Cold Fish (2010)

Cold Fish (2010)
aka: Tsumetai nettaigyo
Director: Shion Sono
Cast: Makoto Ashikawa, Denden, Mitsuru Fukikoshi
When Syamoto's teenage daughter is caught stealing, a generous middle-aged man helps resolve the situation. The man and his wife offer to have Syamoto's troublesome daughter work at their fish store. Syamoto soon discovers the horrific truth of the seemingly perfect couple.

Based loosely on a real life murder case known as the 'Saitama serial murders of dog lovers' that happened back in 1993, which involved a dog breeder and his wife being charged with four known murders, with others unproven but rumored to have happened. Cold Fish changes the details placing the man as a tropical fish salesman, who befriends another shop owner, slowly enticing him into his sadistic world. I'd heard various comments before viewing and was under the impression it was going to be this years Visitor Q, there is a few brief glimpses of that film within Cold Fish but overall it leaves the viewer with a totally different expierence, its more in the same unglamourous tradition of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer but with an added mix of family life and social commentary. The films tone is exceptionally bleak with each of its characters as negative and desperatly unhappy as the next, you wouldn't want to trade your life for any of them. The acting is for most part exceptional espiecally by its two central leads 'Denden as mood swinging sadistic maniac Murata' and 'Makoto Ashikawa as the anxiety ridden stooge Syamoto' whose too weak a personality to stand up for himself and stop being led into such a dark world. Without a question one of the better movies to come out of Japan this year, its only draw back being it feels at times that its being drawn out to fill its two hour plus duration, could have easily been cropped by 20-30 minutes without losing plot or action.

Cultdb Totals
[Rated 7½ out of 10]
[Deathcount 6]
[Gorequota 7/10]

Themes Included: Severed Head ● Tropical Fish ● Serial Killer
Rape ● Dysfunctional Family Life ● Gangsters ● Astronomy