Forest Of Love (5 Stars)

Netflix Thursday #19

I've been complaining about the poor film selection on Netflix recently, but there are a few good films if you search hard enough. This is one of them, but be warned: it's the exception, not the rule.

"The Forest of Love" is a Netflix original film, directed by Sion Sono, and as far as I know it's the only Netflix original film to score 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Normally I'm critical of high scores on Rotten Tomatoes, because it's a sign for me that a film is boring, but Sion Sono is my favourite director, so there's no way I'd avoid it.

The film starts with innocent teenage naivety before reaching a climax of terror. Six 15-year-old girls want to perform Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet". It sounds scandalous that all the roles should be played by girls, but it's necessary because it's a girls school. But where's the line between fiction and reality? Mitsuko (Juliet) falls in love with Eiko (Romeo) in real life, not knowing that Eiko is already in a lesbian relationship with one of the other girls in the play. She's broken-hearted, but tragedy strikes. Eiko is killed in a car accident. Nobody can have her.

The other five girls make a suicide pact. They decide to jump off the school roof together. Mitsuko backs out at the last moment. The other four girls jump. Three girls die, but Taeko survives with severe injuries. Ten years later the two survivors have developed in opposite directions. Taeko has become a slut, sleeping with a different man every day, just because she can. (I don't like the word "slut", but it's the word Taeko uses to describe herself in the film). Mitsuko is a virgin, resisting all attempts that her parents make to find her a good husband. What the two girls have in common is that they both see visions of Eiko, who they only call Romeo.

Time doesn't stand still. There's a serial killer in the forest outside Tokyo. There must be irony in calling it a Forest of Love. A con man is stalking rich young women, trying to marry them to get his hands on their wealth. Is he able to win Mitsuko's heart? And there's a trio of young, ambitious film-makers who recognise the con man's wiles and want to make a film about him.

After finding out that this film has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 100% I checked the score of his other films.

The only other film that scores 100% is his Christmas film, "Love and Peace".

"Himizu" scores 95%, making it his third highest scoring film. It's not in my top films list, but maybe it should be. I need to watch it again.

My favourite film by Sion Sono is "Tag", which scores 92%. That's his fourth highest scoring film.

The four-hour epic "Love Exposure" comes close behind with 91%.

"Antiporno" scores 87%, and it's definitely a film that deserves to be high in my list.

"Cold Fish", currently in 30th place in my top films list, only scores 74%.

Usually I disagree with the opinions of the professional film critics, but they seem to agree with me in their praise of Sion Sono, some films more than others. So maybe the critics aren't all that bad after all. And maybe Netflix does have its benefits.