Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

If enjoy for example, the filmography of Takashi Miike but want something a bit more sophisticated I would advise you this is a must see. On the spectrum of those type of 'shock films', I would actually rate this a 10 star rather than an 8. It is probably the most disturbing Japanese film I have seen, and despite what the movie poster suggests, that is accomplished without any graphic depictions of sex, violence, or gore (excluding the last scene). All this to say, it is a very intense movie that left my jaw hanging open throughout the entire viewing thinking "What the f***? What am I watching?". Great movie!

This movie was quite entertaining, but I have got one very major complain about this movie. This movie did not really show how the father was bad to his daughters. The father just cared about his work, so when the daughter, Noriko and her sister ran away, did not bother him much. That showed how cruel Noriko's father is. The father even asked his wife to help him do his work, so you can see how obsessed the father is at work. As mentioned towards the end of the show, Noriko's father may even hit her if she asked him something. However, the character development for Noriko's father to see how distant he is towards his daughter could have been made much better like the movie "Click". I thought this movie should also focus more on the "Problem" rather than just the "Solution".Click really shows that when when the main character was obsessed with his work, and when his kids ask him a question, he would scold them and shout at them loudly. The movie also shows how obsessed the main character was obsessed with his work(when he got back home he just did and did his work without even caring about the kids). So you can see how distant their relationship is and feel touch for the characters. This movie did not really manage to make me feel touch because they focused too much on the solution rather than the problem. I did not really feel that the relationship of the daughter and father was very far unlike the movie CLICK. The first half an hour of this movie could have used to build up development instead of long boring dialogs. This movie still managed to be interesting though, it managed to be touching at times, especially when they are trying to solve the problem by doing some 'acting'. This movie is unique and entertaining. It is fun to watch due to its rather good storyline though poor character development. Furthermore, the ending pratically spoiled the entire film. The ending was extremely aggravating and terrible. I thought the whole problem was solved. A lot of effort was put in to solve the problem. What wrong with Noriko's sister? Why did she do something so stupid? Why did she run away? This ending is just horrible and extremely aggravating. This film somehow did not impact me as much as suicide club. I preferred suicide club to this film. Though this film was still good because it was very very entertaining though not convincing enough for me. Score: 7/10

The movie "Noriko's Dinner Table" is a long movie. And it is not one of those movies that make you forget that they are long because they are exciting, gripping, thrilling, funny,... It's just long, bland, and boring.The main pseudo-philosophical question of Noriko's Dinner Table is a simple one: "Are you connected to yourself?" The question is easily answered: I am myself, therefore I am connected to myself. So why does it take two and a half hours to try to somehow explore this question?The movie is just like the question: pointless. Furthermore it's disturbingly sick because characters act in totally unnatural ways. But not even that in an interesting way. I can't believe that this movie got only favorable reviews. Honestly I expected something special. There was nothing of that sort.

Sion Sono follows up Suicide Club/Suicide Circle with this, a telling of the story from a different perspective that, Lost-like, answers some questions from the previous movie while exchanging even more. This movie, however, is more character based, and involves the issue of role-playing in society--rather than being merely a commentary on pop culture, it's a discussion of the nature of being "connected to oneself" or, really, being who you are meant to be, not who society wants you to be or even what you were born into being.A great way in which Sono pulls this off is to have multiple voice-over narrators engage in a confessional storytelling mode. Unfortunately for international viewers, said voice-over often is delivered over dialog of the movie as well, and the sub-titles can tend to fall behind in many cases, resulting in it being difficult from time to time to tell what all is being said. Can't fault the intentions, but this movie is probably not nearly quite the experience it would be in its native language.It also commits the cardinal sin of an unjustified playlength. This movie ran about 2 1/2 hours long, but ten minutes could have been shaved off of the end. Sono attempted to justify it with a repeated motif of running away, this time with Yuka, the younger sister, but the movie had a much stronger ending on the "Let's start over" moment. Due to the introspective nature of the movie, however, it makes sense that sometimes the best ending doesn't necessarily end the idea. It's just that this is one of those movies that fades out tantalizingly several times before finally actually ending, and that gets frustrating to watch some times.--PolarisDiB