Movie Review : The Forest of Love (2019)
Our cultural obsession with serial killers is a weird, self-perpetuating phenomenon. We don’t love them, but we don’t get bored of them either. Because we’re interested in who they are in the same we were interested in the worm-eating kid in school. Sion Sono’s movie The Forest of Love is aggressively disinterested in who its own serial killer is, but it’s fucking fascinated with what he does. That makes it a…. huh, pretty fucking odd and unique movie. It’s a wild one.
Based on real life events, The Forest of Love tells the story of a group of kids under the spell of Joe Murata (Kippei Shina), a psychopathic scam artist who has the almost supernatural ability to seduce people. The kids (lead by a budding filmmaker) decide to make a biopic on Murata’s life and soon enough, he takes over the production and makes them do horrible, horrible things. I’m simplifying it a lot, but believe me: it’ll help with the viewing.
What the fuck have I just watched?
Glad you asked. The Forest of Love can be a disorienting experience if you’re comfortable with American storytelling. It sure was for me. The first thing you need to know is that it is inspired by the Futoshi Matsunaga case. He’s a real life Japanese serial killer who allegedly murdered nine people between 1996 and 1998. There are allegories and symbolism in The Forest of Love, but the horrifying stuff more or less happened. It’s not a statement about anything.
But Futoshi Matsunaga doesn’t explain everything, does he? It would be too convenient.
The character of Joe Murata is not just Matsunaga’s fictional alter ego. He’s also a stand-in for Japanese patriarchy, through which Sion Sono fires at Japan’s culture of obedience. Murata uses the credibility he is granted simply for being a man and Japanese society’s obsession with status and respectability in order to get what he wants. He’s eloquent, wears suits and oozes financial stability. He’s the ideal man in theory and creepy weirdo in practice.
Another aspect of Murata that is super important is that he’s constantly acting up on his fantasies. That’s why the vulnerable Mitsuko (Eri Kamataki) is following him in the first place. She is fighting repressed sexual fantasies about her old schoolmate and even if she doesn’t really believe in Murata, she transcends her own baggage just by associating with him. Murata’s followers free themselves from the rules of Japanese society through his transgressions.
What about all the other stuff?
Whew, I went full film nerd on you, didn’t I?
The Forest of Love is not a straightforward movie, so it’s difficult to offer a straightforward analysis. Sion Sono is a very energetic storyteller who isn’t afraid to draw outside the lines and not to make sense. There are self-referential elements to his own cinematography. I’m not a Sono scholar myself, but there are obvious elements from Suicide Club in The Forest of Love. It’s another great film that deals with emotional repression in Japanese society.
I was a little bit more at loss to explain the Shakespearean references. They seemed pretty basic to me in order to be effective. I mean, who doesn’t read Romeo & Juliet in high school, right? Everyone know what it is and don’t necessarily take it seriously. My best guess was that it was used to represent forbidden fantasies for young Japanese women. That such a romantic love and commitment can only exist on paper in such a society.
The contrast between Romeo and Murata couldn’t be any clearer, right? Romeo is an idea. Murata is the reality. Romeo is what young girls want and Murata is what Japanese society offers them. Sono goes as far as making Romeo a young girl in The Forest of Love. It’s a little on the nose, but it speaks for itself. A big idea that Sion Sono conveys through this movie is that Japanese society doesn’t give a shit about its young girls. His point is loud and clear.
*
The Forest of Love is a thoroughly Japanese movie. It is made by a Japanese man and it is meant to denounce several things about Japanese society that may or may not happen in our own. Therefore, it’s normal to feel befuddled and sometimes horrified by it. Because it is not made for us. It’s hard to conceptualize that something might not concern Occidental audiences, but one viewing of The Forest of Love might very well convince you of that.
But I really liked it. I didn’t enjoy it as much as I enjoyed Suicide Club, but the bar was extremely high. But while The Forest of Love is quite hermetic, it is never not entertaining or fascinating. It is weird, dynamic, shocking and extremely violent. Be warned. Maybe we’ve been looking at serial killers wrong all that time. Who they are is one thing, but what they do to us is another ball game. Maybe that could explain why we can’t stop thinking about them.
Oh, before I leave! Sion Sono is making his American debut in 2021 with Prisoners of the Ghostland, featuring god of acting Nicolas Cage himself. If you like The Forest of Love, you might want to keep an ear out for that one too!
7.7/10
