Cold Fish

Directed by Sion Sono.

2010. Not Rated, 145 minutes.

Cast:

Mitsuru Fukikoshi

Denden

Asuka Kurosawa

Hikari Kajiwara

Megumi Kagurazaka

Tetsu Watanabe

Right at the beginning we’re told Cold Fish is inspired by true events. Yeesh. Our trek into the bizarre begins when troubled teen Mitsuko (Kajiwara) is caught shoplifting. When her dad Nobuyuki Shamoto (Fukikoshi) and step-mom Taeko (Kagurazaka) come to get her, they meet store-owner, the fun-loving Yukio Murata (Denden). He’s an exotic fish dealer, same as Shamoto, only much more successful. Instead of calling the cops, Murata offers to give Mitsuko a job and to let her live in a dorm, of sorts, with the other girls that work for him. Since things aren't exactly great between any combination of the three members of the Shamoto household, and Murata and his wife Aiko (Kurosawa) seem harmless enough, Mr. Shamoto agrees. Besides, Murata drives a shiny red Ferrari. As expected, he’s not all he cracks himself up to be. Sure, Mitsuko is a cute young girl and that’s the road my mind traveled in trying to figure what Murata is really up to. That ain't it.

In rather short order, things turn down a dark road. Murata traps Shamoto into a shady business deal that includes making him an accomplice to murder, among other things. Don’t worry. That’s only the beginning. Eventually, we get into adultery, rough sex, domestic violence, more murder, rape, exhibitionism, more murder, and lots and lots of fun with really bloody corpses. A great deal of it is in shocking detail. After this, you’ll no longer have to imagine how to properly dispose of a body and not leave any evidence. To call this movie morbid is selling it way short.

That said, things seem to be coming to a logical conclusion. However, just when we think its coming to an end is when it really flies off the rails. The problem is the point that it appeared we were working toward is rendered completely moot. What promised to provide some form of social commentary through its extremes opts to become a gore-fest enamored with its own pools of blood.

Until now, the only movie I’d seen by director Sion Sono was the fabulously disturbing Strange Circus. As weird and twisted as that movie is, it all works. The story and its visuals somehow both manage to be simultaneously repulsive and compelling. Eventually, it all comes together in a “wow” moment. I couldn't believe what I just saw, but I loved it. Cold Fish is a cruder, and amazingly, more baffling film that reaches for the same qualities possessed by SC but never quite gets there. It just keeps pushing the envelope until it flies off the table then pushes some more. The ending is something far beyond cynical, seemingly just for the sake of being so. To its credit, though, even with all the grotesque and simply distasteful visuals you can’t take your eyes off CF. You may cringe and cover your face, but will probably still watch through parted fingers. This is not a movie you’re likely to forget.

Strange Circus

Directed by Shion Sono.
2005. Rated R, 108 minutes.
Cast:
Masumi Miyazaki
Rie Kuwana
Mai Takahashi
Hiroshi Ohguchi
Issei Ishida
Tomorrowo Taguchi
Fujiko

Strange movies have a certain way with me. They’re a reminder that film can be akin to abstract art, creative and open to interpretation. Movies that explore the grotesque are also highly intriguing to me. They tap in to our subconscious fear and sadism. Though we may cringe, we can’t stop watching. Strange Circus is a strange movie that explores the grotesque.

We start the proceedings following Mitsuko (played by three different actresses, but somehow not at all confusing). When we meet her, she’s a twelve year old girl who leads a rather tortured existence. Her father is the well-liked principal of her school. However, that’s by far the least uncomfortable part of their relationship. At home, he has a cello case in his bedroom. He likes hiding her in it, forcing her to watch through the peephole he's cut out as he and his wife make love. When that’s not enough, he graduates to having sex with his daughter. Then…well, let’s just say it gets even more bizarre.

The question becomes is Mitsuko’s story real? After a while, we meet Taeko (Miyazaki), a famous wheelchair bound author and discover that we’ve been watching her upcoming novel unfold as she writes it. Or, are we? Is this piece of so-called fiction actually an autobiography? Where we go from here, took a twisted mind to conjure. By the way, director Shion Sono also wrote the movie and did an awesome job at both.

After we’re introduced to Taeko, we switch back and forth between her current, somewhat odd and mysterious life and Mitsuko’s developing tale. The two weave an unsettling tapestry of sexually charged but almost never sexy imagery. The act is completely perverted, stripped of intimacy and wielded as a soul stealing weapon. This is true horror. It eschews masked and/or deformed boogeymen for a real, at least seemingly so, flesh and blood monster. This monster doesn’t rack up a body count to shock us intermittently while using the stupidity of other characters as comic relief. This monster, well all of them as several are eventually revealed, just screws with our heads, relentlessly. Any laughs to be had are uneasy, at best.

In the lead role, Masumi Miyazaki is stunning. She actually winds up playing three roles. It only feels like one, until it suddenly doesn’t. You have to see it, to have even an inkling of what I’m talking about. In fact, the cast as a whole is remarkable. Perhaps, not to be outdone by any of them, cinematographer Yûichirô Ôtsaka turns in outstanding work. It can’t be easy making images so innately disgusting to us so beautiful to look at. This isn’t the gory, slasher flick type of disgusting we’ve become desensitized to. These are things that shake our core and bother us to even think.

If you want to see something very, very different, this is what you’re looking for. It’s often repulsive, but that’s part of its appeal. It never pulls punches. Whether, or not, you duck is up to you.