Ok, some things about Suicide Forest: It does not romanticize suicide, death, or the forest. It's a fucking horror movie, these things are meant to SCARE you, not make you want to do them??? Like who is going to watch that movie and be like, "Fuckin right!!! I wanna go to that forest, sounds like a bomb ass time!!!!" ???? Also, the entire cast is not white washed. The small group are tourists, and perhaps they are white, but the movie does feature Japanese characters, since they're in Japan.
Okay, I am fully aware that you’re most likely an ignorant troll but I will actually take the time to develop a genuine answer as future reference for anyone out there who actually wants to take the time to learn how to be less shitty of a person. And because I am not Japanese, I don’t want to overstep my boundaries so I’ll let someone who is give a better answer for that last bit (do not feel obligated to educate though).
“Romanticizing” in this sense does not mean “romantic” like a Nora Roberts novel or to provoke arousal like you’re thinking. In discussions about racism, ableism, sexism, homophobia, etc, when people mention “romanticizing” something, it means to make it seem nicer or better than it actually is (or isn’t)—it is meant to disguise it as a minor problem than the reality. In this case by “romanticizing suicide,” it means Hollywood is accessorizing depression/anxiety/mental illness—the all-white writers of The Forest used suicide as an ‘aesthetic’ instead of posing it as a problem worth addressing and investigating within their narrative.
As for whitewashing, Hollywood shifted an issue that is specific only to Japan and Japanese people. White people should not be anywhere near the film because it has nothing to do with them. I repeat: it dehumanizes, degrades, and diminishes this particular issue which only affects Japanese people.
