypse film festival descended once more upon chicago’s music box theatre this past week , providing seven straight days of movie madness , ranging from grisly horror to gonzo action to outrageous camp . while we weren’t able to see every film that screened during the festival—even die - hard genre fans…

the film opens up with 50 high school girls gleefully committing suicide by joining hands and jumping off a platform in front of an oncoming train . the score is playful and the blood - splatter is exaggerated to comedic effect , but everyone plays it straight . director sion sono doesn ' t ease you into anything here .

to celebrate the 30th anniversary of john hughes’ 1985 classic , the breakfast club , stars ringwald and ally sheedy attended a special screening at sxsw ( a digitally remastered version of the film will also be released in select theaters from march 26 - 31 ) . which seems like the perfect opportunity to find out what our favorite detention - goers look like three decades later :

clearly , much of the film was designed as an audiovisual spectacle . throughout the film , we are shown shots of the siberian landscape in its various shapes and colours , enhanced by a soundtrack carefully woven from the sounds of animals , fire , water , wind and other natural elements .

i have not read the manga , but i do know that the film has a prequel , " noriko ' s dinner table " that delves more into why the events unfold as they do in the film . i haven ' t seen it yet , but it is streaming on netflix .

by the time the closing credits rolled on sion sono ' s apparent ' cult classic ' suicide club , i was well and truly frustrated by my attempt to decode and draw some sense of satisfaction from it , and despite being a fan of sono ' s work thus far ( i have seen cold fish , love exposure and why don ' t you play in hell ? ) , something was amiss here .

i accidently came across this movie after watching the movie based on the uzumaki manga . i was absolutely amazed by it , always trying to guess / work things out and then something more crazy happened which blew all my ideas out of the water and got me guessing again . after i watched the uzumaki movie i realised that there was a lot i wouldn ' t have understood if i hadn ' t read the manga befotrehand , which got me to thinking if it was the same for suicide club , so i went for a search , low and behold , there ' s a manga for suicide club , which also explains a lot to the story , it ' s so deep with so many twists , i enjoyed reading it so much . also it ' s fairly popular so you can easily find scanlations of it online ^ _ ^

when tim burton made his first batman film in 1989 , he cast one of hollywood’s biggest and most dependable stars in the role of batman’s greatest enemy . jack nicholson , already a two - time academy award winner ( he’d later collect a third trophy in the 1990s ) , was paid a king’s ransom for the role ( his cut of the film’s profits ran to an estimated $ 50 million ) and received top billing above the movie’s ostensible lead michael keaton . since then , the joker has remained the most prestigious comic - book movie role , winning heath ledger a posthumous oscar for 2008’s the dark knight ; jared leto was cast in the role in suicide squad not long after his oscar win for dallas buyers club .

sometimes they are like the seed sown on stony ground . the suicide club is andrew williams’s fourth novel , and it removes any doubts . it establishes him as an unusually accomplished craftsman , a master of the intelligent historical spy thriller . his research is thorough and has been absorbed ; it never obtrudes . his imagination works in harmony with his powers of observation . his plotting is intricate and coherent . the narrative drives compellingly along .

spoilers ahead . the big question posed by the whole movie is " are you connected to yourself " is the only real connection between your soul and yourself is that of your body , then what is the point really ? the people commiting suicide in the film are severing that chain , thus forcing their spirit and their self to be whole .

i saw this one awhile back - i also had the same reaction . after watching the film , i also wanted to know " why . " it ' s a very intriguing and interesting film . though , i guess it will always remain a mystery to me . nice post , thanks for sharing !

" the ballad of narayama " is a japanese film of great beauty and elegant artifice , telling a story of startling cruelty . what a space it opens…

the suicide scene itself is almost unbearably difficult to watch . to its credit , it contains no euphemistic photo montages or sad indie ballads , but the realism of the scene feels uncomfortably close to a how - to guide to suicide . it teeters dangerously on the edge of emotional torture porn , a territory already frequented at an alarming rate by the very teenagers that the show is desperate to help . the show is right to be trying to provide teenagers with a lesson in compassion and sensitivity , but watching hannah baker cut her wrists in high definition isn’t doing anything for youth suicide prevention .

offscreen : o yes , i’m not saying that , but the sensors in north america look for these things and don’t make a distinction between a sophisticated film that is dealing with it as a subject and a pornographic film . that is why i am surprised that a distributor has picked it up , but that is great . along with that we have had a lot of american remakes of j - horror , but i don’t think there has been a remake of an ero - guro film , and that is probably because it would be too problematic , with the ero - guro mix of sex with violence . i think in a way that is a good thing . it is a way for you to protect your film , because you know they won’t ever remake your film .

in early 1973 , the soviet film studio mosfilm approached kurosawa asking if he would be interested in working on a new project with them . kurosawa agreed to the idea and proposed to film an adaptation of russian explorer vladimir arsenyev’s autobiographical work dersu uzala , a book kurosawa had been considering for a film from as early as the 1930s . in the book , arsenyev narrates his experiences with the titular siberian hunter who acted as his guide for several expeditions to the russian far east .

in tokyo , 54 schoolgirls leap in front of a subway train committing suicide . shortly after , at a hospital , two nurses kill themselves by jumping out of a window . at both locations rolls of flesh are found , with the missing skin matching removed flesh on corpses . three detectives are notified by a hacker named kiyoko of a link between the suicides and a website that ties the mystery to an internet suicide cult around a guy named " genesis " . within the next days , the suicide epidemic spreads over japan and many more deaths occur . will the police be able stop this mysterious epidemic ?

suicide squad isn ' t as fun of a ride as guardians of the galaxy . it could have been , with more performances like jared leto ' s and margot robbie ' s . . . .

follows a group of 12 high school students as they piece together a story as it is described on a series of cassette tapes left for them their classmate hannah baker , who has died by suicide .

offscreen : another way of looking at it , because the film has a story within a story structure , with the masumi character ( taeko ) as the writer of the story , is that we are seeing her imagination . it could also be a film about the creative process , something like barton fink for example . or a little bit like 8 ½ where you see the creative process of a director who we see trying to make a film . in this film we have a writer who we learn is trying to write a story , and we are seeing the story which we think is fiction but then it becomes metafiction , a fiction inside of a fiction . we can never see inside the artist’s mind but the film is an idea of what it would be like inside an artist’s mind .