There are several ways to die. E.g. you can hang yourself, consume poison, jump in front of a speeding vehicle (preferably a train), jumping off from a tall building, and there are some extreme machines used in ancient India to kill yourself. Death is guaranteed. This is all what you get in the Suicide Manual. Directed by Osamu Fukutani, Jisatsu Manyuaru (English Title: Suicide Manual) is yet another Japanese Horror movie based on suicide or rather on the obsession of suicide after the massive success of another suicide-theme based Jap flick Jisatsu Sakura (2001) (English Title: Suicide Club).

After a bunch of teenagers committing a group suicide by using carbon monoxide in their apartment, Journalist Yuu (Kenji Mizuhashi) and his assistant Rie (Chisato Morishita) begin to investigate the matter. As suicide has become the latest trend in Japan, the journalist duo has a great opportunity to make a successful story on it. Further investigation leads to the discovery of an unnamed DVD which is nothing but a copy of the Suicide Manual which is in circulation for some time. Even the existence of an online suicide message board surfaces with a name of a woman called Rikki.

What’s new in Jisatsu Manyuaru? An over enthusiastic duo of journalist and couple of weirdo who thinks that committing suicide is “so cool”.  The story is quite weak and lacks substance. Though Jisatsu Sakura was based on the theme of suicide, this Japanese movie is unable to give us something unique in terms of story telling capacity. The city, which is witnessing so many random group suicides, is totally silent about it. The only people interested in this matter are our Journalist duo from Ax TV.  The acting was quite mediocre and especially Rie, the assistant of Yuu has been standing like a mannequin in the background in most of the scenes. However, if you like to watch Asian movies with the weirdest kinds of themes, then you can give a try to the Suicide Manual.

Watch the trailer of Jisatsu Manyuaru

My Rating – 4/10
Learn more about the movie on here.

Leave a Reply