Funky Forest: The First Contact

How to describe this film? It's a group of related inter-cut stories by three talented Japanese directors, but that's not really it...It's a surrealist fantasy of a bizarre reality with grotesque body parts, freaky sex and...no, wait, it's a David Cronenberg comedy where a fellow with enormous nipples pulls bloodsucking creatures out of his pants at a high school after school club. One of the most peculiar films I've ever seen, it defies categories. There are two parts, Side A and Side B, with a three minute on-screen intermission. There are wisecracking TV hosts babbling in fractured languages. And there are icky creatures that alternately make you laugh and make you sick. It's definitely not for everyone, but fans of extreme comedy and very alternative cinema will be thrilled and delighted. I thought it was awesome. 8.5/10

Funky Forest: The First Contact is a movie that defies description. It is so uncategorizable, so jaw-droppingly strange, so unlike anything you've ever seen before that you can't help but either laugh and/or shake your head in disbelief for most of its 2 and a half hour running time. The movie has no plot. Instead there are a series of loosely interconnected scenes involving various characters who say and do the strangest things. I was particularly fond of the three female co-workers who visit a spa and take turns telling each other hilariously inane stories. On top of that there is uber-hottie Tadanobu Asano, bursts of animation, unexpected song and dance numbers and some truly disturbing sci-fi elements. For the sheer weirdness factor alone, this is essential viewing.

NAISU NO MORI - FIRST CONTACT may well be the strangest film I've ever seen... a 2.5 hour head-scratcher combining the efforts of three director/writers into a whole with no discernible plot! the film is essentially a number of short stories or vignettes, mixed together and occasionally crossing over (Tadanobu Asano and Susumu Terajima appear in a large number of the scenes). The content of these pieces is extremely varied, and beyond unpredictable. There's bits of stand-up comedy, animation, music, dance and other moments that are entirely inexplicable. We spend quite a bit of time inside character's daydreams, and we make first contact with some very odd little aliens. The film even has its own commercials and (thankfully) a 3 minute intermission.

This is undoubtedly an avante-garde film, I don't know if calling it "arthouse' is appropriate because it's so silly and funny (not like the kind of austere beard-strokers that one usually calls "arthouse"). There is some truly mad stuff going on, but there doesn't appear to be any deeper meaning or message to any of it... in fact I'm not sure what the "purpose" of the film is at all, except for the film-makers to go nuts.

At 150 minutes it must be admitted that the film outstays its welcome a little... sitting in a theatre for that long it's nice to have *some* sort of narrative to get carried away on (it's enough time to spin quite an epic). NAISU NO MORI feels almost like it should be an ambient film - on at a club or something. I can't think of any more eclectic film in cinematic history. Think SURVIVE STYLE 5+ meets Kitano's GETTING ANY meets NAKED LUNCH meets Alejandro Jodorowsky meets Aphex Twin, and you're getting somewhere near where the film is at!

i went to see this film without having the slightest clue about it....

and at first i was quite disappointed; some not very inspiring animations...but then,slowly it all grew, to be more and more crazy and unbelievable, and things accelerated a whole lot...

then it appears to be commercials within each other, gags, comedy shows, circus, small short stories and in a way they have nothing to do with each other and yet they make this incredible organic of well-composed-complex movie!

so a mix with low graphics (and high), fake commercials, beautiful scenes of landscapes and things like that...wow! so all in all the the best parts of Japanese experimental films + all the best from the(Japanese) pop culture...blend it, shake it...and voilà!

I was very glad i saw this movie! really!

Nothing can prepare you even if you get a description. Very bizarre set pieces with little or no connection that was apparent to this viewer. The segments sometimes have weird grotesque imagery and sometimes are extremely commonplace. The stories follow no conventional narrative form and end in unexpected ways.

While the film doesn't have the drive of an equally strange film, "Survive Style +5", it does have a pleasant tone despite the repeated scenes with fleshy deformities, men with cow-like nipples, giant orifices and excrement like excretions. A lot of people will be turned off but the film holds a number of unexpected delights. I, for one, was delighted to hear Asano sing the Captain Harlock theme song.

Overlong, perhaps better seen in pieces, but a good film.