If you don't find yourself thinking "What the hell am I watching?" during a film it definitely wasn't made by Sion Sono.
It's for this reason alone that whenever I find a film of his that I haven't seen that I want to watch it.
I don't like all of his films though I own most of them, purely because they're always really unusual and unlike anything by any other director.
I'll try to give you an outline of the plot, two girls named Mitsuko and Taeko witness the accidental death of their friend after putting on an all-girl production of Romeo and Juliet.
In mourning the girls and others from their class decide to drink cough syrup and stand on the rooftop of their school waiting to see who will fall asleep and fall to their death and who will endure the effects of the drug and remain on the ledge, Taeko and Mitsuko both survive, though not without incurring emotional and in Taeko's case physical scars.
After this event the two survivors become estranged until a charming sociopathic con-man named Joe Murata enters Mitsuko's life, prompting Taeko and a group of filmmakers to decide to create a film based on Joe's life in order to sway Mitsuko away from him, believing that if she were to witness what he is truly like that she would see how dangerous he really is.
That's the idea at least until Joe becomes aware of their intentions to make the film and decides to start producing it,
his seemingly irresistible charisma seducing the crew eventually directing the group towards their own demise,
or so it would seem.
That's my best effort at explaining the films plot.
The biggest positive I can say about it is that like all Sion Sono's films it's highly stylised, really well acted and directed.
Its not my favourite of his by a long-shot, (I genuinely love his four-hour epic Love Exposure) but it did keep me watching it to see how progressively weird it would get, It's themes are very similar to his previous film"Cold Fish" which also deals with psychopathy and sadomasochism, in fact there are what appear to be purposeful references to all of his films throughout.
I'd only recommend it to Sion Sono completionists,
of which there are probably few,
but to new viewers I'd sooner recommend that you watch "Tag" , "Suicide Club" and "Love Exposure" before you consider watching this as they're really the best he has to offer.
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