I am going to preface this article with a warning, as I have in the past. The film I am about to discuss is an incredibly accurate portrayal of the long term effects of sexual abuse on children. This piece may be considered triggering to victims of past abuse, and this article will spoil the movie. This discussion will include my own personal opinions, as I experienced very similar abuse and am here to dissect this film to make sense of it. Without further ado, I am here to discuss spousal abuse and long term effects of childhood sexual abuse as portrayed in Sion Sono’s 2005 art film, Strange Circus.
The beginning dialogue starts with Mitsuko being asked by the ringleader of the carnival:
“Are you afraid to die?”
“It’s almost like I was born on the execution stand anyway,” Mitsuko replies. “If not, I was born to my mother as she awaited execution. I’ve been standing there for her ever since. Many execution tools are hidden all over the house. As I grew up, I began to notice the traps everywhere. If you don’t figure them out, you’re dead.”
In my own personal experience, sexual abuse gives the victim a sense of never having a chance to be normal. The victim is constantly walking on eggshells, waiting for the abuse to continue. The shame and self-blame begin very early for these victims, as they are too young to understand why these things are happening to them. Spending an extended amount of time with an abuser causes a deep terror, an anxiety different from your standard panic. This terror is knowing what is going to happen, not being able to prevent it from happening, and not knowing when it will start again.
Sexual abuse is not something that happens overnight. The victim is usually groomed, meaning that they are slowly exposed to inappropriate sexual materials, special treatment, and general conditioning to make the victim believe that the abuse is normal. This is first shown when Mitsuko accidentally walks in on her parents having sex, and, instead of stopping, her father Gozo looks her in the eye and smiles as she runs away. This gives Mitsuko the message that she is welcome to watch, even though she understands that what she is seeing is inappropriate.
The grooming continues as Mitsuko is called into her father’s office (as he is the principal of her school) and as she enters the office, her father has pornography projected onto the wall. This is an accurate portrayal of not only grooming, but also the overt sexualization that comes with abuse. Once a victim begins to be exposed to these inappropriate sexual factors, everything seems sexualized. They begin to become paranoid that they will continue to be exposed to more uncomfortable sexual content. Another example of conditioning Mitsuko to the sexual abuse is when her father asks her “I am a man. Are you a man or a woman?” as pornography continues to play in the background. Mitsuko admits she is a woman and Gozo smiles. After Mitsuko leaves the office, the hallways are bloody and visceral. This is representative of her wounds beginning to open, as the hallways continue to be bloody throughout the film. They never return to the white, pristine shade they were when she was walking to the office to speak to her father. Once the process of grooming begins, there is a loss of innocence and peace that the victim will never find again. There is also a common problem with triggers and intrusive thoughts, as seen when Mitsuko winces as she hears the ferris wheel creaking.
“I have avoided all other traps,” Mitsuko says, “but having sex with my father was one step towards my execution. I was twelve.”
After the scene in the office, the abuse truly begins for Mitsuko. Her father locks her in a cello case with a small hole drilled into the side. He places the case in his bedroom and forces the young girl to watch him have sex with her mother. He then takes things a step further and begins to rape Mitsuko when her mother isn’t home. Her mother eventually walks in on her daughter being raped, and does nothing. Soon, mother and daughter are forced to have sex with Gozo in turn. “I am her, and she is me,” Mitsuko says. “I turned into my mother as he kept loving me…I finally started to enjoy having sex with my father, because I became my mother.” Many times when victims experience this level of sexual abuse, they see the world differently. Shortly after my personal abuse began, I grew up very quickly. Looking back, I did not have much of a childhood, because the things that were expected of me were adult matters that I didn’t understand but were expected to fulfill. Everything became tainted, hyper-sexualized, and I felt like an adult when I was still a child. This same experience is seen in Mitsuko, as she embraces “becoming her mother” and accepting her sexual abuse as a normal part of her life. But, the damage of sexual abuse is not seen until later in life and parental incest leaves the victim open to more serious forms of psychological trauma. Mitsuko attempts suicide, as suicidal ideation is a common symptom in the aftermath of sexual abuse.
Mitsuko is not the only victim in this situation, however. Her mother, Sayuri, suffers unwanted sexual exposure from her husband as well. While is is not made clear as to why Sayuri does not seek help, law enforcement authority, or a divorce, one can guess it is because her husband is wealthy and in a position of power over the mother and daughter. Many parents do not believe their children because it is easier than facing the fact that they have indeed married a pedophile. Still, forcing Sayuri to watch as he rapes their daughter is a form of domestic violence. This causes her to have PSTD and other assorted issues later in the film.
From the time Mitsuko attempts suicide and lives, it is revealed that the entire movie up until this point was a story written by a mysterious female author named Taeko. She receives a new assistant from her publisher, Yuji, who expresses that he has always wanted to work with her. His publishers mock him for having “no libido” and not acting on sexual impulses. Taeko is confined to a wheelchair, leading Yuji to believe that her novel is an autobiography, which Taeko denies. However, in private, Taeko reveals that she is, in fact, able to walk. She writes in a private room with a cello case, talking to it like a child, and even goes as far as to shove food in the hole in the front of the case.
Going out of chronological order (as not to confuse anyone, this film is very dystopic and includes many flashbacks, dreams, etc), it is revealed that Taeko is not writing an autobiography, she is writing the story of her daughter. Yuji helps her remember everything, revealing his scars from his mastectomy, revealing that he is actually Mitsuko and Taeko is Sayuri, who became delusional after her daughter was taken away from her for abuse. Yuji refers to how Sayuri truly believed that she was Mitsuko, even going as far as to go to school in Mitsuko’s place, wearing her nametag. As Yuri works with Taeko, there are intermittent flashbacks of Mitsuko self harming as she continues to live with Gozo, who neglects her. These are revealed to be Sayuri’s experiences, as she continues her delusion of identifying as her daughter. Gozo is shown to Sayuri, a chained and bloodied torso in the bed he raped both women in. She goes through dream sequences, eventually waking up chained in bed next to her husband, while Yuri wields a chainsaw screaming “which is the dream?”
Going into my own experience with sexual abuse, I had a lot of nightmares as a young adult. Eventually the nightmares got so bad, as a result of the PTSD I was suffering, that my dreams and reality bled together. I began to have a hard time distinguishing what was real and what I had dreamt. Yuji and Sayuri both experience this same delusion, as Sayuri cannot even distinguish her identity from her daughter’s, and Yuji realizes this and manipulates Sayuri’s delusion. Through therapy, I was able to step back and make a distinction, which is what I believe happened with Yuji after he was taken away from his abusive father. He recognizes this delusion that his mother is experiencing, and makes her feel crazier because of it.
This film is incredibly confusing and requires the full attention of the viewer. This film is also full of metaphors relating to the cycle of abuse that are easily missed by viewers that have not suffered the same abuse. Sion Sono creates this horrific narrative of the reality of sexual abuse, and what happens when it goes untreated. Upon first viewing of this film, I was sixteen years old and just coming to terms with my own abuse. Coming from someone who has experienced these same things, Strange Circus is a most accurate portrayal of the confusing journey through grooming, abuse, and distinguishing reality from fantasy. Could he have made a film with a clearer message? Absolutely. Strange Circus needs to be viewed multiple times to catch every detail, and there is not a detailed synopsis online, so the viewer is left to their own interpretation. If they have not been abused, the film can be seen as art film nonsense. However, to those of us who have suffered and survived, Strange Circus reminds us that our path is long, but we are far from alone.
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