Da Heck Did I Just Watch?! Truly Bizarre Cinema in “Funky Forest”

Aoi Miura meets the Fuzz in "Funky Forest~ The First Contact"

So the other day over lunch, my friend was telling me about these weird clips that him and his friends watch on youtube at work from this Japanese Movie called FUNKY FOREST. He tried to describe the show to me, stories of deformed humans with weird powers, etc, which sounds positively cartoony to me. I ask, “Is it Animated?” He says no. “Is it like a Super-Hero type?” He says, “Dude, I just gotta send you the clip. It’s too weird to explain.”

Funky Forest: "Too Weird To Explain"

The Funky Forest "Volume" Goddesses

That evening he sends me a clip and it’s of an old guy with extended boobs shooting milk at a girl trying to hit it with a tennis racket, then he starts pulling these alien pod things out of his shorts and begins throwing them at her which stick to her like leeches which are revealed to have humanoid features under their hide…. My mouth DROPPED open in a kind of a "WHAAAAAA!???"  as I rubbed my eyes in disbelief at what I’d just seen! What da HELL was I WATCHING??? My friend said that it would be weird. WEIRD!? This is the most BIZARRE freakin’ thing I’ve ever seen in my life!  Eccentric Individuals, Electronics with Orifices, Placated Fetal Creatures, Slimy Living Instruments, Secret Space Agents AND First Contact with an Alien Race, this was Japan's Cinematic ZENITH of Nuttiness!!!

How To Remove an Alien Leech 101

And MAN, If I thought I couldn’t be more surprised by the movie’s absolute KRAZEENESS, I was even MORE surprised when I began scrolling through some of the other clips and saw actors I RECOGNIZED in it! And these weren’t unknown b-list actors either- these were some of best-known actors out there, like Rinko Kikuchi, Kaho, Fukushii Kazue, Kase Ryo and adorable Crush-Of-the–Day CHIZURU IKEWAKI! What in the HECK were they doing here? Gads, that meant I HAD TO ACTUALLY SIT DOWN AND WATCH THE WHOLE MOVIE, if only to see what exactly the HELL they were DOING here! 

Erika Nishikado and Ryo Kase

Kazue Fukiishi, Chizuru Ikewaki and Ono Machiko

Nana Shimoda and Masanobu Asano

Well, in the end, I’m STILL not sure if I ever figured out what was going on, but WOW, WHAT A FLICK!! Not only Did I get to see these actors in the wackiest situations ever, this movie actually introduced me to a bunch of new BABES to lust after, among them beauties like Ono Machiko (whom I’d actually just seen in JOKER Yuzurenai Sasokan), Takahashi Mariko (as a breathy sultry class student named Yoshiko), the adorable Nana Shimoda and Aoi Miura as hapless victims, and ESPECIALLY stunningly gorgeous Erika Nishikado as Notti, the dreamy, nature-lovin’ muse of Ryo Kase’s Extra-Terrestrial obsessed Takafumi!

Pretty Erika Nishikado dreamin' some EPIC dreams....

Mariko Takahashi addresses the Class

Girls like this (and the aforementioned Ikewaki et al) were the primary force that made me stick around watching the movie even as the situations got stranger and STRANGER!! Though in any other movie that got THIS wacky I would have bailed, I just HAD to stick around for these girls...And stick around I did- and I GOTTA SAY, in the end, it was a good thing because Funky Forest turned out to be one of the most FREAKIN' FUNNIEST, INNOVATIVE, IMAGINATIVE, and CRACKY MOVIES OUT THERE!!!

Aoi Miura asked to plug the TV into her Bellybutton!

Kaho as Volume Goddess Omoro

Anri Ban as Volume Goddess Fusuke

Shihori Kanjiya as Volume Goddess Ngava

I’m not even kidding- though some parts of the movie veered off into long, spacey drawn out intermissions (some musical and some literal, yes, LITERAL intermissions), some of the stories were downright HILARIOUS, especially faves like the “Babbling Hot-Springs Vixens” stories with Chizuru Ikewaki, Kazue Fukiishi and Machiko Ono as non-stop chattering salesladies taking a break at an onsen, where a good story is the goal and a tale with no point gets you a beatin’…

The "Babbling Hot-Springs Vixens":

Kazue Fukiishi as Niiko

Machiko Ono as Miiko and Chizuru Ikewaki as Ichiko

…and the OTHER arc I just DUG was the super FUN “Home Room!!!!!!!” stories where the students are charismatic, energetic and outspoken, and their teacher (played by Terajima Susumu in what may be the only non-Yakuza role I’ve ever seen him in) is the coolest instructor any Hall of Education ever had! Every day a student is invited to tell his or her tale in front of the class and the room reaction is never anything short of explosive!

