The Warped Forest

A Shunichiro Miki Office production in colaboration with AOI Promotion. (Worldwide sales: Nice Rainbow, Tokyo, japan.) Created by Yasuhito Nakae, Motohiro Kumakura. Directed by Shunichiro Miki. Script, Miki, Yuuka Oosumi.With: Fumi Nikaido, Kanoko Kawaguchi, Rinko Kikuchi, Mikan Ai Makino, Ryu Morioka, Mako Satoh, Atsushi Yoshioka, Tsubasa Fukusawa.A powerful candidate for strangest movie of the season, "The Warped Forest" is really a sometimes amusing, sometimes dumb, frequently grotesque but never dull trip right into a surreal parallel world where small people and titans exist together alongside puppet-like creature-thingies. This self-funded solo pointing debut by Japanese cult figure Shunichiro Miki ("Funky Forest: The Very First Contact") will leave nearly everybody baffled, but does not lack for entertainment value. Fests should take a look. Initially, the pic seems normal as three consuming pals discuss an unusual forest they have learned about. Switching from black-and-whitened to paint, Miki zooms in to the forest where fruit develops in the braches of alabaster-skinned nymphs along with a nearby village hosts eccentrics including full-sized baker's wife Yuppo (Rinko Kikuchi, "Babel") and thumb-sized pregnant lady Makko (Mako Satoh). The passing parade of curiosities includes furry creatures oozing goop along with a punk girl carrying a ray-gun. Superbly designed and decorated, that one-of-a-kind pic will not make any apparent sense, but is compelling within the oddest of the way. Some audiences may go through that in some way everything accumulates in the finish -- kind of. Effects work along with other tech credits are topnotch.Camera (color/B&W, HD), Tetsuro Enjoji, Noboru Iwasaki editors, Aya Kitazawa, Daisuke Miyazaki, Tomomasa Sano music, Oyagi Nobuyuki production designer, Shinji Inoue costume designer, Yuriko Fujiwara. Examined at Hawaii Film Festival, March. 15, 2011. Running time: 77 MIN. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com