Cold Fish
2011 Directed by Shion Sono
Synopsis
He'll make you pick up the pieces
Shamoto runs a small tropical fish shop. His second wife, Taeko, does not get along with his daughter, Mitsuko, and this worries him. One day Mitsuko is caught shoplifting at a grocery store. There they meet a friendly man named Murata, who helps to settle things between Mitsuko and the store manager. Since Murata also runs a tropical fish shop, Shamoto establishes a bond with him and they become friends; Mitsuko even begins working for Murata and living at his house. What Shamoto doesn’t know, however, is that Murata hides many dark secrets behind his friendly face.
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Insane. Absolutely insane. That's probably the best way to describe this movie; and not the "super-fun-action-ride" type of insane, either. Cold Fish is legitimately off its rocker, nuts, crazy, screwy, cuckoo, mad, demented, unhinged, etc.
And I liked it.
Nobuyuki Shamoto owns a tropical fish store. His marriage to his second wife, Taeko, is rocky because his daughter, Mitsuko, disapproves of it. After being caught attempting to shoplift, a store manager scolds Mitsuko extensively, but another man intervenes. Murata, an older man who also owns a (much larger) tropical fish store, convinces the manager to not punish her, and he begins a friendly relationship with the Shamoto family. Until his true, batshit crazy self comes out, of course.
It's hard…
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Bloody hell!!!!!!!!!
Sono is a mad genius.
The tag line is "He'll make you pick up the pieces" hilarious.
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I see the poster for this film looks alot like the poster for Straw Dogs and I think that is a fair comparison. Add in some quirky characters and some horrific moments and we've got a wonderful horror/thriller here.
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This movie is just awesome. As soon as I watched I couldn't understand it very well, but a few minutes later I was able to think a little more. This is a story about how a shark can eat a little fish by showing how little and insignificant this fish is. Also, a story about human's insecurity, ambition and values; even about family. Some people say it has some humor. I don't think so. All the scenes they see humor, I see more darkness, and we are talking about Murata, a so-called joyful character who are always laughing about every thing, but for me his laugh is as insane as his actions, as terrible as his ways to fix things, I couldn't find it funny, really. It's a movie about madness, after all, and it's a great movie. Denden's performance as the mad Murata is superb, as well as Mitsuru Fukikoshi's Nobuyuki Syamoto.
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Saw this gem at The Melbourne International Film Festival last year and loved every weird minute of it. Though the general plot is fairly predictable, director Sion Sono peppers the film with enough bizarre moments to keep even the most jaded viewer at half-mast, including a disturbingly hilarious rape scene that had the whole audience cracking up. Highly recommended
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Sion Sono is easily one of, if not the most interesting director working steadily today, and Cold Fish is yet another notch in his belt. I've seen pretty much everything he's done before this film, and I've yet to see a bad film from him. Hell, only his earliest films would I even consider just "okay". Everything he does is well above average. Whether it's his impeccable skills behind the camera, his mind-blowing ideas that pour out into his scripts, or the pitch-perfect performances he gets out of his actors, Sono has all the bases covered that every filmmaker should strive for. We've seen a lot of films that center on a mild-mannered person that is pushed over the edge,…
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園子温監督「家賃３部作」の第１作目
実話がベース
残虐描写あるしバイオレンスだし村田でんでん怖いし
徐々に巻き込まれて行く社本と自分の共通点がいくつかあるし
こわい映画でした。でも目が離せなかった。
どのカットも見落としたくなかった。すごいです。あと自分はこれをみて子供の教育は大事だなって思いました。
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“Life is pain. Living your life hurts.”
Unlike Love Exposure, which starts out cranked all the way up and only rises throughout, this film takes some time to get going. Its a more grounded film, but by Sono standards that doesn’t mean a great deal. It is still completely hysterical throughout and the last half hour is pure excess. Yet despite this, it all felt a bit ordinary, and like it was running too long. Love Exposure was a breeze at four plus hours, this dragged somewhat through its two and half.
