Do you know that image of the lobotomized dog who’s getting injected with vaccines and 5g rays? That’s how I feel after spending the past 8 hours watching both versions of The Forest of Love.
Love Exposure is one of the greatest films I’ve ever seen. It changed my life, and has fully cemented itself in my top 10 films of all time. Antiporno was frustrating, struggling with the cognitive dissonance of criticizing exploitation films whilst simultaneously being one. The Forest of Love is Sion Sono’s attempt to mesh all of his films together, but the question is, did he succeed? The answer: ehhhhh kind of
So about 8 hours ago, I watched the 3 hour long cut of this movie. The first act really grasped me, but as the film went on and on and Murata just didn’t go away, my attention and enjoyment of the film really waned. But, with about 20 minutes left in the film, it grasped me again by actually following up on the plot I cared about, the story of Romeo and Juliet. But just as quickly as it came back, it left, leaving me with an extremely unsatisfied feeling. It felt like Sono remembered that his protagonist actually had an extremely interesting story and isn’t just a braindead lover for the worst character I have seen on screen.
To get my criticism out of the way, the first (and most glaring) thing is that Murata is quite possibly the most uninteresting and unlikable antagonists I have ever seen. Which, that second one may be a bit confusing, after all, you’re not supposed to like the antagonist, right? That’s stupid. You know that’s stupid. I only wrote that sentence so nobody comments “uhhh, you’re not supposed to like him…”. I hate every scene with Murata AFTER he becomes one of the main characters. When the film begins and the story is focused on the filmmaking group, I LOVE IT. It reminded me of Yu’s gang in Love Exposure (and the more you can remind me of love exposure, the better), and it was just SO DAMN FUN. I thought the stuff with Mitsuko’s high school days was incredible, and classic Sono, and just about everything was fantastic. Then, Murata starts showing up more and more. Okay, that’s fine, he’s the antagonist, of course he’s gonna get a lot of screen time. But then he never leaves.
Joe Murata makes me want to kill myself every time I have the displeasure of seeing his face on screen. If this had an American remake, he’d be played by Kevin O’Leary in full sincerity, and I think that’s enough of an insult. He isn’t enjoyable to watch, he isn’t enjoyable to hate or root against, I just want him to stop talking so that the other, more interesting, characters have room to interact.
This film does, of course, do the standard Sono move of rampant sexualization in every nook and cranny of the film, which it handles just okay. It wasn’t like Love Exposure which makes it seem beautiful, or antiporno which makes me want to vomit (but not for the reasons the film wants me to), it just makes me go “gross. I hate Joe Murata”. Also, side note, I get that it goes with the theme of puritanical culture being forced upon young women, but why does Sono keep including lesbian women who are forced into gross heterosexual relationships???? Like once was a cool exploration of themes, second was a coincidence, BUT WE ARE THREE FOR THREE DAWG. AT WHAT POINT IS IT JUST THE WRITER’S POORLY DISGUISED FETISH?!!!!? Who am I kidding, Sono doesn’t even attempt to disguise his fetishes lol.
So you may be wondering, why are you saying this now? Why didn’t you say this in your review from 5 hours ago? Well I’ll tell you. Immediately after watching the 3 hour cut, I felt the strangest feeling that this movie had the POTENTIAL to be so great, that if it had the time to expand on its ideas and plot points, it would be incredible. So, I put on the 5 hour long extended cut. I now wish I didn’t spend the past 8 hours watching a movie I only kind of like.
The 5 hour cut definitely is a LOT better, don’t get me wrong, but OH MY GOOOOOD do I regret watching them back to back. BUT, That’s not the movie’s fault, that’s mine.
Sion Sono is the directorial equivalent of throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. Love Exposure is a film that I often recommend by saying “it’s a film about everything”, and the Forest of Love attempts to be the same. In the 3 hour cut, it really misses the mark, but what about the extended one? Uhh, yeah. It’s actually really good:D I would hate to end this review by simply saying “Sion Sono only makes good movies when they have a 4+ hour runtime”, but given I’ve now watched 5 of his films and the only ones I’ve really liked are the two versions of love exposure and this, I think it might be true.
