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Funky Forest: The First Contact

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An artistic masterpiece or just one very odd film? Depending on the viewer, "FUNKY FOREST" (or "Nice no Mori") could be anything I suppose. And I think that because it's so strange, fun and at times, mind boggling, it's why I the film has become a cult-hit.

I am quite familiar with the work of Katsuhito Ishii, who definitely received some rave reviews for his film "The Taste of Tea" at the Cannes Film Festival but what happens when you take one of the most popular abstract and creative directors and pair him up with equally creative filmmakers such as Shunichiro Miki and ANIKI, you're definitely going to get something wild, unique and something you probably never have seen before.

To explain "FUNKY FOREST" would be a bit difficult. It's not written as a straightforward film. There is no actual climatic points or anything like that. It's 21 free-associative short episodes featuring some of the weirdest characters and also cameos by well-known Japanese talent.

For example,"Little Hataru" is a single segment starring a young girl who is bored and bored of homework, so she has the ability to leave reality and enter some sort of dimension, space or time or does she?

One of my favorite segments in the film are featuring the the Guitar Brothers. Three unpopular brothers, Katsuichi, Masaru and Masao. For their storyline, Katsuichi (Terajima) tries to learn dance but eventually goes to the Hot Springs where he encounters three beautiful women and tries to develop the guts to ask them out for a singles party. Masaru (Asano) is a guitarist. A very good guitarist but somehow he tries to get the approval of his little brother, a Caucasian/portly child who is constantly eating Snicker bars and responds with bad/limited Japanese.

Another favorite segment is "Notti and Takefumi". Two young adults, Notti (or Nocchi) likes jogging and spending time with Takefumi. Takefumi teaches English, has an awesome vinyl collection (which I'm crediting to filmmaker ANIKI for including his passion for vinyl's in this segment) but despite being close, they are dating but not dating. There is no romantic relationship, they look very close but somehow aren't. But they enjoy each other's company. A very intriguing relationship by these two individuals and fun segment to watch.

The Mole Brothers is reminscent to a lot of comedic duos in Japan who have their bit of slapping the other person behind the head and all in all, just telling jokes that may or may not be funny.

Babbling Hot Spring Vixens feature three young women taking a trip to the hot springs and telling the stories that they had in their life (or what other's are having). For this segment, the women meet Masaichi (of the Guitar Brothers) and have fun with him by singing happy birthday and giving him 10,000 Yen. And Katsuichi may have found love and tries to ask one of the women out to a single's party. Then one of the girls tells a story that she heard from Takefumi (from the Notti and Takefumi story) about aliens and entering a UFO.

After the first 70 minutes of the film, you get a 3-minute intermission. If you thought the first half was quite weird, your in for a ride as the second half of the film just gets wilder, stranger and also much more enjoyable!

The second half starts off with "Wanna Go For a Drink?" featuring a girl who runs into a guy wearing an animal suit but with its tail coming out of his frontal region. The guy asks the teenager to pull his tail and she thinks she's on candid camera or something. Once she pulls it, she's joined by a slick-haired Takefumi wearing the top half of a black tie and suit and underwear. It appears these people may be aliens. They ask her to stick something in her bellybutton which allows them to start their machine.

One of my favorite segments from the second half of the film is "Homeroom Room!!!" featuring Masaichi (Guitar Brothers) teaching a class of students young and old. Special note: Among the students are Hideaki Anno (creator of the anime "Neon Genesis Evangelion"), who also has a few parts of him acting throughout the film. In one segment, one students is ticked because someone stole one of his shoes and goes through a long dialogue blaming his class, until he sits back down and you realize he is wearing both shoes. The next segment features Ms. Kikuchi (a cameo by Academy Award nominee, "Babel" actress Rinko Kikuchi) playing the class president who has her class repeat her "yankee" (bully) like talk.

"Guitar Brothers" makes its return in the second half with a hilarious piece because you know that Masaru (Asano) is talking to Masao (Alfieri) in Japanese and Masao has no idea what he's saying but it's just funny to watch. Especially when Masaichi invites them for ramen and Masao just jumps up and down with excitement saying "iku iku" (which is term in Japan used for something a bit nasty) instead of "ikou ikou".

