Forest gets funky
Nov. 19th, 2006 06:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomusMy first contact with film director Katsuhito Ishii was seeing The Taste of Tea at the New York Asian Film Festival in 2005. I loved it, and when I watched it again last night on DVD I laughed all over again at Tatsuya Gashuin's hair and all the crazy non sequitur joke sequences, like the bit where a kid shits on a skull in a forest and is then haunted by a yakuza-like zombie with a curly turd on his head. It seems these incidental, zany details were also what pleased the director the most, because his follow-up, 2005's Funky Forest: First Contact dispenses with plot altogether.
I haven't seen Funky Forest: First Contact yet, just glimpsed trailers. But it's got some of the most breathlessly, gushingly perplexed reviews I've ever seen. Here, extracted from some of them, are descriptions of things you can see in this film:
* The girl in the after school club whose 'sport' involves using a badminton racquet to swat at the milk squirted towards her by a shy fellow with foot-long nipples, after which he starts pulling bloodsucking creatures out of his pants and tossing them at her. (Twitch)
* TVs made of giant buttholes, powered by belly button energy and capable of producing miniature sushi chefs. (Subway cinema)
* The worst comedy duo ever, all dressed in white like sperm at a formal dance.
* Three brothers who are very unpopular with women: Guitar Brother, an amalgam of every loser you ever met who writes sensitive songs for his acoustic guitar, his even lamer brother, who mimics Noh masks in his spare time, and a white kid who loves Snickers.
* The Hot Springs Vixens, who tell the most pointless stories in a Rakugo-flavored Japanese so funny that even non-speakers should be able to appreciate the rhythm and flow of it.
* Shoe obsession... and a firm belief that the secrets of the universe can be unlocked by dancing. (Cinema Strikes Back)
If you fancy seeing this in a cinema in the West, don't hold your breath. Despite winning the Audience Prize at the 2005 New York Asian Film Festival, The Taste of Tea never found a US release. Thank Santa for DVD.
I haven't seen Funky Forest: First Contact yet, just glimpsed trailers. But it's got some of the most breathlessly, gushingly perplexed reviews I've ever seen. Here, extracted from some of them, are descriptions of things you can see in this film:
* The girl in the after school club whose 'sport' involves using a badminton racquet to swat at the milk squirted towards her by a shy fellow with foot-long nipples, after which he starts pulling bloodsucking creatures out of his pants and tossing them at her. (Twitch)* TVs made of giant buttholes, powered by belly button energy and capable of producing miniature sushi chefs. (Subway cinema)
* The worst comedy duo ever, all dressed in white like sperm at a formal dance.
* Three brothers who are very unpopular with women: Guitar Brother, an amalgam of every loser you ever met who writes sensitive songs for his acoustic guitar, his even lamer brother, who mimics Noh masks in his spare time, and a white kid who loves Snickers.
* The Hot Springs Vixens, who tell the most pointless stories in a Rakugo-flavored Japanese so funny that even non-speakers should be able to appreciate the rhythm and flow of it.
* Shoe obsession... and a firm belief that the secrets of the universe can be unlocked by dancing. (Cinema Strikes Back)
If you fancy seeing this in a cinema in the West, don't hold your breath. Despite winning the Audience Prize at the 2005 New York Asian Film Festival, The Taste of Tea never found a US release. Thank Santa for DVD.
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-19 05:59 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-19 06:25 pm (UTC)cha no region 2
Date: 2006-11-19 06:32 pm (UTC)Re: cha no region 2
From:Re: cha no region 2
From:Re: cha no region 2
From:Re: cha no region 2
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2006-11-19 07:15 pm (UTC) - ExpandRe: cha no region 2
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2006-11-19 11:21 pm (UTC) - Expand(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-19 07:05 pm (UTC)I was hoping it my screen at a film festival in Los Angeles this year, but I guess I'll have to break down and order the DVD.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-19 08:14 pm (UTC)mumbles
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-19 08:31 pm (UTC)I loved the humour and the weirdness, the daring randomness. But my favourite scene was one near the end that takes place in a forest (perhaps the Funky Forest of the title?) where an imaginary band of dream spirits gives an amazing music performance, twisting knobs embedded in the trees and rocks, manipulating natural sounds into an symphony that climaxes with an overwhelming sonic orgasm.
It's a scene that is best appreciated in a theatre with a big screen and a good surround sound system. The sounds were coming from everywhere. It sometimes felt like some of the voices were coming from the audience. It was almmost trance-inducing. I wanted the scene to last forever.
i reallie like Funky Forest!!! and taste of tea
Date: 2006-11-20 02:05 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-20 07:20 pm (UTC)Hated naisu no mori.
It's like some barely average japanese sketch show with hipster sensibilites and special effects that goes on for 90 minutes too long.
grammar niggle
Date: 2006-11-20 07:39 pm (UTC)Isn't being haunted by turdcurly after dumping on a skull more
of a sequitur than nonesuch? You call it "sequence", &
it does seem actually to follow.
Has the nippleking been scarfing down risperidone, notable for
having lactation as a side-effect (for both sexes, yes)? That might
tone down the madness, alas.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-20 10:07 pm (UTC)I'm a huge fan of Taste of Tea... Sharkskin Man, and not quite so much Party 7....
This film was not nearly as fun as it should have been.
its 2.5 hours long, and feels like 6. Extraordinarily long musical/modern dance sequences that don't add to the movie at all. The complete lack of plot is sometimes an ok thing, but it just seems like a big joke on the viewer in this one.
Its pretty obvious that the other 2 directors held too much influence on the final outcome of the project. (Ishii was one of 3 co-directors of this project).
Lots of times Japanese films can come off seeming very silly and trivial, but upon further inspection, actually have a lot going for them in terms of mood or emotion. I think "Survive Style 5+" is a good example of a film that at first glance appears to have no substance, when in fact it really does.
Funky forest on the other hand just comes off as a joke...
I think it could have been a possible amazing joke if condensed by about an hour. Also... not being japanese probably hurts a lot... as the hot springs vixens "rakugo-flavored japanese" did not come across to this non-japanese speaker. the "worst comedy duo ever" were indeed just that. Tadanobu (one of my favorite actors ever) just looked a bit bored by the whole joke... the wacky alien-esque creatures weren't anything you haven't already scene in a david cronenberg movie.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-24 03:26 am (UTC)(no subject)
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 2006-11-24 03:29 am (UTC) - Expand(no subject)
Date: 2006-11-25 11:47 am (UTC)