User Reviews

"Aokigahara: Suicide Forest" is an American 20-minute documentary set in Japan and as you see only one guy talking in front of the camera from start to finish, you will certainly need subtitles unless you are fluent in Japanese. The director is Santiago Stelley and this is a contender for his most known work I guess. The title already gives away what this is about. Maybe you heard of some cliffs or bridges from which suicidal people like to jump into their deaths and here we have the Japanese equivalent: a forest. I don't know. There is always something so impressive and haunting to me about the people and the country itself that almost makes me want to live there, even if this is a bit of a depressing little film. You could say it's a short Blair Witch film with the difference that it's not about murder, but about suicide. Still I must admit that all they find in here is to an extent where I would say that I am not entirely certain all of it is authentic and none of it is staged, like the guy camping who may possibly want to kill himself or the skeleton or the sweets and flowers at the end and everything before that. It seems a bit much, but I hope I'm wrong. In terms of the contents, I definitely give this film a thumbs-up and it is closer to a ****/***** than to a **/***** for sure. Go check it out.