But then the aliens (CGI) start to become part of the storyline as some of the classmates from "Home Room!!!" start to play with the aliens as musical instruments. And even revealing that some of these students may be aliens themselves. Such as a scene where one student holding an alien, has another student plugging that alien's tentacle to his rear. Another scene features a stump-like thing (or a nude woman laying down with her legs up in the air) and out of these stump are branches of little alien men. One has a unhappy face, so one must stroke his tentacle to make him happy.

These are examples of the wild storylines from each of the 21 episodes included in "FUNKY FOREST". It's hard to even explain the film but what I like about the film is how much was improvised and how creative the director's had in creating such an unsually odd, unique but entertaining film.

VIDEO & AUDIO:

The original film was shot in 35mm and is presented with an aspect ratio of 1:85:1 and is featured in anamorphic widescreen (16:9). The film is shot in so many locations, indoor, outdoor, cramped rooms, hot springs, parks, schools, etc. As for the audio, the primary film is mostly dialogue but during the scenes that feature music, your home theater system literally blasts off with the audio really blaring out in full force.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Before talking about the features, this release features two DVD's. The first disc features the movie and has two types of chapter menus. The Director's Chapter menu is primarily if you want to watch the segments directed by either Ishii, Miki or ANIKI. Definitely a thumbs up for the DVD featuring these two different types of menu. The first disc also features the original Japanese theatrical, television and teaser trailers.

The second DVD has a few special features which are:

* The Making of "Funky Forest" - "Into the World of the Unfathomable Forest" - This feature is about 70-minutes long and was a blast to watch. One thing that I enjoyed was seeing all the cameos of actors I have seen on Japanese television before pretty much excited with working with one of these directors and knowing how weird the project will be but because of that, really wanting to be involved. Also, hearing from the other talent who had a blast to take part in the film and literally improvise. That was fun! But I think the coolest part featured anime director Hideaki Anno ("Neon Genesis Evangelion", "Gunbuster", "Kare Kano", etc.) and his interview and even some of the staff having their special edition DVD's signed by him because they were such big fans. So, overall this was an awesome special feature.
* "Katsuichi's Dance" Secret Treasure (A Choreography Lesson Video) - This features a segment in the beginning where Katsuichi has to dance and basically a behind-the-scenes choreography in which actor Susumu Terajima had to learn the dance moves.
* "The Transfer Student is Here" (Video Contents) - This is more or less the storyboard like work from this segment.
* Viz Pictures Presents - Trailers of other film releases from Viz Pictures

When it comes to odd films, creative or artistic type of films, I'm actually quite open to them and always interested in seeing how fresh the ideas can come from a director or in this case directors. I've heard so much about the creativity behind Katsuhito Ishii's "The Taste of Tea" and so, I was very much interested in watching "FUNKY FOREST: The First Contact".

This is a type of film, sort of like looking at an abstract piece of art. Everyone has their own interpretation. Some may find it beautiful, some may find it refreshing and unique, some may find it bland and some may find it uninteresting. This is one of those type of films that some will get and some won't.

There are a lot of dream sequences that can be interpreted in many types of ways, the appearances of aliens can either mean that the people we are watching are indeed aliens or just a manifestation of boredom or stress. It's one of those films that you just don't analyze or figure out what, you just sit and watch and just laugh and enjoy because of its unique and strange presentation.

There are some visual references that possibly can be considered as sexual or even nasty (ie. stroking an alien's tentacle up and down to make it happy) or an alien with odd-shaped nipples that shoots out a variety of things from them. Or a bulbous type of whatever you may want to call it, that comes out of the butt of an alien. These are not meant to be taken seriously, but they are funny to watch nonetheless.

