Noriko's Dinner Table (Sion Sono, 2005)
"Are you connected to yourself?"
Bored teenager Noriko runs away from her family home in Tokoyama and heads for the bright lights of Tokyo. She's out to find her newly-found online pal called Kumiko (aka Ueno Station 54), who runs an eerie website called Haikyo.com. Once in Tokyo, Noriko (aka Mitsuko) becomes involved with Kumiko's "family rental" business, which is a bizarre role-playing/fantasy idea, where the two girls act out various fantasies for lonely people.
Soon after, Noriko's younger sister Yuka also runs away from home, and also ends up Tokyo. This makes the father finally quit his job, and go in search of his two daughters. A search which gets darker after the mass suicide of 54 high school girls.
Sono's 2005 flick is less of a sequel, and more of a companion piece to his earlier 2001 film Suicide Circle (AKA Suicide Club). There are links, but Noriko's Dinner Table veers off into another direction. It would certainly help to see Suicide Circle first, though.
Sono's film is interesting, his films always are, but he doesn't really have a great deal to say. So, the Japanese are isolated, lonely, and some people can become disconnected from their own families, but my problem with Noriko's Dinner Table is that is runs for almost 2 hours and 40 minutes. Not a great deal happens to justify a whopping 2H40m duration. You could easily take out 40minutes (at least) and still have the same story, but at a much nicer pace. For all it's style and statements, Noriko's Dinner Table drags. It's still interesting to watch, but writer/director Sono just doesn't know when to stop, and therein lies the problem. Recommeded for Sono fans only.
