Funky Forest: The First Contact

Film description

A surreal comedy structured like a vinyl record and a firm cult favorite. We are dazzled by sequences of pure absurdity, reminiscent of an endless stream of Japanese ads – the most bizarre and creative ones. Funky Forest is a mix of genres and styles, with a motley narration and a gallery of odd and outlandish characters who accompany us on this journey through unexpected sets and storylines, from sudden alien landings, psychedelic dream sequences and absurdly choreographed dance to barbed jokes by politically incorrect comedians, and machines connected to human bodies spitting out slime. Every screening of Funky Forest is an event of its own – a collective experience of the full spectrum of the grotesque.

The movie owes its cult status to the boundless imagination of its authors, who seem to have set one goal for themselves – to constantly push the boundaries of taste and absurdity. It is the creative collaboration of Katsuhito Ishii (author of The Taste of Tea, which also enjoys a cult status), Hajime Ishime and Shunichiro Miki. The three directors easily juggle a polemic with the aesthetics of David Cronenberg and French extreme filmmaking, a subversion of the tenets of ero guro nansensu (a sub-genre combining the erotic, the grotesque and the nonsensical) and a skewering of Japanese stereotype. The end result is the jewel in the crown of Japanese New Weird, an informal trend in Japanese cinema characterized by the poetics of decay based on deconstructing both the cinematic form and a wide array of biases and convictions about modern Japan.

text:
Łukasz Mańkowski