Granted, of the 21-episodes, not all of them are winners. There are some that I felt were a bit too long (such as Takefumi's dream sequence) and perhaps a difference in Western perspective, Katsuichi's dance also was OK. But that is another thing that makes this film special is that each episode, outside of the guys trying to get some women to attend their single's picnic, the majority of the segments can be watched in any order and you can skip a segment and not really miss anything integral to the storyline.

So, all in all, the film was very odd but also very fun to watch. Depending on the individual, this film is literally like an abstract piece of art and like any piece of art, anyone can have their own interpretation.

As for the DVD, it made the film even much more enjoyable for me by the inclusion of the "making of" featurette and to see the behind-the-scenes creation of the film was a blast!

In the end, this film is not going to be for everyone, but if you are the type that is up for anything different, unique and strange, then "FUNKY FOREST: The First Contact" is a movie worth checking out!

Funky Forest: The First Contact is laugh out loud loopy -- the most fun I've had watching a film in a long time. Bad comedians, bizarre dance routines, a show and tell classroom, a canine director of animated films, aliens who hope to take over the world, geeky brothers, a funky forest that delivers otherworldly pop, and lots more go into this almost indescribably odd and hilarious film from the maker of The Taste of Tea.

The best description I can think of for Funky Forest: The First Contact is: a Japanese avant-garde science fiction musical comedy television network film. If that doesn't make any sense, or if that doesn't entice your interest, there may be nothing I can say that can convey how delightful and funny and quirky and charming this film really is.

But here's another go: imagine you find yourself in a cheap Tokyo hotel above a busy neon bright city street, and you may have had one too many drinks of sake or maybe not since you can't really remember how you ended up in a hotel room in Japan in the first place, but you can't sleep and you are bored so you turn on the television and start flipping through the channels and each program is a little more strange than the last one and you start to wonder whether you are really asleep after all and dreaming but you think to yourself that your dreams usually aren't so odd and funny and colorful and you don't want to wake up because you are having too much fun. Watching Funky Forest is a little bit like that, but maybe even better.

If you are going to watch this movie, it will help if you go into it not expecting anything resembling a normal movie. I have to admit that I had a pretty violently negative reaction to it at first, and I turned it off at about the 15 or 20 minute mark. After reading some online reviews, I decided to give it another chance when I was in a more receptive frame of mind, and I had a somewhat better time with it. I still think that it's too long, and it has some boring stuff I would have cut (particularly the "babbling hot springs vixens" parts), but if you're willing to stick with it, it becomes an interesting experience. It may seem pretty disjointed at first, and to some, the movie may seem like a collection of completely random, unconnected vignettes, but I think that structuring the movie this way possibly makes it a less frustrating experience that it might have been otherwise because you're not likely to feel that the movie has an intricate plot that is impossible to follow, and if you start to get bored with any particular segment, it's probably pretty close to being over.

It is a bit like channel surfing through strange Japanese tv at 3 am, which is both good and bad. It might help a little if, instead of looking at this as a movie, you look at it a little bit more like a filmed piece of performance art or a really, really strange concert film/extended music video. It would be fair to call the film "dreamlike," but it's worth remembering that the vast majority of dreams that people have would probably make for rather dull viewing.

I would offer a few of pieces of advice for those interested in seeing this movie:

1. If you are not familiar with the names Katsuhito Ishii or Tadanobu Asano, then don't bother with this movie. You probably won't get much out of it.

2. If you have ever turned off a movie because it was "too weird," then don't bother with it.

3. If you start to feel like giving up on the movie during the early part of the film, skip ahead to about the 50 minute mark. I think that this is the point where the film starts to get a little bit better (Overall, I think that the "Side B" half of the film is stronger than the first half, and it has a pretty nifty anime sequence).

4. This may be a movie that's best watched in small doses. Watching "side A" one night and then "side B" the next might be a less frustrating experience.

