# Strange Circus

Strange Circus (奇妙なサーカス, Kimyō na sākasu) is a 2005 Japanese horror drama film written and directed by Sion Sono.
A narrated fiction presents the story of school principal Ozawa Gozo, who rapes his daughter, Mitsuko, after she sees her parents having sex. Her mother Sayuri witnesses the rape. Gozo now rapes both of them as he pleases, while his family is undermined by incest, suicide, and murder. This narrative is contained within a frame story written by wheelchair-using novelist Taeko. Taeko is assisted by Yuji, a young man who secretly seeks to uncover the possible origins of this story within Taeko's past, and to learn the mysteries of a locked room in her apartment.

## Plot

At the titular Strange Circus, the master of ceremonies offers the audience a chance to be placed in a guillotine. He brings a young girl onstage and asks her if she fears death; she says she has been destined to die from birth.
This sequence is revealed to be a nightmare of twelve-year-old Mitsuko Ozawa. She awakens in a panic and enters her parents' bedroom to discover them having sex. Later, her father Gozo locks her in a cello case, forcing her to witness him have sex with her mother, Sayuri. He then coerces Sayuri into the cello case, where she is forced to watch Gozo rape Mitsuko.
Following the incident, Sayuri becomes physically abusive towards Mitsuko out of jealousy. During one particularly violent altercation, Mitsuko pushes Sayuri down the stairs, killing her. Mitsuko's sanity begins to decline, and she struggles to separate her identity from her mother's. She jumps off a roof in a suicide attempt, but survives with injuries that require the use of a wheelchair.
This is all revealed to be a story written by a reclusive paraplegic novelist, Taeko Mitsuzawa. Her assistant, Yûji, suspects her paralysis to be a ruse, and decides to investigate Taeko's life after her editor encourages him to find out the truth. Taeko eventually confides to Yûji that she is the "Mitsuko" character she writes about, and that the novel is a retelling of her own abusive upbringing. When Yûji compares being sexually abused to having one's limbs amputated, Taeko decides to make Mitsuko an amputee at the end of the novel, and agrees to Yûji's suggestion to make Gozo an amputee as well. In a room in Taeko's apartment behind a red door, she inserts food through a peephole in a cello case. Yûji distracts her long enough to sneak into the room, where he orders her to return to her childhood home. She returns to the room to find the cello case empty.
Taeko arrives at Mitsuko's childhood home. Yûji takes her upstairs where they find a bloodied Gozo, alive but bound in chains and missing all his limbs. It is revealed that Taeko is actually Sayuri, and that it was Mitsuko who was thrown down the stairs, having survived the incident by entering foster care to escape her dysfunctional life. Sayuri, overwhelmed with guilt, repressed the memory and deluded herself into believing she was Mitsuko. She also pushed Gozo down the stairs after discovering his multiple infidelities, resulting in him becoming wheelchair-bound. After finishing her first novel, Sayuri adopted the moniker Taeko, stole Gozo's wheelchair, and kept him in the cello case.
Yûji reveals himself to be an older Mitsuko, having had a sex change. He takes a chainsaw and plans to sever Taeko's limbs. Taeko awakens screaming next to Yûji and asks for her wheelchair. He claims ignorance. She stands up and he insists she had never been paralyzed. She awakens again chained up in bed next to Gozo. Yûji stands over her with the chainsaw, laughing.
Back at the Strange Circus, the MC presents Sayuri with her head in the guillotine, and removes his mask to reveal himself as Gozo. Other figures from Taeko's life are present, including her editor, his brothers, Mitsuko as a teenager, Gozo's lovers, a young Mitsuko, and Yûji, all of whom give her a standing ovation. Gozo wishes her well, and the guillotine's blade drops.

## Cast

* Masumi Miyazaki as Sayuri Ozawa / Taeko Mitsuzawa
* Issei Ishida as Yûji Tamiya
* Rie Kuwana as twelve-year-old Mitsuko Ozawa
* Seiko Iwaido as teenage Mitsuko Ozawa
* Fujiko
* Madame Regine
* Tomorowo Taguchi as Taeko's Editor
* Hiroshi Ohguchi as Gozo Ozawa

## Reception

Russell Edwards of Variety wrote that the film "shocks, provokes but ultimately bores with its tasteless indulgences" and that it "will be most at home at midnight fest sidebars, or anywhere else where a trash aesthetic is embraced."