Scarlet Nouveau I've decided to watch "Cold Fish"because of its acclaimed director and the good critics. I was disappointed. Though the movie was undeniably entertaining, it entertains because of its shock factor, and not exactly because it has a good plot. This is the story about two owners of aquarium shops who meet for banal circumstances. The eldest of them seems to be a nice, generous man but ends up showing that he's a serial killer. The movie explores themes like rape (very shocking scenes, which were a little unwarranted IMO), murder, domination, humiliation and authority. I could accept better the scenes filled with gore if gore there wasn't so gratuitous. Yet many of its bloody scenes are unnecessary to the plot, to the point of making the viewer bored of seeing so much blood in one movie, with no point at all. Not only that, the movie is filled with plot holes. Many aspects of the movie remain unexplained at the end of it - when a certain character disappears and his family starts searching for him, the family quickly gives up searching and pressuring the last man who saw him to tell them where the character is. The police in the movie has completely unrealistic behavior as well - fortunately Japanese policemen are much more prepared in real life than they are depicted in this movie!The ending, which is supposed to show the moral degradation of a man who used to be dignified, did not convince me. His character lacked development, and the final act to me was absurdly cliché and unjustified. If you want to be shocked for a little with a good amount of bloody scenes, watch it. Now if you expect a good psychological drama and a well-written plot, you'll definitely not find it in this movie.

Uriah43 "Nobuyuki Syamoto" (Mitsuru Fukikoshi ) is a quiet and unassuming man who owns a tropical fish store and simply wants to live in peace. Unfortunately, his daughter "Mitsuko" (Hikari Kajiwara) cannot stand his new wife "Taeko" (Megumi Kagurazaka ) and because of that the household is anything but peaceful. It eventually all comes to a head when Mitsuko is caught shoplifting at a grocery store which results with both Nobuyuki and Taeko driving there to convince the manager not to turn her over to the police. It's at this time that another man named "Yukio Murata " (Denden) just happens to step in and manages to convince the manager to simply let the parents handle the matter. Extremely grateful to him they are then convinced to let Mitsuko work for Yukio at his store. What they don't know is that Yukio isn't the nice man that they think he is. Now, rather than reveal any more of this movie I will just say that I thought it started off really great. The story was quite riveting and the performances of both Mitsuru Fukikoshi and Denden were truly excellent. Likewise, both Asuka Kurosawa (as "Aiko Murata") and Megumi Kagurazak were definitely attractive as well. Unfortunately, the director (Shion Sono) seemed to get carried away with the blood and gore towards the last third of the film which severely impacted the movie as a whole. And it was all so unnecessary. Despite this fact, the movie was still entertaining for the most part and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.

fac20 Love Exposure (by the same director) is one of my favourites of all time and so I was hoping for another cinematic treat. Unfortunately, this did not even come close. In fact, I found myself angry by the end of it and this was because I found the sexual violence disturbing, I did not buy into the plot twist, and most of the characters seemed unreal to me by the end of the film. These things ruined it for me.I wouldn't complain about the depiction of sexual violence if the film had more depth to it, but if there was any worthy point, then I totally missed it. My Japanese partner watched it with me and told me she had been thinking that it might be offputting to some/many Westerners since they would not understand the aspects of Japanese culture which give this film different meanings. This was certainly part of the problem for me, but further to this, it was the fact that it seemed to try to be many things (black comedy, gory horror, thriller, psychological drama) but failed to bring them together well enough.

meghana-meggy Just finished watching this movie and I must say, anyone who's a fan of East Asian horror flicks will like this film. Cold fish is about a meek guy Syamoto and his life which is turned upside down when a fish store owner Murata and his wife enter his life. In the series of events that follows we see extents of Syamoto's spinelessness and Murata's overbearing influence on him and his family. The actor who needs a huge round of applause is Denden as Murata. In his first scene you might think Murata might do a better job at stand up comedy than owning a fish store, only till the movie's developments prove you wrong. Asuka Kurosawa as Murata's wife also needs a huge amount of credit for playing the psychotically laughing character. And so does Mitsuru Fukikoshi himself as Syamoto who plays the meek guy pretty convincingly. Generally in the movies of this genre, the story begins with an unsuspecting group of family or friends that end up in a lonely spot or something along those lines. But Cold Fish sets itself apart as it picks a family next door right from it's normal mundane life situations and throws it into this disturbingly bloody world on screen. Which is why Cold Fish is more convincing than other horror flicks whose tales are situational. I've also never seen so much blood in a single movie before, which is telling considering the number of horror flicks I watch. The story is gripping and puts you on the edge of your seat at all times and the twists and turns keep coming. While there are not so many twists that the story ends up being nonsensical, but they are disturbing yet realistic enough that you find yourself in Syamoto's daughter's shoes when she breaks out in a hysterical laughter towards the end of the film. A good watch for sure.