When asked to describe his latest film in one word, director Shunichiro Miki repeated what most cinema critics worldwide had said after their own somewhat botched attempts to describe it: "Indescribable."
And after making its global debut at the Hawaii International Film Festival in 2011, "Asatte no Mori (The Warped Forest)" is likely to leave its audience similarly mystified at the upcoming Japan Media Arts Festival (JMAF) in Tokyo, too.
Miki, 45, says he rarely thought about audience reaction while making this completely self-funded film. Instead he stuck with his own gut. Of course, that didn't mean he wasn't inundated with constant worry about his career.