Which should I go with? - Mind-Destroying, Heart-Crushing, or Thought-Provoking? I'm so mixed on this one. I would love to recommend it for the brilliance of the plot, but hate to recommend it because of the brutality of the effects. I'm sorry folks, I almost couldn't watch this one. To be honest, I'm not all that impressed with myself that I could. What does that say about me? I still skipped past a couple of the more gruesome moments. Just couldn't watch. Thank God, I think if I hadn't been so disgusted I would have lost faith in myself somehow. If you can watch this without feeling horror (and no not the scary kind), then you need to take a good long look at yourself. ACTING: Mixed reviews on the acting. It's truly possible that some of the bad acting was intentional -- it actually fit the scenes in some strange way. In most of the movie, the acting was actually pretty good--so I'm a little divided on what to say there. TECHNICAL EFFECTS: For the time when the film was made, the gore was pretty gory and the blood and guts appropriately freaky. In modern film-making it would probably be considered cheesy, but it successfully wigged me out. I dunno, I'm a little sensitive to this and am easy wigged. All together, I'd say well-made for its era, if perhaps a bit behind the times now. RE-WATCH VALUE: No. I'm can maybe accept watching it once for the plot, but desiring to watch it a second time is probably a sign of sadistic tendencies. STORY/MUSIC (They were too intertwined to discuss separately): This will be a little long because the topic is personal to me. There are only two types of people I can see enjoying this film (please don't actually enjoy it--seriously). 1) People who get a perverse kick out of watching people/animals die in gruesome ways and 2) People willing to suffer through the revolting scenes for the sake of a good philosophical discussion. And this was a brilliant film from a thematical point of view. See, the main topic of this film is Suicide, and the various people effected or involved. It analyzes the victims and the many reasons driving people to this traumatic point of no return--lack of self-confidence, sense of pointlessness, peer pressure, relationship issues, murders disguised as suicide, etc. Even those who seemingly go for no apparent reason whatsoever. At the same time, intermingled within the plot are the bystanders, families, police responders, and general members of society. The film captures so perfectly the modern sense of unconnectedness; many people feel watching tragic things happen to other people. People are watching the events unfold show a range of responses from cultish enthusiasm, total disinterest, dispassioned interest, and a passionate desire to become one of the club. The characters demonstrate both social unconcern about the deaths that are happening and the utter fascination many have with the topic of death and the afterlife. People are concerned about everything except the actual loss that has occurred. Although the Genesis scene (you'll see) comes across as mad and rather weird, it is truly a brilliant work of psychological art. It horrifically depicts the psychotic mindset of those people who become so caught up in the beauty and dream-like view of death's supernaturalism that they have already lost any living humanity. The movie leaps between extremely realistic and graphic to slightly fantastical and almost in-sensitive. But that simply adds to the theme and the power of its message! For example, the use of cheery, thoughtless, innocent, teenage pop music as the background for many of the more graphic scenes. And the use of children to pose some of the more difficult questions. Suicide is a dark, horrible, destructive event. It is a thing of horror and it is very, very real. But so often we approach the topic or view such events in a distant, unconcerned viewpoint. Oh How Tragic, as we move on. It's like we are watching a movie that has no impact on our lives and does not affect our own innocence at all. People don't realize the magnitude of what each life lost really means to this world. This film seeks to warn against such hypocrisy. Which is why it pulls in important messages later in the film. For example, the question - "What is your connection to you?" It's true. Suicide will only stop when people start to find the value of themselves from within. This movie asks you to stop looking outside of yourself for completion, mercy, validation, forgiveness, support, and a future. The world may give it to you or the world may not. Fate (and the human race) can be a b****. If you are relying on your answers to life to come from outside, it may never come. I love the part where the person says: "If you die, your connection with your wife will remain. So will your connection with your children. But if you die, you will lose the connection with yourself." That is very, very true. The memories will remain amongst those left alive. They will always remember how important you were and how you changed their lives. But suicide happens when a person loses that connection with themselves--when they forget how important they and the people in their lives are. Find your value from within and never let it go. There is also the fact that we, the viewers watched it. In a way depicting precisely one of the main problems the movie is talking about. Many people have an unhealthy fascination with suicide, almost sadistically intrigued in the topic. Others simply view it with passing notice, as something not affecting themselves and thus unimportant. When there is a murder, we are concerned because of the danger it poses to ourselves. But with suicide the assailant is gone. So we move on, going about our lives as though nothing happened. But, as the kid asks "Why couldn't you feel the pain of others the way you feel your own? . . . You are the true criminal." What if it was your son or high school daughter or wife or husband? Would you feel the same way then? If the answer is yes, then something is wrong. If the answer is no, then now is the time to change. This film was intended to address a growing problem in the world today. It is no coincidence that it begins with the death of so many young people jumping in front of a train. That is a very, very real threat in Japan. I remember taking the train once in Yokohama, when it stopped. The announcement was that we were being re-directed due to issues with the track. The woman next to me said it was probably "another suicide, whenever we have one, they have to change to another route" Seriously, this happens often enough, there is a standard operating procedure that residents are familiar with? I've seen and felt the effect of suicide myself through the loss of my father. It's a very real issue and I think this film does a great way of capturing all the flaws in the current way we treat this problem. Is the film bloody? Yes. Is it gruesome? Yes. Is it entertaining? No. Is it something we should enjoy watching? No. But does it offer a good message, one that more people should take a moment and hear? YES.