Charting the creation of a cold-blooded killer in ‘Cold Fish’
The amount of blood that spills in Shion Sono’s new suspense thriller, Cold Fish, is substantial. It decorates the walls, reddens people’s clothes, radiates from necks and soaks the floor. The blood factor, especially in the last third of the film, borders on cartoonish.
But despite the excessive gore, Cold Fish, which is distributed by Bloody Disgusting Selects, proves to be a dementedly effective movie that charts the tribulations of an innocent man and the increasingly violent predicaments he finds himself in. The movie isn’t for everyone — stomaching the bloodshed is a chore — but for those who let Sono’s work win them over, watching Cold Fish can be a satisfying cinematic experience.
Mitsuru Fukikoshi plays Nobuyuki, a simple man with a simple outlook on life. When he’s not spending time with his teenage daughter or beautiful wife, Nobuyuki sets up shop in his exotic fish store, selling his gilled friends to customers. Business is slow, but life is good.
When his daughter, Mitsuko (Hikari Kajiwara), is caught stealing from a competitor’s fish store, the plot takes a disastrous turn. Rather than sending Mitsuko to the authorities, Yukio Marata (Denden) and his wife Aiko (Asuka Kurosawa) come up with a bargain. What if Nobuyuki allows his daughter to work in Marata’s store? She pays off the debt, and who knows, maybe the two establishments can partner up on a few rare fish purchases.
Smitten by Yukio’s winning smile, Nobuyuki agrees to hand over his daughter. The decision comes back to haunt him. Within a few short scenes, his daughter seems to have been taken into a cult, his wife is essentially raped by Yukio and Nobuyuki plays witness to horrible acts of violence and deception. The old adage proves true: Be careful what you wish for.
Sono is smart in his cinematic delivery. The movie, which chimes in at 144 minutes, moves along at a methodical pace. The evil inherent in Yukio and Aiko doesn’t become apparent in the beginning. It takes a little digging to realize that Noboyuki has made a bargain with the devil.
Thankfully, the bloodiness has a purpose. Sono is less interested in shocking the viewer — although there is plenty of shock — and more interested in watching his main character work through deteriorating stages of psychosis. Interestingly, it takes the climax of the film to appreciate Fukikoshi’s performance. At first, he seems beyond bland and unwilling to help his family. He’s a bystander who refuses to raise the red flags over Yukio and Aiko’s malevolence. Yet, by the film’s end, we realize something questionable has been coursing through our hero’s veins.
The powerhouse performance of the movie is from Denden, who plays one of the sickest, most manipulative villains in recent memory. The way he goes from a perfect sense of calm to a deranged outburst of emotion is frightening to behold. Although the audience wants to scream at Nobuyuki for his inability to protect his family, one understands his apprehension because of Denden’s crazed performance. The man is scary, plain and simple.
The screenplay by Sono and Yoshiki Takahashi is apparently based on true events. One only hopes that the writers took many, many liberties. If any facet of this gruesome tale is fact, the world is a dark, dark place.
Cold Fish offers a bleak view of society. It is the definition of depravity with few moments of peace and quiet. It’s a trying experience, but probably worth trying.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
