Tuesday, October 8, 2019

12 Suicidal Teens(十二人の死にたい子どもたち) Japanese Film Thoughts





   12 Suicidal Teens is a film that was released this year. I happened to run across the film's promotional poster online and it seemed like a thrill that I would want to watch. I'm a huge fan of thrillers/horror within reason. The film was directed by Yukihiko Tsutsumi while being written by Tow Ubukata. Originally the theme of the scripted was created by Yutaka Kuramochi who wrote the novel of the same name which was released in 2016. A whole cast of young actors/actresses take on the roles of the teens with some of the most well know among them being Mahiro Takasugi, Kanna Hashimoto, and Takumi Kitamura.(From the band Dish//)



   Twelve teenagers decide to met up in a place they found online to kill themselves. As the come to the building that will be used to do the deed, they find that strange things have began happening around them. This makes on sense to the teens as they are the only people who should know about this place. What makes matters worse is that a thirteenth person has made an appearance unannounced. He is given the name zero because his presence was on played but how did he get there?




   I'm not going to beat around the bush. I was very disappointed when I watched 12 Suicidal Teens. My initial reaction was excitement when I watched the trailer after seeing the movie's poster. Most of the film revolves around a mystery that could have been solved in the first half and hour. Instead the film decided to drag this mystery out for pretty much the whole duration of the film. Viewers get a plot that thinks we're stupid. It's not that hard to guess the answer to the mystery. You have your guesses but you can only have so many before you stumble on the real answer. You'll most likely get there before the film does too. When the film does start revealing answers to questions you didn't ask, nothing about the reveal really adds up to much. The characters spend most of the film discussing the mystery of who the other person was who came into their little "Suicide Club". Why does it even matter? This extra person doesn't spoil your plans nor is he going to stop you from killing yourselves as far as I could see. I did enjoy the lingering doubt that the extra person might have been a killer but the film screws that idea up. Mostly you get a bunch of teens fighting among each other like they're in a high school club meeting after school let out. Some time during the film, the characters explore around the building. Nothing really happens here though, outside of the characters explaining why they decided to take their lives. I'll have no problem saying that the characters are the best part of 12 Suicidal Teens. Even if you might feel like you could have gotten to know each one a little bit more. The script would have done better going for a more raw approach then what was shown in the final result. I took the reasons for the character's actions seriously but I didn't believe that they wanted to go through with committing actual suicide. A person who has made up in their mind that they want to exit this world will not let anything get in their way. There's a message in the film that could be meaningful to some more than others. I completely understood what was being conveyed by the film's ending. It's just that the film overall was such a flimsy package that the core inside it felt generic to me.




   12 Suicidal Teens would have been turned off after the first twenty minutes had it not been for the cast. Every single person did an amazing job setting the stage of the story. Sadly, You can't set the stage when you only have the outline of one. Everyone would end up falling right through the ground as soon as they stepped on the ground. A lot of the scenes where they were talking around the table was boring. Many of the characters's backstories made up for all the stalling though. I didn't mind the little mystery on the side either. If only they film had tried to up the suspense action bit. Then this film would have been more interesting.





   I wish I hadn't wasted my money on the DVD. I'll probably watch this again to find other things I might like about this film that I missed the first time around. Let's hope I find more reasons to not chuck this DVD in the trashcan….. DON'T BE FOOLED BY THE TRAILER.

 

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