Toronto After Dark Diary: Day 4 - Tokyo Zombie and Funky Forest: The First Contact

Tokyo Zombie – It’s a bit of an odd bird. You cannot deny its star power though. Japanese cult icons Tadanobu Asano and Sho Aikawa play Fujio and Mitsuo, buddies employed in a fire extinguisher factory whose only goal in life is the perfection of their jujitsu wrestling skills. After an altercation with their high strung boss results with his death thanks to the receiving end of a fire extinguisher there is only one thing to do.

Mitsuo and Fujio bury their deceased boss on Black Fuji, the black mountain of garbage rising from the center of Tokyo where everyone discards of unwanted garbage; household utilities, vehicles, corpses and mother-in-laws. When the dead rise from the toxic grounds Mitsuo and Fujio plan their escape to Russia. There they will become stronger and better jujitsu wrestlers.

Tokyo Zombie is a buddy comedy first, albeit a very dry buddy comedy movie, and zombie movie second, a very distant second. It certainly is very funny and both actors bring a subtle humanity to their roles. However, the film begins to wane in the second half and is nowhere near as strong as the first half. But one could say that it is indicative of place and setting when we follow Fujio settles in the last domain of humanity, a walled-in city where the rich lord over the poor and use them for entertainment and electrical power.

Tokyo Zombie is a very different take on the zombie genre. It certainly is worth a watch to add some depth to popular genre. It doesn’t pay off as well as it could have but certainly does entertain enough to make it worth watching.

Funky Forest: The First Contact – When you leave a screening of Funky Forest you do a couple things. First, you hold onto something stable and familiarize yourself with the real world once again. Second, you immediately begin to make a list of all your friends. On one side of this list you write down the names of everyone that you must show this movie to. On the other, you write down the names of friends you won’t call as often or hang out with anymore or send Christmas cards to. Because they are the friends that simply won’t get Funky Forest and before they can disown you, you better cut the ties first. It’s just better for the both of you that way.

Funky Forest is all about the experience. There is nothing cognitive about it. There is nothing to understand. It is purely experience over construction. What’s probably best been described as a set piece for surreal comedy sketches Funky Forest is a sheer delight. I wrote down four words on the subway ride home last night after the screening. Hilarious. Magical. Succulent. Squishy. There are more words to describe Funky Forest but those will do for now to give you an idea what to expect from it.

The success of a Funky Forest viewing depends on the viewer, your acceptance of the weird and wonderful worlds created, and your willingness to participate in it. I said last night that Funky Forest is one of those movies that given enough time and repetition in a market can achieve iconic and cult status of a film like The Rocky Horror Picture Show. And even though you don’t have to do anything physical to participate in Funky Forest [though given time I’m sure we could come up with something or learn some Japanese to sing and dance along to the USO song] it does ask that you participate on an emotional, spiritual and mental level.

Funky Forest is pure bliss, a delight to witness and something to be a part of. Last night’s audience got it. We laughed. We cheered. We repulsed. We got it. And we got it together. We shared an experience and it is a testament to the power of Funky Forest to change an individual experience into a group one. It was one of those rare screenings where audience was part of the equation and the end result was sheer magic.