The Forest of Love: Deep Cut

In a quiet restaurant, Murata sits with a yearbook bearing many crossed‑out photos while a TV reports on a serial killer. He tells the waiter he's a screenwriter and asks what it feels like to kill someone, hinting at his own dark impulses. The scene establishes his manipulative worldview and foreshadows the later con games.

In a vacant warehouse, Jay, Fukami, and Shin gather to discuss a new project. Jay explains his dream of making movies that explore criminal behavior legally, laying out a plan to document and dramatize real-life crimes. The trio begins to blur lines between art, exploitation, and reality.

Jay brings Shin to meet Taeko, who refuses Shin but introduces Mitsuko, her high school classmate. Mitsuko is described as a virgin under strict parental control, and Taeko urges Shin toward a philosophy of scars and moving on. The dynamic introduces themes of sexuality, manipulation, and longing.

In a flashback at an all-girls high school, Mitsuko and Taeko participate in a Romeo and Juliet production, with Mitsuko as Juliet and Eiko as Romeo. The girls explore romance and sexuality while grappling with their lack of experience with men. Eiko dies in a car accident, the play is canceled, and Taeko is scarred, both physically and emotionally, before vowing to endure.

Back in the present, Mitsuko receives a call from Murata claiming she lent him 50 yen years earlier. They arrange to meet in a park, where Murata arrives in a sports car and flirts openly, while Shin, Jay, and Fukami watch and record the moment. The encounter marks the start of Murata’s real-world manipulation.

Mitsuko shows Taeko a video exposing Murata’s pattern of cons, including his boasts of wealth and marriage. A filming crew is assembled and they begin making a movie about Murata, with Shin cast as Murata, blurring the line between documentary and fiction. Their project starts to mirror Murata’s manipulations in real life.

Murata seduces Mitsuko, Ami, and Taeko, drawing them deeper into his web and triggering Mitsuko’s self-harm as she confronts her own trauma. He stages a concert that brings together many of his former victims to vie for his attention. The line between victim and collaborator becomes dangerously blurred.

Despite his promises, Murata reveals he has no real money and the film company depends on sham funding. Fukami quits, the others stay, and the project continues under a fragile pretext of collaboration. The illusion of control over Murata’s story begins to crumble.

A relative arrives at Mitsuko’s home, exposing the film company as a sham and demanding repayment. Murata and Shin return to find Mitsuko’s father has hanged himself, while her mother and the relative lie nearby with a bloody knife. Ami returns home to discover Murata and Shin have dismembered the relative, deepening the group’s violent spiral.

Ami participates in Murata’s cruel world, while Mitsuko contemplates escape. Murata and Shin intensify their control as Ami becomes complicit in the escalating brutality. The pair plans a final death scene for Mitsuko, tightening their grip on the doomed trio.

In a forest setting, Mitsuko and Ami are prepared for death as Murata’s crew manipulates the scene. Shin shoots Ami and Mitsuko, then passes the gun to Murata and orders him to kill Ami. Shin reveals himself to be the serial killer reported on the news, and a struggle ensues as Murata escapes in a car with a woman who resembles Eiko.

Shin, revealed as the serial killer, drives away in a car with a woman who resembles Eiko, while Murata’s fate is left ambiguous. The ending underscores the power of manipulation and the blurred line between fiction and crime. On-screen text later notes the real murderers were caught in 2002 and sentenced to life imprisonment.

The film closes with on-screen text confirming that those behind the real-life murders were caught in 2002 and given life imprisonment. The narrative reinforces the consequences of exploiting trauma for art and the precarious nature of truth in documentary storytelling.