The Forest of Love (2019) review

A rag-tag group of wannabe filmmakers become strangely enamored with a psychotic singer named Joe Murata (Kippei Shiina) - who leaps around from girl to girl and is all too eager to burn and bruise their skin - and decide to make a movie about him (which he eventually takes over directing himself) ... oh, and there's a serial killer on the loose (hint: it's not Joe).  Anyone (unfortunately) aware of Sono's output should recognize his common themes - schoolgirls, panties, suicide pacts, more panties, dismemberment - get all of them in one inconvenient package, complete with a barely coherent storyline, rampant screaming and over-acting.  The end credits indicate it's based on actual real-life events, which makes Sono's flippant treatment all the more odious - he also has no clue how to edit his own material or show the least bit of restraint.  Shūji Terayama gets name-checked, but he has more in common with the worst of early Kōji Wakamatsu.