More, the film’s message: that a man who doesn’t assert himself over others will be actively trampled on and walked over, at the cost of the respect of…
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I don't know what to say.. I thought I was very much used to gore and horror and craziness in the movies by now. But... I almost couldn't finish the movie... It doesn't mean that I didn't like the movie. It's got that sense of dread and helplessness, just like watching Michael Haneke's original funny Games. The director is so skillful that I just couldn't believe it was based on a true story. A well-made film but NOT my cup of tea.
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Sion Sono is easily one of, if not the most interesting director working steadily today, and Cold Fish is yet another notch in his belt. I've seen pretty much everything he's done before this film, and I've yet to see a bad film from him. Hell, only his earliest films would I even consider just "okay". Everything he does is well above average. Whether it's his impeccable skills behind the camera, his mind-blowing ideas that pour out into his scripts, or the pitch-perfect performances he gets out of his actors, Sono has all the bases covered that every filmmaker should strive for. We've seen a lot of films that center on a mild-mannered person that is pushed over the edge,…
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Insane. Absolutely insane. That's probably the best way to describe this movie; and not the "super-fun-action-ride" type of insane, either. Cold Fish is legitimately off its rocker, nuts, crazy, screwy, cuckoo, mad, demented, unhinged, etc.
And I liked it.
Nobuyuki Shamoto owns a tropical fish store. His marriage to his second wife, Taeko, is rocky because his daughter, Mitsuko, disapproves of it. After being caught attempting to shoplift, a store manager scolds Mitsuko extensively, but another man intervenes. Murata, an older man who also owns a (much larger) tropical fish store, convinces the manager to not punish her, and he begins a friendly relationship with the Shamoto family. Until his true, batshit crazy self comes out, of course.
It's hard…
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A twisted serial killer thriller about a timid tropical fish shop owner who unwillingly finds himself caught in the plans of a charismatic rival, big-time fish entrepreneur, Murata, who happens to have a taste for murder. Japanese actor, Denden absolutely kills it with his performance as the maniacal yet painfully likeable killer, entertaining with his charm before reversing the mood with his powerful presence. Some of the scenes are a little over-indulgent in their use of gore, and the two and a half hour runtime could have done with some editing, but overall it’s very entertaining with a surprising amount of jet-black comedy in amongst the violence.
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Heiliger Bimbam. Hat der mich kalt erwischt. Fängt ja gar nicht so schlimm an, eher lustig, aber dann ... schlimm. Echt schlimm. Bin gerade ziemlich fertig. Und doch war er auch gut, ja, aber ich kann ihn echt nicht guten Gewissens weiterempfehlen. Das ist harter, blutiger Tobak, der einen da erwartet. Und ganz viele tiefe Abgründe tun sich auf.
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A meek man runs a fish shop and lives a dismal life with a wife and daughter who don’t get along. His daughter gets into trouble shoplifting, but is bailed out by a very chipper customer, who turns out to run a fish shop himself, and a much more successful one. He forces friendship and partnership onto the meek guy, and the meek guy soon discovers that the chipper guy, along with his wife, are murderous psychopaths, who want the meek guy’s help with like, murders and things. A tense, brilliant thriller that is extremely dark, violent, horrifying, and bloody. I adored it.
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De inicio presenciamos una especie de sangrienta fabula corporativa, donde el pez grande siempre termina comiéndose al mas chico; el que tiene quiere mas, de manera que este está dispuesto a quitar de en medio a cualquiera que se interponga. Pero la historia va mas allá; Sono mete ruido en un ambiente aparentemente controlado. La brutalidad, las filias, el sadismo, y el fetichismo; ponen a prueba hasta al mas apaciguado (aparentemente). Y no solo eso, Pez Mortal deja en claro aquello de que por mas baños de pureza que el individuo se de, “en el fondo, todos somos iguales”.