Funky Forest: The First Contact

A group of people live in a country town: a man who cannot play the guitar, his brothers, two dancing girls, students who fall asleep in class, and aliens who turn up from time to time. There is no plot connecting them. Segments follow one another, some come back, and some are never explained. Directed together by Shunichiro Miki, Katsuhito Ishii and Hajime Ishimine, the film is one of the far edges of Japanese experimental comedy. The narrative is deliberately meaningless; some scenes last a minute and some twenty, and the only link between them is tone. The visual design is meticulous even in the strangest passages. Tadanobu Asano, Susumu Terajima and Ryo Kase are in the cast. It runs over two and a half hours, which is the most argued-over thing about it. Who it's for: Viewers who like experimental cinema, absurdist comedy, and unusual structures. Who it's not for: A complete dead end for anyone looking for a narrative. Some sections are deliberately boring and the running time is very long.