Cold Fish is ‘Interesting’ to Say the Least
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Cold Fish is not exactly horror, and not really a horror comedy, yet manages to capture the macabre in a way that is both tongue-in-cheek and terrifying in it’s levity.
Written by The Horror Czar, Don Sumner
August 2, 2011
Movie Trailer
Image Gallery
Release: July 6, 2011 (U.S. Theatrical Limited) August 23, 2011 (U.S. DVD)
Directed by: Shion Sono
Written by: Shion Sono and Yoshiki Takahashi
Starring:
Denden as Yukio Murata
Asuka Kurosawa as Aiko Murata
Mitsuru Fukikoshi as Nobuyuki Syamoto
Megumi Kagurazaka as Taeko Syamoto
Hikari Kajiwara as Mitsuko Syamoto
This movie, in many ways, defies description. Perhaps that’s the reason why the writer of this review resorted to pretentious language to get the point across in the beginning – I mean, “terrifying in it’s levity” indeed…
The story makes plenty of sense in the beginning – a miserable and weak fish store owner (Mitsuru Fukikoshi) is living out his life with an attractive wife who will have nothing to do with him and a daughter who hates her step mother and has no respect for her father (Megumi Kagurazaka and Hikari Kajawara). When the daughter gets caught shoplifting with her roughneck boyfriend her parents come to the store to try and sort things out, and are saved by the seemingly benevolent Yukio Murata (Denden) who offers the girl the chance to work at his bigger and nicer fish store in exchange for forgiveness of her transgression. It’s a bit strange when Murata also wants her to stay with him in a kind of “fish store hottie sorority” where all of the attractive fish hostesses live, but to get out of trouble the family agrees.
There is a whole lot of weirdness going on inside the fish store and out, unfortunately, and Mr. Syamoto finds that he wasn’t anywhere near the bottom of the barrel in his life – he can fall a whole lot further.
Cold Fish is very strange from the beginning, each of the characters behaving in a way that is both completely unnatural and seemingly a commentary of Japanese culture’s unwillingness to offend or show disrespect. The characters are huge, especially Mr. Murata who is played expertly by Denden, a veteran of J-horror embraced by U.S. audiences (Spiral, Ju-on, Ju-on 2, Godzilla 2000). Each character seems to be both a farce designed to embrace the Black Comedic elements of Cold Fish and a caricature of a Japanese stereotype including the slimy business man, the passive working stiff and a teen overcome with insolence and Western influence.
The macabre elements of Cold Fish really sneak up on you, being intermixed with a light heartedness that hits hard because you were blindsided. This comes up both through despicable actions and nonchalant murder, and gore so realistic and extreme that it takes a minute to catch your breath. You may actually believe for a second that it’s natural to chat and laugh merrily about your day while covered in blood and hacking a body into parts small enough for fish to eat.
As Mr. Syamoto travels from fear to resentment, then on to anger and psychosis the line between the real psychotics, or even the true nature of mental imbalance is ripped up and down and tied into a bow. Nothing makes sense, yet it all makes perfect sense… at the same time.
Cold Fish starts out as a bit of a farce,
and seems to end
that way as well, but there is so much happening beneath the surface
that the whole thing is completely brilliant – except it doesn’t make
much sense… but kind of does. This film is not for everyone, and I
thought for a while that it wasn’t for me either. After the credits
rolled the good/bad/indifferent question remained unanswered. Now, 24
hours later, I am about to watch the film again because it just may be
genius. Director and Co-writer Shion Sono, who is also the
writer/director of Suicide
Club and acted in Tokyo
Gore Police, teamed up with co-writer Yoshiki Takahashi
(poster designer for Alien vs. Ninja, Big
Tits Dragon,
Vampire
Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl) to create a film that can’t be
clearly explained, yet may just bring more horror freaks into the fold
of off-beat J-horror.
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