Cold Fish

This article is about the film. For the song, see Cold Fish (song). For the geologic formation, see Cold Fish Volcanics. For other uses, see wiktionary:cold fish.

Cold Fish (冷たい熱帯魚, Tsumetai Nettaigyo) is a 2010 Japanese film directed by Sion Sono. Cold Fish premiered at the 67th Venice International Film Festival on September 7, 2010, and received the best screenplay award in the Fantastic Features section at Fantastic Fest 2010. The film was released as part of the Bloody Disgusting Selects line. The film is loosely based on the exploits of two Tokyo serial killers, Sekine Gen and Hiroko Kazama, a husband and wife duo who owned a pet shop and murdered at least four people.^[1]

Cold Fish
Promotional release poster
Directed by	Sion Sono
Written by	Sion Sono Yoshiki Takahashi
Produced by	Yoshinori Chiba Toshiki Kimura
Starring	Mitsuru Fukikoshi Denden Asuka Kurosawa
Cinematography	Shinya Kimura
Edited by	Junichi Ito
Music by	Tomohide Harada
Production company	Nikkatsu
Release dates	September 7, 2010 (2010-09-07) (Venice Film Festival) January 29, 2011 (2011-01-29) (Japan)
Running time	145 minutes
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Plot

Nobuyuki Shamoto is a quiet man who runs a small tropical fish shop in Shizuoka, Japan. His home life is unhappy. His teenage daughter Mitsuko is rude and violent, especially toward his second wife, Taeko. One day, Mitsuko is caught stealing from a supermarket. A stranger named Yukio Murata steps in, convinces the store manager to let her go, and then invites Nobuyuki and his family to visit his much larger fish shop. Murata is cheerful, loud, and friendly. He offers Mitsuko a job and suggests that he and Nobuyuki should become business partners. Nobuyuki feels grateful and slowly becomes involved in Murata’s business.

At first, everything seems exciting and new. Murata introduces Nobuyuki to expensive fish, new clients, and the idea of making more money. But soon, things take a dark turn. Murata and his wife Aiko are actually serial killers. They run their fish business as a front to scam, kill, and get rid of people they see as threats. Murata begins to force Nobuyuki to help him hide bodies and clean up after murders. He uses pressure, flattery, and fear to control him. Nobuyuki becomes more afraid and trapped, and he starts losing his sense of right and wrong. Meanwhile, Mitsuko seems to be adjusting to life at Murata’s shop, but Nobuyuki does not know what is really happening to her.

By the end of the story, Nobuyuki has become deeply involved in Murata’s crimes and feels he has no way out. After being humiliated and pushed too far, he finally snaps and kills Murata. But by then, the damage is already done. He has lost control of his life, his family is broken, and he has blood on his hands. The film ends with Nobuyuki standing alone, covered in blood, completely changed from the man he was at the beginning.

Cast

• Mitsuru Fukikoshi as Nobuyuki Syamoto
• Denden as Yukio Murata
• Asuka Kurosawa as Aiko Murata
• Megumi Kagurazaka as Taeko Syamoto
• Hikari Kajiwara as Mitsuko Syamoto
• Tetsu Watanabe as Takayasu TsuTsui
• Ryouhei Abe as Masato Yonkura

Production

Following Alien vs Ninja and Mutant Girls Squad, Cold Fish is the third film to be released by Nikkatsu's Sushi Typhoon, their gore-themed series.^[2]

Director and writer Sion Sono was influenced by Japanese crime cases while developing Cold Fish, specifically about an actual killing spree committed by a dog kennel owner in the 1990s (the story of the film involves a family of three that becomes entangled in a string of ongoing murders perpetrated by a tropical fish salesman in Shizuoka Prefecture).^[3] Sono also wanted to "depict a sense of total hopelessness" which he felt is "lacking in Japanese films."^[3]

Release

Cold Fish premiered at the 67th Venice International Film Festival on September 7, 2010.^[2] It was also shown at film festivals in Pusan and at the Toronto International Film Festival where it received its North American premiere.^[4][5] Cold Fish won the best screenplay award in the Fantastic Features section at Fantastic Fest 2010.^[4] It was released in Japan on January 29, 2011.^[2]

Reception

Film Business Asia gave Cold Fish an 8 out of 10 rating, praising the actor Denden, without whose "tour-de-force performance… Cold Fish may never have worked."^[2] The review went on to state that "Though there's considerable gore on display, it's largely cartoonish. Cold Fish is not so much a blood-and-guts horror movie, more a danse macabre about social breakdown."^[2]

In the United Kingdom, Total Film gave the film a three out of five rating, suggesting that plot twists and black comedy offered welcome reprieve from the "largely hysterical acting and rivers of viscera."^[6]

The Guardian found the film to be "fairly ordinary" in comparison to Sono's other works and felt that the film was too long.^[7] Radio Times gave the film three out of five stars, praising the acting from Denden, Fukikoshi and Kurosawa and Shinya Kimura's photography and Takashi Matsuzuka's production design, which made up for "some overindulgent directorial moments".^[8]