A brutal, torturous Netflix movie that will leave you cold for 150 minutes
Comparisons, especially when dealing with cultural products, in addition to being almost always inappropriate, present misleading scenarios. So to speak, the Japanese Sion Sono can be called the most Western Asian director, because his films firmly reject the fundamentally idiosyncratic issues of his people, even though one feels that at certain moments of his career he wants to talk about his roots, command. Urgently fit. “Floresta de Sangue” is perhaps one of his films that most deftly deals with this supposed dichotomy, between a particular identity and an intention to approach universal themes such as love, hate, desire, rejection, greed. Anyone unfamiliar with the director’s work is surprised, for better or for worse, especially when you remember what the industry usually puts out every now and then, treating terror and suspense in equivalent or near-equal measures, especially in the East. Sono takes seriously the maxim that art serves to provoke, and in this way, he knows exactly where he belongs in the world: the whole world.
In “Floresta de Sanguchi” the director maintains his fixed idea of uniformed schoolchildren shamelessly dealing with sexual games combined with sadism, apparently unpretentious games that do not end well, collective suicides, complete disobedience to chronological time, meta-linguistic. Jokes where any madman always aspires to be a successful film director and a set piece that simultaneously charms and evokes disgust in the audience that is both genuine and controversial. The 2019 film showcases what Sono knows how to do best, with providential innovation. With an extensive resume, nearly fifty productions in a 32-year career, the director of “Floresta de Sangue” feels comfortable; The plot is very similar to what he presented in his debut, “Bicycle Sighing” (“Sighing on a bicycle”, free translation [1989]), also shows failed heroes who dream of making movies while the rest of the high school class goes to college and earns money. These two exponents of Sono’s work, equally delusional and full of deliberate excesses, avoid monotony and boredom. More than three decades later, Sono pulls off another disturbing but never gratuitous romp, one that may be a little beyond reasonable, but comes at the right time and proves, like few others, the custom that the passage of time is relative.
The basis of “Blood Forest” is Joe Murata. The antagonist, played by Kipei Shiina, around whom the director’s entire plot revolves, closes almost every door but leaves the window open. Sono reveals the whole mystery of this figure, about which very little is known. Murata may be a serial killer who inspires fear in newsreel viewers, but at the same time he claims to have attended Harvard as an agent for the CIA, America’s top intelligence agency. What brings Sheena to life is truly a compulsive megalomaniac who uses a magnetic charisma to fuel his evil, and finds a fertile environment growing up with an amateur theater troupe staging a rather unusual version of Romeo and Juliet. Juliet”.
Taeko and Mitsuko, the characters played by Kyoko Hinami and Eri Kamataki, are in charge of editing until tragedy strikes the group. Sono uses the episode to expand the girls’ love experience, and the story introduces a component of homosexuality between women, which here becomes another of his compulsions. Because he’s one of the shrewdest directors in film history, there’s no telling whether the traumatic event that overtakes the group will be a punishment for deviating from the behavior that’s been modeled — though Murata and Mitsuko are disgusting. they are. Courtship in sequence -, but the main thing is to pay attention to the evidence that the fake director is taking advantage of the weakness of the lover. Another cat jumps in to make fewer mistakes in the “Blood Forest”.
It is interesting that their relationship is facilitated by other members of the company. Mixing the real and the merely suggested in a way that only he knows, Sono changes his narrative and makes Murata the grand central character. The villainous figure of the antagonist played by Shiina, inappropriately, is not revealed and, worse: the actress entrusts her with the production of the show, which becomes a movie, the moment when the story actually takes on its macabre aura. Murata becomes who he is, using Mitsuko, Taeko, and the team members to satisfy his predatory instincts, going on a bloody carnage rarely seen in movies. It is Sono who gives reason to the collective unconscious, which sees in the person of the filmmaker a dangerously ambitious subject, obsessed with perfection, who goes above and beyond and does what must be done to get the best shot, the most light. Revealing, the most fascinating colors. For him, cinema is made with a camera in hand, with many ideas in his head and thousands of demons around him.
Sono speaks through Murata’s mouth when he declares that movies are emotions—and much more so than what Kipei Shiina’s character identifies as the basic constituents of the human soul, namely joy, anger, happiness, and sadness. The subversive intelligence of his work throws the viewer into a tangled narrative that often combines these four senses and many others, causing such confusion that it is impossible to escape from this mess that moves and scares as soon as you enter. Along with such masters as John Carpenter “They Live” (1988) or George A. Romero (1940-2017), one of the filmmakers most instrumental in popularizing (and refining) horror, Sion Sono doesn’t care about discomfort. In a world and environment accustomed to seeing and hearing only that which does not offend their delicate sensibilities, this is an artistic capital worthy of admiration.
movie: Forest of Blood
direction: Zion sleep
year: 2019 year
Genres: suspension/crime
Note: 8/10
