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 assistant, Yûji, is suspects her paralysis to be a ruse, and wonders about a red door in her apartment which she forbids anyone to open.
Taeko is eventually confides to Yûji that she is the "Mitsuko" character she repetitively writes about, and that the novel is a retelling of her own abusive upbringing.
It is revealed that Taeko is actually Sayuri, and that it was Mitsuko who was thrown down the stairs, but survived and was subsequently rescued from her dysfunctional family and placed into foster care.
Yûji reveals himself to be an older Mitsuko, having had a sex change, and grabs a chainsaw to sever Taeko's limbs.
Back at the Strange Circus, the MC presents Sayuri with her head in the guillotine, and removes his mask to reveal himself as Gozo.
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.