Cold Fish was a film I was really itching to see, not necessarily because of its story but because of its genre: Asian Extreme. After spending the last couple months dredging through the likes of Burst City, Death Powder and 964 Pinocchio, I was really eager to see how this type of storytelling has progressed. Also as I'm am taking part in my cities international film festival, I wanted something a little dangerous in amongst the documentaries and dramas, just to spice it up a bit. Needless to say I got what I wanted and perhaps a bit more than I cared to witness. Though I am a film viewer who can appreciate gore and guts and depravity, this film still managed to test my boundaries of personal taste, and I came out of it with mixed emotions, some stuff I truly liked, while others, pushed the line I've drawn for myself as to what I can handle in a film. I'm thankful to find a film that challenges me thusly, but now it's over I can say this, too far! Cold Fish is about a recently remarried father named Shamoto who enters into business with an exuberant and strange tropical fish salesman named Murata. It isn't long before business turns sour as we find out this salesman has a penchant for killing those that defy him, and enlists our protagonist as an accomplice through fear and shock. As Murata begins offing more and more people, Shamoto finds himself getting pulled deeper and deeper into the crimes, trapped by this crazed killers with his career and families lives at stake should he show signs of betrayal. Can Shamoto find a sensible way out of this predicament, or will end up a stone cold killer like the man who claims to have found his apprentice. To watch you'll have to dive into the bloody water of Cold Fish and see what bites.
OK whoa! Hey! Whoa! This movie was wild and raw and crazy. There is a lot of depravity and violence throughout the film, much of it pushing the boundaries of tastefulness to the point that several audience members left half way through, several other during the final act. It's not a easy film to stomach as almost immediately we're treated to a lengthy sudo-rape scene that is all together unsettling, strange and sinister. From here things just get more insane as we're high jacked and handcuffed to the loud and brash personality of Murata. This is a great performance, and a performance that could only work in this type of film and culture. Murata is wacky, over the top, and down right evil at times, but it's so perfect, the film needed a vivid and crazy character to give it a necessary black comedy element and it got that and much more. In a perfect world, this guy would be nominated for a best supporting actor award, sadly performances like this get lost in translation, even still Murata commands and controls the film throughout; it's also helpful that our lead actor isn't fleshed out or acted nearly as well. Our protagonist is missing a major component of admission of his feelings on his situation to himself or someone he trusts. It's hard to tell what goes on in the mind of Shamoto, which makes all his actions quite puzzling, Shamotot is too quiet for too long to find any reasoning in his actions. The other female counterparts are badly written, I tried to chalk it up to a culture of docile women, but that doesn't cover how objectified and stupid all of the female characters are portrayed; they live for, and are abused (brutally) by the men they claim to love. Not a single redeeming quality exists on any of these characters, and even our hero is reluctant to be one, which becomes even more apparent in the final gruesome act.
The final act of this film had my heart racing with a hand covering my mouth to stifle the shock of one of the bloodiest and goriest endings to a film I have seen in a film. That said, I loved the direction it took towards the end, switching over to a gory thriller that had me wincing from its scenes. Still there are certain things I feel inclined to draw a line at. As far as cinematic depictions of rape go, I can tell myself it's just a film, but even still, Cold Fish subjects the viewer to a brutal rape scenes that go on to long and to far into perverse and wrongful territories that it became hard to take, or even justify as valid entertainment. I'm not saying don't do it, but I am saying don't glorify it, and I felt that may have happened here. Story and ensemble aside, the film has some pretty sophisticated direction, a perfectly used score and great editing, the film transitions from creepy to criminal and feels so right in doing so, a film that builds to a cataclysmic event seamlessly. I like the film overall, but take issue with some of the content (or at least the duration of it) that takes place within.
So while I can sit back and say, wow, that was a film that pushed and tested my as a viewer, I think other just might not want to bother, while others may run for the bathroom. The film is for hardcore horror fans and fans of extreme cinema. People who prefer their plots on the tamer side, please steer clear, this is the bloodiest, goriest film I've seen this year, or maybe even in the past few years. All I know is that by the end of it, I was shocked and in awe of what I had witnessed. Truly an offensive and macabre piece of work, crafted with skill yet lacking in sensibility. See it if you like your blood by the gallon.
OK whoa! Hey! Whoa! This movie was wild and raw and crazy. There is a lot of depravity and violence throughout the film, much of it pushing the boundaries of tastefulness to the point that several audience members left half way through, several other during the final act. It's not a easy film to stomach as almost immediately we're treated to a lengthy sudo-rape scene that is all together unsettling, strange and sinister. From here things just get more insane as we're high jacked and handcuffed to the loud and brash personality of Murata. This is a great performance, and a performance that could only work in this type of film and culture. Murata is wacky, over the top, and down right evil at times, but it's so perfect, the film needed a vivid and crazy character to give it a necessary black comedy element and it got that and much more. In a perfect world, this guy would be nominated for a best supporting actor award, sadly performances like this get lost in translation, even still Murata commands and controls the film throughout; it's also helpful that our lead actor isn't fleshed out or acted nearly as well. Our protagonist is missing a major component of admission of his feelings on his situation to himself or someone he trusts. It's hard to tell what goes on in the mind of Shamoto, which makes all his actions quite puzzling, Shamotot is too quiet for too long to find any reasoning in his actions. The other female counterparts are badly written, I tried to chalk it up to a culture of docile women, but that doesn't cover how objectified and stupid all of the female characters are portrayed; they live for, and are abused (brutally) by the men they claim to love. Not a single redeeming quality exists on any of these characters, and even our hero is reluctant to be one, which becomes even more apparent in the final gruesome act.
The final act of this film had my heart racing with a hand covering my mouth to stifle the shock of one of the bloodiest and goriest endings to a film I have seen in a film. That said, I loved the direction it took towards the end, switching over to a gory thriller that had me wincing from its scenes. Still there are certain things I feel inclined to draw a line at. As far as cinematic depictions of rape go, I can tell myself it's just a film, but even still, Cold Fish subjects the viewer to a brutal rape scenes that go on to long and to far into perverse and wrongful territories that it became hard to take, or even justify as valid entertainment. I'm not saying don't do it, but I am saying don't glorify it, and I felt that may have happened here. Story and ensemble aside, the film has some pretty sophisticated direction, a perfectly used score and great editing, the film transitions from creepy to criminal and feels so right in doing so, a film that builds to a cataclysmic event seamlessly. I like the film overall, but take issue with some of the content (or at least the duration of it) that takes place within.
So while I can sit back and say, wow, that was a film that pushed and tested my as a viewer, I think other just might not want to bother, while others may run for the bathroom. The film is for hardcore horror fans and fans of extreme cinema. People who prefer their plots on the tamer side, please steer clear, this is the bloodiest, goriest film I've seen this year, or maybe even in the past few years. All I know is that by the end of it, I was shocked and in awe of what I had witnessed. Truly an offensive and macabre piece of work, crafted with skill yet lacking in sensibility. See it if you like your blood by the gallon.