Noriko no shokutaku (Noriko's Dinner Table) (2005)

67% of critics liked it
(12 reviews)
80% of users liked it
(1,295 ratings)

Noriko's Dinner Table (2005) constitutes a follow-up with thematic similarities and loose narrative connections (though not a direct sequel) to Japanese filmmaker Shion Sono's dark 2002 satire Suicide Club. The time-fractured narrative weaves the gothic tale of the two backward Shimbara sisters,… More Noriko's Dinner Table (2005) constitutes a follow-up with thematic similarities and loose narrative connections (though not a direct sequel) to Japanese filmmaker Shion Sono's dark 2002 satire Suicide Club. The time-fractured narrative weaves the gothic tale of the two backward Shimbara sisters, teenagers Yuka (Yuriko Yoshitaka) and Noriko (Kazue Fukiishi). The girls inadvertently become enslaved to a website, Hayiko.com, that represents a front for a perverse theatrical group, "The Family Circle" -- whereby young girls are hired by clients to act out bizarre fantasies. As a product of becoming implicated in the site, the sisters lose the ability to recognize their own identities; one is brainwashed by being forced to watch the mass suicide of 54 young Japanese girls from the earlier Suicide Club. The picture ultimately descends into blood-soaked carnage involving the titular table and a bevy of inanimate domestic objects. Ever the formalist, Sono divides his recit into a quintet of segments, and labels four of five with the names of key characters, each of whom narrates his or her "chapter" in voice-over. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 2 hr. 33 min.
Directed By: Sion Sono
Written By: Sion Sono
Genres: Drama, Horror, Art House & International

In Theaters: Jul 4, 2005 Wide
On DVD: May 27, 2008
Studio: Tidepoint Pictures

Critic Reviews

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times
Noriko's Dinner Table embraces [suicidal] tendencies with gusto and striking originality. The film is a boldly fragmented and tantalizing saga.
Leslie Felperin, Variety
Too long by half.
Matt Zoller Seitz, New York Times
One of the most ambitious tonal mash-ups in memory, Noriko's Dinner Table is a domestic comedy, a bloody psychological thriller and a comment on the fragility of identity.
Marty Mapes, Movie Habit
Has a mind-blowing scene at its climax that takes the whole movie to set up
Bill Gibron, PopMatters
Like a novel written by David Lynch in celluloid sentences instead of scribbles, a meditation on what makes us care about those we call our nearest and dearest, Noriko's Dinner Table is spellbinding.
Norm Schrager, Filmcritic.com
part investigative mystery, part cultist drama, and you can pretty much guess where it's all going
Andy Klein, Los Angeles CityBeat
There is some excessive gore near the end, but, still, this is one of the best films I've seen this year.
Jay Antani, Boxoffice Magazine
Growing up has never felt so god-awful tedious.
James C. Taylor, L.A. Weekly
Noriko's Dinner Table is both prequel and sequel to Suicide Club -- but never its equal. It's twice as long and three times as ponderous.
Jim Hemphill, Reel.com
The film is riveting at every moment even when the audience is a little unclear on how those moments connect.
Raven Snook, Time Out New York
Although certain aspects of [director] Sono's opus may get lost in translation, you don't need to know Japanese to understand the pitfalls of contemporary communication.
Ken Fox, TV Guide's Movie Guide
At nearly three hours, the film may feel overlong, but it's continually surprising even when its meanings grow obscure.

Read all 12 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Drew S

I came into Noriko's Dinner Table with no real preconceptions created by Suicide Club. I haven't seen that movie in over two years and I wasn't exactly bowled over by it in the first place. This was a blank-slate film experience for me, and it's not a sequel or… More
I came into Noriko's Dinner Table with no real preconceptions created by Suicide Club. I haven't seen that movie in over two years and I wasn't exactly bowled over by it in the first place. This was a blank-slate film experience for me, and it's not a sequel or prequel so much as an independent movie operating laterally to Suicide Club, so why am I even talking about all this. I guess what I mean to say is if you're searching for Suicide Club's meaning in this film you're not bound to find any; instead, consider yourself treated to a director who has no idea what the fuck he's doing. I really liked Strange Circus, but this and Suicide Club are convincing me that Sion Sono just likes to masturbate all over his film reels and see if what he produces is worth anything to his viewers. This, far more than Suicide Club, is a collection of half-developed themes and psychological dead ends, posing plenty of interesting tidbits but never really following through on them. Most of the movie is engaging, and by the time you realize it's completely meaningless you feel obligated to finish it anyway because it's so goddamn long. The primary theme of the film, "feeling connected to yourself," is poorly developed and far too oblique to sustain it for its 160 minute running time. If Sono's intention was to get his viewers to examine the subtleties of the film, perhaps he could have kept the voiceover out of it, one of the most overbearing narrations in any recent film. The first hour sounds and plays like a cheap J-drama to no real effect. The flashbacks don't illuminate or deepen the emotional connection to the film at all. All these blank shots suggest to me that Sono had a handful of underdeveloped concepts and images from his novel that he wanted to string together on screen, but discovered that it wasn't as deep or profound as he thought. Admittedly, the notion of a "family rental" unit is great, and the undeniable pain of a father who has lost his daughters to indifference is a juicy emotional crux to stable the movie with (enhanced by strong performances from the father and the older sister). Its lack of focus is frustrating, though. This film is based on a 2002 novel by Sono, and though the adaptation came out the same year as his magnum opus Strange Circus (2005), it's clear that in that three year gap he learned a lot about restraint and framing. Gravest of all is Sono's ignorance of a harsh truth: if you're going to make a three-hour art film, it needs to be artistic. If you choose to disregard unconventional narrative and A-to-B storytelling, you need to anchor your project in the world of cinema. Noriko's Dinner Table looks and sounds like shit, probably a trapping of budget. Its cheapness and lack of cohesive vision make the whole project seem like an exceptionally violent soap opera, or again, a trashy J-drama. I would never have expected it from Sono, considering his penchant for pomp, but the movie is so utterly uncompelling on all levels that I feel like it shouldn't exist at all.
Lesley N

I thought this might either explain Suicide Club, or be interesting in its own right. It didn't, and it wasn't. .
Brett W

Watch half, take the other only if you have a strong desire to watch a (up til then) decent film circle the drain of pretentious, philosophical nonsense. Ok, that's not quite fair, what the makers were trying to accomplish was a muiti-charater-centered narrative that dreamily… More
Watch half, take the other only if you have a strong desire to watch a (up til then) decent film circle the drain of pretentious, philosophical nonsense. Ok, that's not quite fair, what the makers were trying to accomplish was a muiti-charater-centered narrative that dreamily moves between each of their stories in a manner that may or may not be "the truth" of the situation. Who's at fault? Who hurt who? Who wants what? Who knows. Believe you me, I'm not a total philistine snob, but even you enjoy the type of philosophical film-making that forces you to dissect for meaning (which I do) this is still too much. By the end you aren't so much confused as you are thinking about what the dinner special is at Denny's tonight...or what it would be like to eat at Denny's crammed in a booth with a bunch of hot, Japanese school girls. Mmm pancakes. What was I talking about?
Anthony V

A surreal semi-sequel to Suicide Club has interesting, and disturbing things to say about identity, teenage herd mentality and the Japanese family unit. One of those films that will either click with you or not. It's quite lengthy but manages to retain your interest throughout.