Directed by Shion Sono
Written by Shion Sono and Yoshiki Takahashi
Cold Fish - Bloody Disgusting Selects Official Site
The only film I've seen from Japanese filmmaker Shion Sono was 2001's Suicide Club. With its surreal imagery and savage storytelling, it was a nice antidote to the typical cookie cutter J-Horror ghost stories that had been saturating theaters and home video at the time. Regretfully, I haven't been able to catch up on his other work, but I was still very eager to check out his latest, Cold Fish. The horror megasite Bloody Disgusting released it briefly as part of their Bloody Disgusting Selects series, but I've only now caught up to it on DVD.
Cold Fish is very loosely based on the true incidents surrounding a serial killing husband and wife team who operated a pet store in Japan. When a rich businessman tries to help out a hapless tropical fish shop owner, the guardian angel soon reveals himself to be a demon. Sono doesn't skimp on outrageous gore as his story pits sad sack Syamoto (Mitsura Fukikoshi), owner of a floundering tropical fish store, against his would-be mentor, the charismatic serial killer Murata (Denden). With Syamoto's already flimsy grasp on his family - a wife and daughter who have no respect for him - Murata is able to manipulate everyone into doing his bidding. He recruits Syamoto to help make Murata's competitors "invisible", which means they meet a rather bloody end. Will Murata mold Syamoto into his own image, or will Syomoto get some guts before Murata makes him invisible, too?
Sono is clearly avoiding any sort of realistic portrayal of the true story, and instead, delivers something more akin to Visitor Q meets The Texas Chain Saw Massacre than any true crime biopic. Sono smartly paints his film with broad strokes, rendering all the disturbing content so blatantly over-the-top, that one can't help but laugh through the whole thing. The performances are solid throughout, but Denden, playing the unpredictable Murata, is the cornerstone of the film. There hasn't been a more likable sicko in quite some time. The pacing also makes this 2 hour and 30 minute film feel like a breeze. Definitely worth a watch!
Cold Fish Trailer
MEGAN IS MISSING (2011)
Written and Directed by Michael Goi
Megan is Missing Offial Site
A lot of talk about this film has been going back and forth amongst the horror blogging community as of late. I believe it was BJ-C over at the fine blog Day of the Woman who started the fire saying it was one of the most disturbing films she's seen, and it sparked my interest. Make sure you read her (spoilerish) review here: Day of the Woman Review of Megan is Missing
Based on true events, Megan is Missing is another in the "found footage" genre, tracking the last few days of two missing teens after an encounter with an internet predator named "Josh". Unlike a lot of other films utilizing this style, it actually works to devastating results by the film's end. Plagued only by weak performances from some of the minor characters, as well as some unbelievable footage sources (footage from high grade video phone conversations is prevalent), Megan is Missing is still a potent film with an unbelievably harrowing final act. It's Micheal Goi's cautionary film warning of the dangers of rampant social technology, internet predators, and truly fucked up state of adolescene in the digital age.
Anchored by fine performances by leads Amber Perkins and Rachel Quinn, Megan is Missing raises a lot of questions about absent parenting, internet culture, teen sexuality and gender issues, and delivers one of bleakest endings I've seen in a long time. In fact, the final 20 minutes of this film were some of the most difficult for me to sit through since Gaspar Noe's Irreversible. It will definitely stay with you long after the credits roll. Be warned: This film is depressing as shit.
Megan is Missing Trailer
THE GREY (2012)
Directed by Joe Carnahan
Written by Joe Carnahan, Ian McKenzie Jeffers (from his short story)
If you think The Grey is all about Liam Neeson busting out Jedi moves against a pack of vicious wolves, you'll be sorely dissapointed. Joe Carnahan's bleak film is more thoughtful than that. His film, although packed with the types of thrills and desolation you'd expect, is a meditation on life and survival. At times poetic, more often brutal, the film is just as much man vs. himself as it is man vs. nature.
A drilling team crashes in the Alaskan wilderness. Without food, water, or shelter, it's not long before they run into a territorial, and vicious pack of wolves led by a clever Alpha male. The survivors must overcome unforgiving nature, and their own egos and insecurities, to survive. Desperate, hopeless, they find themselves, one-by-one, picked off by the bloodthirsty pack. Their one advantage is the stoic Ottway (Neeson) who makes his living protecting the oil compounds from scavenging wolves.
The Grey has an ambiguous ending akin to that of The Wrestler - the film less about the final bout than what it takes to make it there. Does that mean the rest of the film is a waste of time? Certainly not. It shouldn't be a dealbreaker. The Grey has the distinction of being one of the more macho films I've seen, but is also the most "men feeling feelings" film, too. The characters confront their pasts, and contemplate potential futures if they survive the ordeal. Will they find themselves living more than they are at this moment? The Grey forces its characters, hence the viewer, to look mortality right in the face. It falters here and there during some inauthentic action moment amidst a pretty realistic, rugged survival tale. Despite an all-male cast, the presence of the women in life is something that movivates most of them to continue the fight.
The Grey Trailer
I got about 15 minutes into Megan is Missing, then the cold reality that my sweet little two year old daughter is probably going to end up as annoying as the lead girl in the film and had to go lie down. I've not hit the yelling "you kids get off my lawn" while wearing a bathrobe and shaking my fist phase of my life.
ReplyDelete