Do you know that image of the lobotomized dog who’s getting injected with vaccines and 5g rays? That’s how I feel after spending the past 8 hours watching both versions of The Forest of Love.
Love Exposure is one of the greatest films I’ve ever seen. It changed my life, and has fully cemented itself in my top 10 films of all time. Antiporno was frustrating, struggling with the cognitive dissonance of criticizing exploitation films whilst simultaneously being one. The Forest of Love is Sion Sono’s attempt to mesh all of his films together, but the question is, did he succeed? The answer: ehhhhh kind of
So about 8 hours ago, I watched the 3 hour long cut of this movie. The first act really grasped me, but as the film went on and on and Murata just didn’t go away, my attention and enjoyment of the film really waned. But, with about 20 minutes left in the film, it grasped me again by actually following up on the plot I cared about, the story of Romeo and Juliet. But just as quickly as it came back, it left, leaving me with an extremely unsatisfied feeling. It felt like Sono remembered that his protagonist actually had an extremely interesting story and isn’t just a braindead lover for the worst character I have seen on screen.
To get my criticism out of the way, the first (and most glaring) thing is that Murata is quite possibly the most uninteresting and unlikable antagonists I have ever seen. Which, that second one may be a bit confusing, after all, you’re not supposed to like the antagonist, right? That’s stupid. You know that’s stupid. I only wrote that sentence so nobody comments “uhhh, you’re not supposed to like him…”. I hate every scene with Murata AFTER he becomes one of the main characters. When the film begins and the story is focused on the filmmaking group, I LOVE IT. It reminded me of Yu’s gang in Love Exposure (and the more you can remind me of love exposure, the better), and it was just SO DAMN FUN. I thought the stuff with Mitsuko’s high school days was incredible, and classic Sono, and just about everything was fantastic. Then, Murata starts showing up more and more. Okay, that’s fine, he’s the antagonist, of course he’s gonna get a lot of screen time. But then he never leaves.
Joe Murata makes me want to kill myself every time I have the displeasure of seeing his face on screen. If this had an American remake, he’d be played by Kevin O’Leary in full sincerity, and I think that’s enough of an insult. He isn’t enjoyable to watch, he isn’t enjoyable to hate or root against, I just want him to stop talking so that the other, more interesting, characters have room to interact.
This film does, of course, do the standard Sono move of rampant sexualization in every nook and cranny of the film, which it handles just okay. It wasn’t like Love Exposure which makes it seem beautiful, or antiporno which makes me want to vomit (but not for the reasons the film wants me to), it just makes me go “gross. I hate Joe Murata”. Also, side note, I get that it goes with the theme of puritanical culture being forced upon young women, but why does Sono keep including lesbian women who are forced into gross heterosexual relationships???? Like once was a cool exploration of themes, second was a coincidence, BUT WE ARE THREE FOR THREE DAWG. AT WHAT POINT IS IT JUST THE WRITER’S POORLY DISGUISED FETISH?!!!!? Who am I kidding, Sono doesn’t even attempt to disguise his fetishes lol.
So you may be wondering, why are you saying this now? Why didn’t you say this in your review from 5 hours ago? Well I’ll tell you. Immediately after watching the 3 hour cut, I felt the strangest feeling that this movie had the POTENTIAL to be so great, that if it had the time to expand on its ideas and plot points, it would be incredible. So, I put on the 5 hour long extended cut. I now wish I didn’t spend the past 8 hours watching a movie I only kind of like.
The 5 hour cut definitely is a LOT better, don’t get me wrong, but OH MY GOOOOOD do I regret watching them back to back. BUT, That’s not the movie’s fault, that’s mine.
Sion Sono is the directorial equivalent of throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. Love Exposure is a film that I often recommend by saying “it’s a film about everything”, and the Forest of Love attempts to be the same. In the 3 hour cut, it really misses the mark, but what about the extended one? Uhh, yeah. It’s actually really good:D I would hate to end this review by simply saying “Sion Sono only makes good movies when they have a 4+ hour runtime”, but given I’ve now watched 5 of his films and the only ones I’ve really liked are the two versions of love exposure and this, I think it might be true.
