SciFi Japan

    THE WARPED FOREST Press Notes

    Source: Shunichiro Miki Office Official Site: wowow.co.jp/shokuzai (Japan) Additional Material: Nippon Connection, New York Asian Film Festival, Japan Society, Japan Media Arts Festival

    There is a little strange world different from the real one, where we can control our dreams in a deep forest. This is a wonderful story about nine men and women in that forest... Eight years ago, directors Shunichiro Miki, Katsuhito Ishii and Hajime Ishimine teamed up to deliver FUNKY FOREST: THE FIRST CONTACT (?????: The First Contact, Naisu No Mori: The First Contact, 2006) a movie so weirdly beautiful, so deeply imagined, and so hilariously surreal that it changed lives, cured disease, and turned water into unicorn milk. Shunichiro Miki is back all by himself with THE WARPED FOREST (??????, Asatte no Mori, 2011)... something so strange that it can’t really be described as a sequel, but it fits neatly into the FUNKY FOREST universe. In this beautifully odd science-fiction comedy with a new, visionary sensibility, countless ordinary concerns such as debt, unrequited love, infidelity, and the pursuit of happiness arise in a world in which there is no distinction between normal and abnormal. Rather than aspiring to tell a story, THE WARPED FOREST is a movie that provides the viewer with a sensory experience. If David Cronenberg had directed TELETUBBIES, it might have turned out like this. Shunichiro Miki completely self-funded THE WARPED FOREST through an investment of money and experience accumulated over ten years as a commercial director. The movie stars Fumi Nikaido -- the first Japanese winner of the Märcello Mastroiannl Award for Best New Young Actress at the Venice Film Festival -- Academy Award nominee Rinko Kikuchi (BABEL, PACIFIC RIM), Yoji Tanaka, Kanji Tsuda and Yoshiyuki Morishita. THE WARPED FOREST had its world premiere at the Hawaii International Film Festival in October 2011. Over the past two years it has screened at numerous festivals in Japan and abroad, including last month`s New York Asian Film Festival and japan Cuts. International sales are being handled by Nice Rainbow, Tokyo.

    SYNOPSIS Is it art? Surrealism? A gag? A never-before-seen nouveau SF movie!! THE WARPED FOREST is set in a high-realistic parallel world where dwarfs and other strange creatures coexist with humans. Three businessmen lounge around a hot spring chatting, when suddenly the owner opens the door and plotzes: these guys have been missing for days. What are they doing here? Cue dance-powered teleportation to a quiet village where differently-sized people all live peacefully side-by-side. A a woman who works at a miniature store, or maybe she`s a giant and everyone else is normal sized. There’s a guy who has a tiny bio-monster attached to his nipples, a weapons shop owner obsessed with hacking his dreams, translucent worms, and a young woman with a weiner gun who’s hunting the wild phantasmic animal known as the Pinkie Pankie. And, of course, everyone is eating Kittka fruits, which grow on young wood nymphs, look like genitals, and seem to make those who suck their milk deeply stoned. Hovering over it all is an inverted black pyramid floating in the sky like some kind of 1960’s science fiction sun off a prog rock album cover.

    DIRECTOR: SHUNICHIRO MIKI

    The director who spent 1O years` savings on this independent movie!! Born in 1968, Tokyo, Japan, Shunichiro Miki is a successful director of commercials with several advertising prizes to his name. He made his theatrical debut when he co-directed FUNKY FOREST: THE FIRST CONTACT, and his segment of that film -- AFTER SCHOOL CLUB -- has attracted over a million views on YouTube. THE WARPED FOREST is his first full-length feature film. In spite of his short filmography, Miki has already gained a strong following for his surreal and nonsensical artistic style. CREDITS World Premiere: October 15, 2011 (Hawaii International Film Festival) Running Time: 82 minutes Cast Fumi Nikaido Kanoko Kawaguchi Rinko Kikuchi Yoshiyuki Morishita Boba Mikan Ai Makino Ryu Morioka Mako Satoh Atsushi Yoshioka Tsubasa Fukusawa Yoji Tanaka Kanji Tsuda Crew Director: Shunichiro Miki Screenplay: Shunichiro Miki, Yuuka Oosumi Producers: Yasuhito Nakae, Motohiro Kumakura Cinematographers: Tetsuro Enjoji, Noboru Iwasaki Editors: Aya Kitazawa, Daisuke Miyazaki, Tomomasa Sano Production Designer: Shinji Inoue Costume Designer: Yuriko Fujiwara Music: Nobuyuki Oyagi Production: Shunichiro Miki Office in association with AOI Promotion Distributor: Miki Shunichiro Office International Sales: Nice Rainbow, Tokyo © Shunichiro Miki


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