Overall, I'm not sure that this is a film I would recommend to anyone, but you're not likely to find anything else quite like it.

if someone took random outtakes from the cutting room floor of various Japanese movies - then glued them together - it would resemble this film - there is no apparent connection between the scenes - except for their tedium

it reminds me of a scene in the Japanese film SUMMER TIME MACHINE BLUES - where a movie ticket seller clad in a Star Trek uniform - tries to convince a young man to see a C-level scifi film by bragging that "it's really boring!" - this coulda been the film they were talking about

I caught this on an imported DVD and can't wait to pick up the US release. I wasn't sure what to expect at first, since this is partially spun off of some coffee commercials from Japan. When I was done, I wanted to go back and experience it all over again. The plot? There really is no plot. It's a big hodge podge of skits (both live action and animated) that seem to be meant to make you feel, more than make you think. Most of them are fantastic (and fantastical). Humor, dance and music are used extensively throughout the film. Really, if you love odd, non linear films that soar, I can't recommend this enough. If you like your films to be realistic or easily explained, this will drive you up a wall. Do yourself a favor and seek out the trailer or clips first.

Another reviewer used the adjective lysergic. You should look that word up if you aren't familiar with it - but if you are experienced just settle yourself down for a movie which is difficult, frustrating, uncomfortable - and ultimately - more rewarding than any you've seen in a long time.

(Note: Mileage may vary - this is not a middling experience, you may have a strong reaction, even if it is to turn it off before it goes anywhere.)

Japanese films have always been able to blend brilliance with oddball flair, art, commerce, screwball comedy and uninhibited anarchic craziness. Never before has one movie made me say "What the Heck?" more times in one viewing. FUNKY FOREST: FIRST CONTACT (2005, Naiso No Mori: First Contact) is one film that will bewilder and dazzle you, with its very bizarre execution and `extremist filmmaking. The film is a collaboration between three renowned Japanese filmmakers; Katsuhito Ishii (Party 7), Hajime Ishimine (Frog River) and Shunichiro Miki (Evangelion 1.0) and if you're familiar with Ishii's films, you know that they're usually for the esoteric audience very adulterated to this style.

Synopsis partially derived from the back cover:
Three very unpopular brothers, Katsuichi, Masaru, Masao are struggling to meet some pretty ladies. Luckily enough, they get a chance to have a `singles' picnic with a trio of pretty young girls! With 21 free-associative episodes from sci-fi nonsense to a dance-battle daydream, the film will challenge your mind and logic with its crew of very outrageous characters as they find themselves warped into dimensions way past our imagination--you'll have to see it to believe it!

This film may well be the MOST original production that I may have ever come across. It blends screwball comedy, science fiction and experimentalism in a hyper-accelerative imagination to attain new cinematic heights. This flick is like a series of illustrations and sketches gone insanely wild; CGI fantasies and daydreams, musical numbers, very weird dancing, hilarious high school high-jinks, what you will get is a mental constitution dipped in the bizarre, the bizarre blended with the weird.

Truth be told, the film has no plot, well, not in a linear fashion anyway. The film is just a surreal experience that takes some elements from "Sharkskin Man and Peach hip hop Girl", "Party 7" and "A Taste of Tea" to blend in sheer anarchic proceedings. The film has a somewhat fragmented style, the film's narration is just as odd as its characters. The film is split into Side A and Side B (not to worry, you don't have to flip the disc) with a 3 minute intermission during the mid-halfway point to give your brain a chance to relax.

The less you know about this film, the better. It's appreciation would have to come from its `shock' value. But I will try to illustrate some elements that you're in for.

The Unpopular with Women Boys- The guitar brother (Tadanobu Asano) learns to play the instrument to impress women, while his brother Tanaka does the Kabuki dance with the same motivation. They have a younger brother who is Caucasian and loves to eat candy bars.
The Hot Spring Vixen Babes- Three pretty Japanese women (Chizuru Ikewaki plays one of them) who tell elaborate and wild stories including the alien Piko-Riko, Buck Naked and the Panda, and the tree and the neighbors; these sketches really made me crack up!
Notti and Takefumi- Takefumi (Ryo Kase) is an English teacher, who loves to sound mix and aspires to become a DJ. Notti is a very attractive student who likes to hang out with Takefumi but the two hasn't become lovers and they are "dating" without "dating".

