Funky Forest: The First Contact (Sub)
by Katsuhito Ishii, Shunichiro Miki, ANIKI
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Chizuru Ikewaki, Kazue Fukiishi, Kotaro Shiga, Ryo Kase, Yoshiyuki MorishitaDirector: ANIKI, Katsuhito Ishii, Shunichiro Miki
Brand: SIMON & SCHUSTER C/O VIZ MEDIA LLC
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Japanese (Original Language); English (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Animated, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 150 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-03-18
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: VIZ VIDEO
Movie Reviews of Funky Forest: The First Contact (Sub)
Movie Review: Short attention span theater
Summary: 4 Stars
A mixed-up mix
Mix up your journey to the next journey
Mixers rock
-DJ Takefumi, from the film Funky Forest: The First Contact
So, do you think you've seen it all? I would venture to say that you haven't- until you've sat through a screening of Funky Forest: The First Contact, originally released in 2005 as Naisu no mori in Japan but now available for the first time on Region 1 DVD.
The film is a collaborative effort by three Japanese directors, most notably Katsuhito Ishii (The Taste of Tea). Ishii, along with Hajime Ishimine and Shunichiro Miki, has concocted a heady "mixed-up-mix", indeed. There is really no logical way to describe this blend of dancing, slapstick, surrealism, sci-fi, animation, absurdist humor, and experimental filmmaking, married to a hip soundtrack of jazz, dub and house music without sounding like I'm high. There is no real central "story" in the traditional sense; the film is more or less an anthology of several dozen vignettes, featuring recurring characters a la late night TV sketch comedy. Some of these disparate stories and characters do eventually intersect (although usually in a somewhat oblique fashion). The film is a throwback in some ways to "channel surfing" anthology films from the 1970s like The Groove Tube, Tunnel Vision and The Kentucky Fried Movie; although it is important to note that the referential comic sensibilities are very Japanese. If a Western replica of this project were produced, it would require collaboration between Jim Jarmusch, Terry Gilliam and David Cronenberg (and a script from Charlie Kaufman).
You will need to clear some time-Funky Forest runs 2? hours long, in all its challengingly non-linear glory. So is it worth your time? Well, it probably depends on your answer to this age-old question: Does a movie necessarily have to be "about" something to be enjoyable? With an underlying spirit of winking goofiness running all throughout this unconventional weirdness, perhaps the filmmakers are just paraphrasing something that Mork from Ork once said about always retaining "a bit of mondo bozo". God knows, it's helped me get through 52 years on this silly planet.
Summary of Funky Forest: The First Contact (Sub)
Cult-favorite director Katsuhito Ishii (The Taste of Tea Shark Skin Man & Peach Hip Girl) teams up with the talented Shunichiro Miki and ANIKI to create another visually inventive masterpiece! Funky Forest features hilariously odd characters that will take you on an unpredictable cosmic journey.Three unpopular brothers Masaichi Masaru and Masao are struggling to be popular among the girls. Luckily enough they finally get a chance to have a co-ed picnic with some pretty young ladies! With 21 free-associative episodes ranging from a nonsense "sci-fi" comedy to a dance-battle daydream Funky Forest: The First Contact will challenge your mind and melt logic as its unique characters find themselves in warped dimensions way past our imagination.System Requirements:Running Time: 150 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ANIMATION/ANIME UPC: 896911001102 Manufacturer No: YFYF01One simply cannot put too fine a point on the experience of watching Funky Forest: The First Contact, a two-hour-plus, genre-defying feature from Japanese directors Katsuhito Ishii (best known for the cult hit Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl), Shunichiro Michi and Hajime Ishimine (a.k.a. Aniki): It is simply unlike any other film, but its consistently ebullient tone and absurd humor should make it a most enjoyable trip for the adventurous moviegoer. As with Ishii's previous effort, The Taste of Tea, the emphasis is on dreamlike visuals and non-linear storytelling, though here, even the most basic plotline is abandoned in favor of a series of rotating vignettes (non-sequiturs, really) about characters caught in absurd scenarios. The "Unpopular With Women Brothers" (Japanese heartthrob Tadanobu Asano, character actor Susuma Terajima, and young Anglo non-pro Andrew Alfieri) struggle to woo girls with woeful songs and complicated dances, while teacher and aspiring DJ Takefumi (Ryo Kase) attempts to win over his student Notti (Erika Nishikado) with mixes and his own elaborate dancing (which blossoms into a dream with full-blown routines opposite animated partners). Elsewhere, Susama presides over a free-form classroom full of exceptionally vocal students (who also perform a musical routine using some David Cronenberg-inspired creatures as instruments), a trio of chatty businesswomen spin elaborate stories about aliens, a dog pens anime storylines (anime legend Hideaki Anno of Neon Genesis Evangelion fame is featured in the cast), a pair of manic comedians nearly beat each other to death, and the whole thing comes to a lovely and lysergic conclusion in a dream involving Notti (Nishikado provides her own playing) and DJs tuning into the earth itself to create a sort of harmonic convergence.
Suffice it to say that Funky Forest is as bizarre as movies get, and its willful incoherence and long running time (which comes with an intermission) may be more than one viewer's undoing, but in its own fractured way, the movie does make a few gentle observations about freeing one's self of unnecessary hang-ups (about school, relationships, etc.) and finding happiness in the simple joys available in each day. And Ishii and his collaborators and cast (which includes Oscar nominee Rinko Kikuchi of Babel and several of the players from Taste of Tea and Peach Hip Girl) deliver the madness and the message with impeccable technical quality and honest and funny performances, making this a challenging but ultimately rewarding experience for independent-minded audiences and fans of the filmmakers' unique style. The DVD includes several trailers and TV spots, a making-of featurette that threatens to explain the film (but does no such thing), and director Michi's hilarious demonstration of Susama's complicated dance. -- Paul Gaita
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