You wait for a Hollywood movie to feature the legendary Japanese forest known as Aokigahara – AKA the suicide forest – and suddenly three arrive (almost) at once. The first two, The Sea of Trees and the Natalie Dormer-fronted horror pic The Forest, ultimately failed to impress. But third time’s a charm, right?
The latest movie to take place under the shadow of Mt. Fiji is The People Garden, Nadia Litz’s character-driven drama that follows Dree Hemingway into the bowels of Aokigahara. Having made the long trip to Japan to severe ties with her rock star boyfriend Jamie, Hemingway’s Sweetpea is a woman on a mission, but our lead character soon begins to suspect something is amiss when her significant other is nowhere to be found.
Last seen shooting a music video with Pamela Anderson’s aging lingerie model, The People Garden chronicles Hemingway’s desperate journey deep into the forest, having to contend with eerie mysteries and oddly unconcerned locals as she goes.
Sweetpea (Dree Hemingway) flies to Japan to break up with her rock star boyfriend. When she arrives, her boyfriend has disappeared, last seen shooting a music video with an aging lingerie model (Pamela Anderson) in a Japanese forest that harbors a dark secret. Sweetpea sets out to solve the mystery of Jamie’s disappearance, though the cast and crew of the video seem oddly unconcerned.
The People Garden has been slated for a limited theatrical release on Tuesday, September 13, when Litz’s thriller will also become available via select VOD services (iTunes and Amazon included).
