Sion Sono’s The Forest Of Love recently hit Netflix. Sometimes just one movie is worth your entire monthly subscription. This is one of those films.
I will start off by saying that The Forest Of Love won’t be for everyone. Japanese director Sion Sono (Suicide Club, Love Exposure, Why Don’t You Play In Hell, Strange Circus, Tag, Cold Fish) is known for his off-the-wall insanity. If you have seen any of the above-mentioned movies, and you enjoyed the messy murderous chaos and havoc that came with each one…continue reading.
THE FOREST OF LOVE – What Is It About?
With a huge runtime of 2hrs and 30 minutes, you better be in the mood to get your mind fucked with. A group of friends decide to make a film to try and get into a film festival. The film is about their friend and her new mysterious partner, Joe Murata. Joe Murata is an obvious con-artist from the moment we see him on screen. When one of the amateur filmmakers recognises the man as being really dangerous they begin to think that he could be a serial killer.
This is one of the craziest films I have seen in quite a while. And hey! surprise surprise, it’s from Japan. When it gets going the level of violence in The Forest Of Love is pretty damn shocking. There are also some really funny scenes throughout the film. This boils down to the Joe Murata character played by Kippei Shina, In a way, his character reminded me of the lead in Cold Fish (also a Sion Sono movie). The energy that man can get out of his leads makes me believe that his cast could be on some sort of performance-enhancing drugs.
It acting from everyone is just so good, the characters are interesting and the story never stops developing as it descends into bloodsoaked madness.
The Forest Of Love is now on Netflix. As always, thanks for reading.
Words by Gary Gamble
Founder/Owner/BigCheese @ Moviehooker
