Forest Of Love (5 Stars)

"Life is cinema and cinema is life".

This is a Netflix original film directed by Sion Sono. It's the first of his films that's been made available on Netflix, so it's a good introduction to people who don't yet know him. I'm sure that the film will totally confuse first time viewers, but please be patient, by the time the final credits roll you'll be left speechless and wanting more.

The story begins in 1985. A group of six 16-year-old schoolgirls decide to perform "Romeo and Juliet" for their school festival. They call it a lesbian version of the play, but that's the only way they can do it, because it's a girls school. Tragedy strikes. The actress playing Romeo is killed in a traffic accident. Stricken with grief, the other five girls make a suicide pact, jumping off the school roof together. Two of them survive. Taeko becomes a slut, sleeping with a different man every day. Mitsuko remains a virgin.

Eight years later three young men meet on the street in Tokyo. Jay and Fukami are amateur film makers, Shin is a street musician. Jay and Fukami persuade Shin to become an actor in their films. When he says he's still a virgin, they take him to Taeko's house, because she'll sleep with anyone. Surprisingly, she refuses and takes him to Mitsuko, who she hasn't seen since school.

Mitsuko is approached by an older man (15 years older) called Murata, who claims to have met her while she was at school. This is a lie. He wants to marry her because he knows Mitsuko's parents are rich. Taeko recognises him as someone she's slept with who once tried to get money from her family by dating her sister. Together with her three male friends they spy on him. At that time there are news reports of a serial killer, and they think Murata might be the killer.

So far it all sounds simple. Now the plot becomes more complicated.

Taeko seduces Murata to turn Mitsuko against him. This backfires. Mitsuko loves him even more, and Taeko also falls in love with him. Murata also has an affair with Mitsuko's younger sister Ami.

Jay decides to make a film about Murata. Shin plays the lead role. Using the information given them by the girls, they thread real conversations into the film about Murata the womaniser and serial killer. Soon Murata finds out about the film, and even though he's amused at being considered a killer, he insists on taking part in the film production, first as the cameraman, then as the co-director. The film was about his life, but now his life becomes the film.

And the killing continues.

If you think I've given away too much of the plot, you're wrong. So much more happens in this masterpiece of insanity. Every time something happens that makes you shake your head in disbelief, the next scene is even crazier. This isn't Sion Sono's best film, but it's certainly his maddest.

Sion Sono can be accused of self-plagiarism. "Forest Of Love" borrows a lot of ideas from his previous films "Suicide Club", "Cold Fish", "Tag" and "Why don't you play in Hell", with hints of "Strange Circus". I can even see references to his real life relationship with Ami Tomite.

The film has a running time of two and a half hours. It might seem slow at the beginning, but once the big surprises come after the first hour you won't want to walk away for a moment. If this isn't enough for you, there's a five-hour director's cut, also available on Netflix. I shan't watch it straight away. I want to wait until I have time to watch it all in one sitting.