Strange Circus

"Strange" doesn't even begin to describe this freakish art film about an incestuous love triangle between a husband and wife and their 12 year old daughter. It's a nightmare kaleidoscope of bizarre imagery and shifting realities, made all the more unsettling by the use of carnival music throughout, and it packs a seriously whacked out, gruesome ending. Visceral.

Quasi-Lynchian psychosexual expressionism is drowned in quasi-Fassbinderian hysterical melodrama. Many of the elements found in this filmmaker's best movies can be found here, but the outcome in this instance is generally unconvincing.

A very strange film about sexual abuse, rape, pedophilia, incest, mutilation, and...the circus. "Strange Circus" is over the top and is set up that way from the beginning. I have to say, though, that its first Act is better than the last two; it just has more deep issues and deals with them in an in-depth, disturbing way. The ending lost me and I wish that the audience was taken a little more seriously. In the end, "Strange Circus" is quite a spectacle and I'm glad I was able to experience it.

fucked up

a grotesque, upsetting experience--the relentless assault of motif-heavy blood-smeared imagery combined with the childlike tone really forces you inside that cello case--but the route it takes to the twist finale is just so tortuous and he's done far more polished films on the relation between abuse and identity since.

It definitely has IDEAS the way every Sion Sono film does, but I'm not so sure it sticks the landing. I suppose the most charitable reading is a study on how media commodifies trauma, but even then a lot of this is straight-up unpleasant.

disappointing in how a possibly powerful and sensitive premise was so callously and foolishly handled.

loucurinha

It would take an sensitive, insightful, and courageous filmmaker to justify opening a film with what feels like twenty minutes of graphic rapes. Sion Sono, being seemingly neither sensitive, insightful, nor courageous, thinks a "just kidding" is enough.

Exploitation with a lot of narrative gimmicks and plot twists, none of which make any sense or hold any real interest.

I'm not thrilled with some things here, but certain scenes reach a nightmarish pitch that I have never before witnessed.

Daring and thought-provoking, but incoherent. Still entertaining and filled with Sono's unmatchable style.

Top badass moment? Let's go for Mitsuko (in her wheelchair) stabbing herself lots of times in the legs with a big kitchen knife, because her father is too busy having sex with someone to take her to the toilet. Taking positive action to ensure you don't commit the social fax pas of pissing yourself is probably badass; this particular example is maybe just a bit over the top, although it certainly does put him off his stride, so to speak. 0 cats and 0 decapitations.

Sadly, this film does end up being about the final plot twists, but thankfully Sion Sono is able to make it still a good psycho drama. It helps Sono is a far more talented than most in this area of transgressive Japanese cinema, able to take conventional Freudian plot references and said twists and turn them into something much more interesting. It also helps that, from the DVD tagline alone on my copy, reality goes out the window before the film starts, making the twists less egregious.

The film sure does live up to its name. The first film that comes to mind after watching this is Gozu, both are pretty far out there. Where this differs is with the story, its more developed, and the shocking scenes are there for a reason.