Synopsis
A teenager named Noriko Shimabara runs away from her family in Toyokawa, to meet Kumiko, the leader of an Internet BBS, Haikyo.com. She becomes involved with Kumiko's family circle, which grows darker after the mass suicide of 54 high school girls.
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Cast
- Kazue FukiishiNoriko / Mitsuko
- TsugumiKumiko / Ueno Station 54
- Yuriko YoshitakaYuka / Yoko
- Ken MitsuishiTetsuzo Shimabara
- Shirô NamikiIkeda
- Sanae MiyataTaeko Shimabara
- Yoko MitsuyaTangerine
- Tamae AndoBroken Dam
- Naoko WatanabeCripple #5
- Hanako OnukiMidnight
Recommendations
- 90
Los Angeles Times
Through a barrage of fragmented images of lurid events, escalating hysteria and sheer madness, Sono holds up a cracked mirror to modern life, inspiring the viewer to think with unexpected seriousness about what it means to be a human being. - 80
Time Out
This meditation on loneliness and the definition of family is a lot less bloody—though no less fascinating—than its predecessor. - 75
TV Guide Magazine
Neither a prequel nor a sequel. Nor is it really much of a horror movie: It's a bizarre, bloody family drama that puts its predecessor into a larger social context. - 50
Variety
Although told through a cascade of flashes forward and back, the puzzle doesn't quite form a complete picture by the end, which may leave genre fans frustrated but the arthouse crowd intrigued. - 50
The New York Times
This 159-minute feature doesn't quite cohere. Mr. Sono's direction is haphazard; he oversells the first half's whimsical touches and the second half's spiral-of-doom emoting. Still, the movie is worth seeing, if only to experience a small story with impossibly grand ambitions. - 50
Village Voice
There's not nearly enough blood to keep fans of "Suicide Club," or the rest of us, happy. - 40
L.A. Weekly
It’s telling that the freshest portions of Noriko’s Dinner Table are the flashbacks to Sono’s previous film.
