A con man and a would-be filmmaking crew force themselves into the lives of two grief-scarred young women. But nothing is as it seems.
With a title like Forest of Love, one could be forgiven for expecting a by-the-books romantic drama. This is, however, a Japanese film by the auteur director, Sion Sono. Much like when you compare anime with US animation, eastern films have such a wider range of stories and aren't restricted to "popular formulas" like Hollywood films are.
Combine this unrestrained film culture, alongside the financial freedom to create absolutely anything Sono wanted in this Netflix film, it shouldn't be a huge surprise with what we ended up with. For those that aren't aware of the style or content of a Sion Sono film, his past films have catered to his love of teens in school uniforms and tend to include incest, self-mutilation, suicide pacts, broken families, sadomasochism, and cults, with a high propensity to subvert expectations; the man bears the burden of creating films that would be considered shock-provoking and boundary-pushing.
Forest of Love is a Japanese crime drama, that warps a true event beyond recognition and goes so far off the rails that it will leave western audiences unsure what to make of it. The film features fatal accidents, suicides, murder, torture, and extreme examples of human manipulation to surprise even the gore aficionados. Comprised of an introduction, prologue, and six subsequent distinct chapters, this 151-minute long epic takes many a narrative turn, that come across as multiple different films that happen to share characters.
The over-the-top content comes with deliberately exaggerated acting and, because of that, the recommendation stands that the best way to view the film is with the original Japanese audio and English subtitles; the subs lack the same emotional strength and energy, and the words not lining up on such obscure things makes the film difficult to take seriously otherwise.
The narrative is far from linear, with full chapters taking place in the past, and other frequent time jumps between the 1980s and the 2000s. Along with a story that frequently derails itself and just continues to run on the new path. A train metaphor would be the best way to describe the structure, like a train that jumps onto a parallel track before jumping the track again and careening through a field, plunging downhill through a forest, hurtling into a river that drops the train over a waterfall, and yet the carriages have remained connected throughout. This is the type of story to expect.
If you managed to catch Bong Joon-ho's Parasite in theatres and enjoyed the sudden change in direction in the third act, then this could certainly appeal (though it is cranked right up to 11). The manipulation is the enticing element of the film, with an antagonist that gets his way through many various means, whether it be charisma, confidence, lies, grooming, or simply violence and fear. Watching how this rotten apple affects the barrel and alters their moral compasses is repetitive and outlandish but never bores.
It's peculiar the way in which the film uses female trauma. Somehow sensitive and understanding, but at other times indulging and exploiting it. Much of this is shown through our female protagonist Taeko (portrayed by Kyoko Hinami) who is nihilistic, and apathetic towards herself in a surprisingly complex fashion, making her one of the only sympathetic and likeable characters in the entire film.
Forest of Love is bat-sh*t crazy, but if you can hold on for the full runtime, you are in for a hell of a ride. Nowhere near a perfect film, but it entertains enough, and has enough subplots to keep you distracted and on the backfoot. Well worth checking out if you love the more violent, unpredictable, and psychologically complex style of film.