The Forest of Love

Sion Sono can boldly hold his own with the world's top directors because his directorial trademark has more balls than many a contemporary Hollywood thriller. It's true that in the case of his latest film, he gets a little off the leash at times, but what can you do when it's still so fucking well made. The contrast of highly aestheticized visuals and sickening violence is completely unprecedented here, and when paired with the oddly "gentle" soundtrack, it adds up to a sort of colorized monster movie that is alternately outrageous and perversely fascinating. Some passages perhaps could have used a bit of editing, but I can't say that I was significantly bored despite the truly respectable running time of two and a half hours. Moreover, The Forest of Love works not only as a sweeping reconstruction of Japan's worst criminal elements, but also as a first-rate family thriller about a single-minded, ultra-strict upbringing, including its painful consequences. (22.03.2020)

Poet, screenwriter and director Sion Sono apparently got free reign on Netflix and shot a two-and-a-half-hour-long extravagant compilation of his usual motifs. Schoolgirls jumping from rooftops are reminiscent of his film Suicide Club, the characters of amateur filmmakers remind of Why Don't You Play in Hell?, but most of all The Forest of Love (extremely loosely inspired by the real case of a serial killer) evokes his four-hour epic Love Exposure, not only through a number of common themes (the influence of strict conservative parental education on perverse inclinations of offspring, sexuality and partner relationships based on violence and power, a character with a strong cult of personality), but also a distinctive storytelling style based on the flow of free associations. The story is almost indescribable, but it features a lesbian version of Romeo and Juliet, a love quadrangle of three girls (two of whom are sisters) with a charismatic and manipulative heartbreaker, a romantic plot revolving around a fifty yen coin, electric shock torture and slicing people up in a blender. The eccentric genre mix does not lack emotional tension, the theatricality of hysterical acting and strong elements of nonsense, reminding us of the absurdity of the world. This is a remarkably bizarre film, but this time, the director simply presents another version of himself and creates nothing new. (05.10.2019)