The People Garden

I saw it at BAFICI, South America's largest film festival for independent cinema in 2016. The film does not easily fit into a genre and so will not appeal to everyone. It is a little like Yorgos Lanthimos directed Lost In Translation. The film is unique in that it disguises itself as a mystery: the disappearance of a rock star during the filming of a music video in a Japanese forest. But, underneath its eerie atmosphere there is a minimalist story about loss. The film plays almost as as a haunting love song, more than a narrative story. I saw it at the same time as another Canadian indie film Les Demos Phillipe Lesage and I thought both works showed promise from their writer/directors. The good work of its protagonist, Dree Hemingway (great - granddaughter of the writer), and an unrecognizable Pamela Anderson are part of the appeal.

This was truly an exercise in futility and fairly pretentious to boot. The most annoying thing was the start of the movie where a young woman is dropped off to meet her boyfriend at a forest in a foreign country by some dodgy random taxi driver, given some tape and told to find her way through a forest in the middle of nowhere to meet her boyfriend lol This prepares the viewer for the utter monotony and crass film making that is to come.

What also annoyed me is that it looks like a forest in Canada somewhere with the log cabins and not the real Aokigahara Forest which even if you did not know what it looks like this location evoked none of the setting of the real place that movies like the brilliant Sea Of Trees or even The Forest gives to the viewer.

The story itself for what it is consists of very little except throwing Pamela Anderson into the mix and giving the obligatory nude scene to fill the monotony of it all. Why can we not have the majority of the money spent on a good story, set locations, effects and give some decent; perhaps unknown aspiring actors a chance instead of blowing the load on Z-list actors so that their names appear on the Poster or Dvd sleeve to attract the unwary viewers - I note in the credits that even some of the money was spent on a personal driver and security for Ms Anderson lol What a joke!

This is a real dung-heap of a movie from the stilted and wooden acting to the minimal plot and terrible direction, even the photography is woeful and they fill and pad every scene with smoking of cigarettes; i almost thought it was an advert for Marlboro.

Avoid this at all costs - I really should have known when I saw Pamela Anderson in the credit list but I gave it a chance as I am interested in the lore of the Aokigahara Forest but sadly there is none of the atmosphere of the movies that have been set there in the past or any tension at all.

The plot summary was intriguing and the film started off well. From a point though it just drifts, as if the writer and director ran out of ideas. Quite disappointing.

Sweetpea (Dree Hemingway) arrives in Japan to break up with her boyfriend Jamie. A stranger named Mak picks her up at the airport and leaves her at the entrance to a mysterious forest. She speaks no Japanese and is told to walk in by herself. She encounters a girl and eventually finds Jamie's film crew. Mak is there waiting. She is told that Jamie is missing and nothing seems right. Signe (Pamela Anderson) is the lead actress.

This movie starts with an intriguing premise. She has traveled halfway around the world to break up with her boyfriend. It's intriguing. She doesn't do it in text or in an email. She has to confront him face to face. For some reason, Japan's suicide forest has ignited the imagination of some movies. The problem is that they keep trying to use it in horrors and supernatural thrillers. It seems tacky and cultural ignorant. Even worst, it's lazy. The movie sets up a mood and the intriguing start. Then the movie stalls. It has no ideas. At first, the mystery of Mak hold some interest but that fades quickly. It makes no sense why Sweetpea would be so concerned about a guy whom she intends to break up with. By that point, even the initial intriguing premise is corrupted by the story. I'm not sure what filmmaker Nadia Litz is attempting. This is like a campfire ghost story which bored the kids to sleep.

If you're expecting a straight up mystery thriller or horror film you'll be disappointed. However, if you keep an open mind you will be rewarded with a poignant & romantic story about moving on.

Failing actress Sweetpea (Dree Hemingway) travels to a music video shoot in rural Japan to break up with her neglectful rock star boyfriend (Francois Arnaud). Arriving at the remote location, she discovers he's gone missing. Is he just trying to avoid her? OR is there something more malevolent behind his disappearance? Looking like a Project Runway Jake Gittes, Sweetpea teams up with local forest warden Mak (Jai West), who has his own hidden agenda, to find her lost love. As the story meanders around the creepy forest, Sweetpea slowly realizes solving her boyfriend's missing persons case isn't the point. She's a typically self-obsessed young woman who can't see the forest from the trees. All the clues are there yet she remains oblivious to their meaning. Is she just protecting herself from the hard truth?

This is a finely crafted, assuredly directed film where all the small parts elegantly come together. The acting is great all around, with the elegant Hemingway and understated Jai West being true discoveries. There's also a delightful cameo by Pamela Anderson, who plays with and against type as an aging supermodel who may know more than she lets on. Technical credits are solid with the production design complementing the austere cinematography. Kate Bush's "Running up that Hill" lends an effective coda to the proceedings.

Definitely worth a look if you get a chance.