#1. Noriko's Dinner Table (2005)
Directed by: Sion Sono
It has been around 7 years since I first saw "Noriko's Dinner Table" and it's also been about 7 years since it became my hands down favourite film of all time. 7 years is a long time and I've seen a lot movies in that time, a lot of fantastic films but not once has another film ever even come close to dethroning this beautiful, sentimental, twisted, family drama epic.
I had seen "Suicide Club" nearly a year prior and hated it but once I heard that there was a sequel and that it was called "Noriko's Dinner Table" of all things I couldn't help but be curious. I didn't know what to expect, and if you're expecting "Suicide Club 2" you've got a completely different thing coming.
The first thing that hit me was the music. Through out the entire film the music is peaceful and dreamy and really captures the small town feel of Toyokawa where the lead characters are from. Even during tense moments the music is always friendly and inviting which keeps a very consistent tone and makes the film instantly hypnotic.
The thing that will probably annoy people most about this film is the constant use of narration. Each chapter is following one character of this family and every chapter is almost entirely filled with the characters narrating everything. This definitely should be annoying but Sono's dialog has always worked for me for some reason.
The acting really impressed me. Many of the actors are playing characters who are acting as other characters and they're played in a way where you really notice that and you can see the layers each character has picked up over the course of the film.
"Noriko's Dinner Table" is 2.5 hours long and slow as molasses but in my opinion is better for it. This is a movie where it feels exactly as long as it is. I remember during my first viewing and being around 95 minutes in figuring the film would be nearly over and how overjoyed I was to find there was still another hour left.
Overall, it's a movie that shouldn't work on any level. It's long, slow, heavily narrated with subtitles and is billed as the sequel to an extremely violent cult film when it is sparsely violent but in the end it's a far more interesting and unique film for it. I think this is really the most genuine look at Sion Sono's style as a lot of his other films have carried this sentimentality and mood even if they're masked by some more wild elements.