The Aokigahara Forest also known as the Suicide Forest or the Sea of Trees is a real life forest at the foot of Mount Fuji in Japan with a fascinating attraction to people who want to commit suicide with more than 100 suicides a year registered.  The entrance to the forest even has signs posted in Japanese urging suicidal visitors to think of their families and contact a suicide prevention association.  The forest has long been associated with death and is supposed to be haunted by angry spirits.

Into this dark place comes our hero Arthur Brennan a Massachusetts science teacher played gamely by Matthew McConaughey who has bought a one way air ticket from Massachusetts to Japan, apparently ignoring the obvious fact that even when planning to use only the first half of an air ticket it’s cheaper to buy a round trip ticket.  He rents a car at the airport, drives to Aokigahara and plunges into the forest intent on killing himself.  But before he can do the deed he meets Takumi Nauamura a failed businessman played by Ken Watanabe who is also intent on killing himself.  With over 100 suicides a year as well as a similar number of attempted suicides the forest is rather crowded with like-minded would-be suicides.  Takumi who is covered in cuts and luckily speaks excellent English explains that he has been in the forest for several days but has not been able to successfully kill himself yet.

Arthur is then intent on saving Takumi and the two men realise that they want indeed to go on living despite getting lost in the forest and encountering a series of mishaps that plunge them into a struggle for survival.  Arthur’s life and the reasons he wants to end it are told in a series of flashbacks and subsequent monologues that are meant to be a meditation on life and death that does not quite come off as profound as it was intended to be.  Generally Arthur had a rather mundane existence and a lousy relationship with his wife Joan played by Naomi Watts which is compounded when Joan gets a brain tumour.  The film is meant to be a life affirming – Hollywood style – journey from despair to life affirmation and a reconnection with life. If that sounds like a bit of a cliché, it is.

Gus Van Sant has come up with stunning and moody images of dense forest together with his director of cinematography, Kasper Tuxen, who captures an unearthly landscape even though the film was shot mostly at Purgatory Chasm and other parts of Massachusetts, rather than the real life and suicide inducing forests of Aokigahara.  Perhaps after working with Chris Sparling’s less than successful script the production team felt that plunging into the real thing might be just too tempting.

Credits (USA)

Directed by Gus Van Sant

Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Naomi Watts, Ken Watanabe