Susumu Terajima as Katsuichi Sensei

Rinko Kikuchi as Student "Kikuchi"

FUNKY FOREST~THE FIRST CONTACT, or, rather, it’s original Japanese Title Naisu No Mori is an abstract Alien + UFO Speculation Movie of sorts, and that’s about as coherent a synopsis as you’re likely to get- for whatever the bigger story here, it’s for SURE that the ride of GETTING THERE is far more integral to THIS ship than any silly thing like a COHERENT PLOT!!  A fun, FUN Movie!!!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Notes on KEIZOKU: SPEC- SHO

Okay, I JUST finished watching the KEIZOKU SPEC~SHO special, and I have to say that I’m just as confused as I was before! SO many people dying and UN-dying, pretending to be dead and really being dead, Gads, why can’t they just give me a thriller WITHOUT so much M. Night Shyamalan TWISTS?!

 In better news, the SPEC special does work as a self-compartmentalized story (if you remove the X-Files “who’s-really-the-bad-guys” clichés) of a SPEC who wants to eliminate other SPEC holders for power-control, and even BETTER is the return of Keizoku Spec’s two cuter cameos actresses,  Erina Mano as the Mind-Reading Satori:

...and the underused but INSANELY adorable Arimura Kasumi as cute-as-bunnies Masaki Miyabi (or rather, “Miyabi-chan", as a smitten Ryu Raita calls her):

In a drama where Toda Erika is off looking  as dour and disheveled as possible, it’s really refreshing to see SOME girls bringing the feminine ways I love so much! Though truth be told, even the unwashed Erika Toda does something for me, such is the power of her charms! LOL! OK, now, onto SPEC TEN...

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

SPEC10 Viewing Pre-Empted!!!

  As you all may recall , back when it originally aired, I was quite a fan of the Erika Toda/Ryo Kase Supernatural thriller SPEC, the high-charged sequel to the cool Nakatani Miki / Atsuro Watabe drama KEIZOKU, so when I came upon the new movie sequel SPEC10, I downloaded it with anticipation and planned my evening around watching it!!
  Well, not even one minute into the movie (as the show recapped what had gone on before), and I was already like, "Whoa, I don't remember THAT! Whoa! I don't remember THAT either!"  At first it crossed my mind that maybe these "flashbacks" were actually new scenes to set-up the movie storyline, but after watching 15 minutes of the movie, it was clear that I was missing something. 

  A thought occurred to me: could there have been ANOTHER movie that had come out BEFORE SPEC10? I didn't see any listed on Erika Toda's wiki file, but typing in Keizoku SPEC SP, and sure enough, what came up was a special called "Keizoku SPEC~SHOU". There was a whole 'nother SPEC show I had to get BEFORE I could continue watching SPEC10!

   So sadly, my night was spend NOT watching the new movie, but instead trying to locate that first Special! I'm currently in the process of acquiring it, so once that happens, it will be a KEIZOKU SPEC Film festival at my house!!!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Keizoku2:SPEC Gearing Up!!!

 I have to say that the supernatural thriller KEIZOKU 2: SPEC is shaping up to be a massive, epic storyline along the lines of HEROES or the 4400, those promising (yet sadly ultimately unfulfilling) series about everyday, mundane people who have been gifted (or cursed) with strange superhuman powers, hunted down by and battling against others with the same.

When I first started watching SPEC, I was expecting it to be  like the original series, a low-key take on weird and unusual cases, and SPEC starts off  in pretty much the same way, but within five minutes, the show exploded and took a complete left turn, turning into a show more like a Superhero Comic with its super-powered individuals (SPECS), shady government agents and Colorful Villains…truly an original drama in the influx of generic crime dramas lately!

When we are first introduced to Erika Toda’s Toma character, she’s so eccentric and goofy, one thinks the broken arm must be nothing more than proof of her clumsiness, but when a villian mysteriously tells her , “What happened to your left arm…I know the truth”, you realize there is more to the story than just a prop. So as each episode goes by, you become more and more obsessed with THAT backstory.

At the end of the first episode, we are introduced to a slight, quiet boy (Kamiki Ryunosuke) with an evil streak in him and the apparent ability to stop time and deflect bullets, among other things. Who is this boy and why does he appear in front of the other SPECS at the moment of their demise? No one knows, but another twist is introduced when Toma ‘s viewing to security camera for the latest episode’s killer, and the boy appears for a split second and Toma curses under her breath: “Ninomae!!!!” Holy Crap, she KNOWS him? What’s THEIR connection?

Finally, Toma is regularly visited by a young man (played by Yu Shirota) while she’s dining on her daily meal of garlic gyoza, and by his familiarity and words, is obviously her boyfriend, or at least ex-boyfriend. His actions indicate he is hurt by her cold shoulder attitude towards him, and one wonders what story lies there.

Well, Episode 5 came along, and DAMN, I got the answers to all three of those questions and MORE! Told via flashbacks, you get a HUGE slice of What the story is all about, and even better, it even made the as-yet-unrevealed parts of the backstory seem even MORE intriguing! CRAP, this drama ROCKS!