why i am boycotting natalie dormer’s film, “the forest”

leftforbed:

yukaryote:

prisillysaurus:

  • besides the fact that it’s in japan and they whitewashed the film
  • it romanticizes death, suicide, and the forest
  • it is a real forest in japan, aokigahara, where people go to commit suicide
  • suicide in japan is a national crisis. the usa ranks 50th in yearly suicides while japan ranks 17th—an estimated 70 suicides per day.
  • japan’s rigorous culture of conformity heavily stigmatizes those with mental health issues. many japanese people have grown content with suicide and see it as a reasonable solution. in reality, suicide is an epidemic and is the second leading cause of death in the country.

  • suicides in the forest are still happening today so it is extremely disrespectful. this isn’t something that happened 400 years ago. it’s been happening for the last 30 years—over 100 bodies are found in aokigahara every year.
  • ableist erasure of poc with mental health issues—does not mention depression and whitewashes japanese people with depression, making yet another example where poc with mental illnesses are completely invisible.
  • as someone else said, the model minority myth doesn’t just assume that we (asians) are universally intelligent or rich, it also assumes that we’re able-bodied and don’t suffer from mental illness.

    NO ONE talks about mental health among asians. NO ONE talks about disabled asians. why? because everyone believes that we’re rich and smart enough to access healthcare. we aren’t.

  • instead of reaching out and confronting a problem that exists and is on-going, natalie dormer and her hollywood ilk turned it into a horror movie and whitewashed its cast, thus dehumanizing not only asians around the globe affected by mental health, but those who have already committed suicide.

  • please just don’t watch this fucking film

Instead of watching this film, please watch this documentary for starters, to really learn about Aokigahara and the issue of suicide in Japan. I feel ill just thinking about The Forest, because it exploits and dehumanizes those who have died into insidious monsters and spirits for the purpose of cheap entertainment. These are real people and real, ongoing cultural issues. To say that this film is insensitive is a gross understatement.

I remember watching the documentary months ago and later when I found out about the movie & saw what it was gonna be about, it made me sick.