|
‘Funky Forest: The First Contact’ |
| Print |
|
E-mail
|
|
Written by Larry Clow
|
|
Wednesday, 24 January 2007 |
Naisu no mori Seisaku Iinkai, 2005
starring: Tadanobu Asano, Susumu Terajima, Andrew Alferi and Ryo Kase
directed by: Katsuhito Ishii, Hajime Ishimine and Shunichiro Miki
the plot: “Funky Forest” follows a cast of characters as mundane and ordinary as they are quirky and strange. There’s the “Unpopular-with-Women Brothers,” a trio of siblings that includes Guitar Brother, who composes clichéd love songs on his guitar (Asano); an older brother who obsessively practices an interpretive dance routine (Susumu Terajima); and a chubby boy who likes Snickers bars (Alferi). Joining them are the “Babbling Hot Springs Vixens,” a trio of young girls who share pointless anecdotes and childish insults; the Mole Brothers, a dysfunctional variety show act; and Takefumi (Kase) and Notti, a high school teacher/DJ and his teenaged pseudo-girlfriend. Meeting each other for picnics, in bizarre dreams or at after-school music lessons, the characters explore a sometimes frightening, sometimes wonderful world full of aliens and elaborate dance numbers.
why it’s good: Imagine David Cronenberg’s “Videodrome” co-directed by David Lynch and starring the combined casts of Monty Python’s Flying Circus and the Kids in the Hall. Now imagine watching that movie on mind-altering drugs, and you can almost approximate the full “Funky Forest” experience. “Forest” lacks any sort of linear narrative, and instead plays out like a sketch show without any sort of internal logic. Characters are introduced, vanish, and then reappear later, acting slightly different but still recognizable. Some of the set pieces work better than others: the Mole Brothers are fairly irritating, and a sequence involving three disgruntled animators is saved only by the inclusion of a pretty awesome animated sequence. However, there’s plenty of other material in “Forest” that will make you giggle and gasp, even if you’re unsure why. The Unpopular-with-Women Brothers are oddly touching, and the Babbling Hot Springs Vixens are cute and charming enough that you can excuse their inane exchanges. The best bits involve Notti and Takefumi, both of whom have richly bizarre dreams—Takefumi’s dream, which takes up the middle of the film, involves a spectacular dance number on a moonlit beach, involving an army of uniform-clad dancers and a giant pink animated woman. Other bits are just odd: Guitar Brother shows up near the end of the film as a coach helping a young woman practice her tennis game. Her strategy: swatting at streams of milk and orange juice that shoot out of an older man’s nipples. Later, a Cronenberg-esque blood-sucking monster attaches itself to the girl and must be shamed into detaching itself from her arm. Even those with a high tolerance for absurdity for the sake of absurdity may find their patience tested.
why you should own it: “Funky Forest” isn’t available on DVD in the United States, but it can be purchased through the film’s official Web site, www.nice-movie.com. If you’re too impatient to learn Japanese or get a region-free DVD player, clips from the movie can be found on YouTube.
|
Home
News
Features
Music
Film
Art
Literary
Food
Stage
Outside
All Stories
