If are on the internet a lot, like myself, I bet you have seen this. I saw this particular clip a few years back. And as the title states, it is definitely the weirdest video you’ll ever see guaranteed! At the time, as much as I wanted to know more about this clip, I was unsuccessful as I am not as internet savvy before. It was just recently when the Fine Brothers have a Youtubers’ react episode to the said clip that I found the title.
First let me say that I have seen a quite a lot of Japanese movies. Some are terrifying, heart breaking, funny and some are so bizarre that no matter how many times you watch it there is no explaining on what you just watched. This is also the case in Funky Forest.
Funky Forest is a series of short stories. The setting is quite normal but there is a bit of weirdness in it that they pass up as normal everyday occurrence. This actually reminds me of the anime Nichijou. Kinda like the anime, the characters knew each other as friends, family, school mates or some random chicks they met in a hot spring resort.
The stories/events are unique to each other. There are a couple of stories based on the character’s dream, there is also a couple of story told by babbling vixens, and quite a few stories about aliens.
I have to point out though that there are scenes that if you have a dirty mind that can be seen as suggestive, seriously those aliens scenes.
If there is one story that spread throughout the whole movie, that would be relationships. Much like the guitar brother and friends’s quest to hook up with girls, and Notti and Takefumi dating situation. If this is a metaphor, well, it kinda works. I mean dating, hooking up, or basically having a relationship is a weird situation that you have to go through.
I do have favorite stories though, like the first story called Little Nataru. Any kid could relate to it, even I was able to relate to it. The story is basically a little girl and her imagination. Another that I like is Takefumi’s dream, where he tells his one dream where Notti was asking her to dance. The dance sequences is something that I like for sure. I can see it as Takefumi trying to understand and go through the notion of his relationship with Notti. And the last one that I liked is Notti’s dream, as weird as it sound the music is quite awesome to listen to.
There are familiar faces in this movie too. Considering this was released in 2005, a couple of the actors featured in the movie have already cross to Hollywood movies. Like Rinko Kikuchi, who played the Class President, Ms. Kikuchi, in the segment Home Room. She played roles opposite Keanu Reeves in the movie 47 Rounin as the witch. She also played as Mako Mori in the movie Pacific Rim.
Another actor who has roles in an American Film is Tadanobu Satō who played one of the Guitar Brothers, Masaru Tanaka. He had a role where he fight along side Chris Hemsworth as Hogun in the movie Thor, and he also played another 47 Rounin character as Lord Kira. I was quite fixated on Tadanobu Satō to be honest, it wasn’t because of the American movies that he was part of but because of this role in Ichi the Killer as the sadistic Kakihara.
Another actor I'm fixated on is Ryô Kase who played Takefumi also have an American film. I have to be honest, I looked him up and found that he have a role in the movie, Letters of Iwojiwa which I have been planning to watch for the longest time.
One actress that I looked up is the pretty Erika Nishikado. Unfortunately, she only had two movies under her belt, both released in 2005.
As per the title, this is one symbolism that I do not get. It could apply with the fact that there are alien creatures in the movie and these alien creatures are making contact on Earth. Or maybe the viewers are the ones making contact by watching this movie. Or that life is basically weird and this is just weirder. Other than that I couldn’t think of any reason why it is called Funky Forest.
Would I recommend this? No. Unless you have 2 hours and 3 minutes to spare and want to watch random stories about relationship, aliens and other weird stuff, then go ahead and watch this. There are some good stuff in it, maybe it’s not the best but something that you may relate to in a weird way.
originally posted: March 21, 2015
