Those who've read past reviews know that I am usually quite fond of what I like to call Japanese Insanity. Survive Style 5+ ranked second best movie of last year's festival, after the equally crazy Karaoke Terror (which gets absolutely no love at all and is impossible to find). I absolutely adored Tokyo Zonbi and I really enjoyed FLCL or Excel Saga.
Herein comes Funky Forest. How to describe it? Take FLCL. Remove the good music. Make it live-action. Make it individual, disconnected sketches. Remove any thread that would hold them together. In the end you don't have much to stand on, and you'll stand on it for more than 2 and a half hours.
Funky Forest isn't without it's moment. "The Home Room !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" sketches are quite funny. The Guitar Hero is made good by the presence of the always charismatic Tadanobu Asano (of Tokyo Zonbi, Survive Style 5+ and Ichi the Killer). But a lot of this stuff is just plain gross and "imaginative, just for the sake of being imaginative". Many of the dance numbers are just plain boring and not that well executed (that's supposed to be the point, but still). Not even some of the cutest girls in the world (which I believe this movie has) can save it from being a disorganized unpleasant mush. Oh and the final, deafening sketch is only made to confirm the mistake you've made of going to see this film.
Based on the cheers and laughter coming from the audience, some would say that my review is lower than it should. But I would say that these people are insane. 4 out of 10 with a butt factor of 0.5.
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