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Strange
Circus is for everyone who thought that Sono’s
previous film Suicide Club
was just too "normal." Strange
Circus is a surreal shockfest that just gets
more disturbing as it progresses down its increasingly hallucinatory path, and
much of the audience is likely to be reeling, even before the amputations, imprisonment
or secret transsexuality. Adolescent Mitsuko is forced to watch her parents’ lovemaking
by her father who imprisons her in a cello case with a peephole. When Mitsuko’s
mother apparently dies, her father forces the girl to be the victim of his desires,
which drives her to attempt suicide with a leap from a height… yet all of this
is apparently just the new novel being penned by reclusive, wheelchair-bound author
Taeko. Or is it? Taeko is assigned a new assistant, effeminate admirer Yuji, and
the two begin a sexual relationship in Taeko’s ornately designed estate. But we
soon must question the real identities of both Taeko and Yuji. Strange Circus
is an often shocking, always bizarre cinematic ride for the adventurous.
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