Combined with the Mole Brothers, the Bloodsuckers, the Homeroom kids and their teacher and "Pero the dog director", and you have one heck of a mind-freak. (I can't say the "F" word here) The film is impressive, it offers quite a number of impressive stories within a story; there definitely is a plot in "Funky Forest". It will `free' and `melt' your mind and definitely immerse you in a wacky and bizarre experience that you won't have time to worry just what the story is all about. There are quite a number of familiar faces from "A Taste of Tea" and "Josee". Rinko Kikuchi (Babel) and one of the "Swing Girls" even makes an appearance.

One small fault the film may have is that at 150 minutes, it may feel too long. I think it would benefited if the film was more compressed and shorter in length. The non-linear style may also alienate some viewers but I do think it is part of its charm. I am still cracking up at the stories of the "Hot Spring Vixen Babes" while I'm writing this review. The film has a lot of characters so careful attention will be required. The film has a lot of suggestive themes when it regards to some of its aspects so it does have the "explicit content" marked on its dvd cover.

"FUNKY FOREST: First Contact" is NOT a film for everyone. The film is definitely flaky, bizarre, a hoot at times, but definitely has high marks for its originality and direction. It still has a lot of "funky" warmth and charm beneath its archaic segments and the characters just have to be seen to be believed. There are so many ideas and visuals in the film that it was amazing just how Ishii and company managed to pull it off. "Funky Forest" pushes the boundaries of filmmaking, it is comforting but encourages confrontation, it is refreshing as it is bizarre; the film is a visual maelstrom of creative images and ideas that doesn't make any sense--but in a weird way it does make sense? Am I making sense here?!
Free your mind.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! [3 ½ + Stars]

Funky Forest is the type of movie you should watch if you're REALLY into Japanese movies of the eccentric kind. The movie is somewhat linear but not plot heavy going from different groups of people and their weird circumstances. It's hard to describe the movie except to say you have to really turn your brain off and just absorb the movie like a sponge to enjoy it. This is the type of thing you would probably see late night on TV when there's nothing else interesting on. Memorable yet strange is how I would sum it up.

I often think that movies like these should not be released in the United States. Americans either get all excited about supposedly nonsensical or anarchic rebel/underground/cult/bad boy foreign films that actually aren't, or they get all one-star huffy about nonsensical or anarchic rebel/underground/cult foreign films that they feel are just trendy or overrated because, to be truthful, they're simply angry they don't get it.

In other words if it isn't as simple-minded as a cock fight, or as self-consciously counter-culture as a toddler filling its diaper Americans generally don't "get it."

I attribute this to the American penchant for sensationalism and the consequent minimal attention span. A movie like this--episodic, rhapsodic, and seemingly free-ranging--takes a little time to assimilate. It's VERY Japanese, and for all those familiar with Japanese (and Chinese) literature this kind of disjointed-seeming (to a Westerner, and specifically to an American) story-telling is familiar. The last thing an American is going to do is think, "This is a Japanese film, maybe I should give it some time and--reach of reach for an American-- assume it wasn't specifically created to amuse American me"

Yes, Funky Forest is wildly imaginative, and it has fun with mass-media forms that we should all be able to relate to, but it also has recurring themes and recurring characters that should tip us off that this is no mere willful incoherence. I have a little background in Japanese culture & history and the film made some sense to me on the first viewing, but it required watching the whole movie with full attention (easy, because it was for me so fascinating and it was so well-done) and letting it develop on its own terms.

So a bit of work is required and some non-pop culture context is helpful, and that's not what American entertainment is all about. Get stoned and just enjoy the weirdness without any understanding, or get angry at the film because you don't get it, or take some time to see this as a revelation about Japanese culture and creativity.

It's one of the five best films I've seen this year.

As a post script and a cautionary--I'm seeing more really adventurous films coming from Asia and other spots, and I'll hazard that Americans--even the supposed trendiest of them--are eventually going to find themselves completely out of the world cutting-edge loop. For some time now, culturally, the USA has been running on fumes.

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 2½ 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.