Cold Fish (2011)

This is the sexiest film after Love Exposure. There is sex, nubile bodies, violence and murder all wrapped within an intriguing and original story. What else can you ask for?

But thanks to Hollywood which is busy covering up women and being all Taliban-ish we have to go overseas to satisfy our natural inclination to watch beautiful women. This movie has it all: beautiful women, female flesh, murder, sex, deception and the women are over-the-top gorgeous. Hollywood has a lot of catching up to do. Keep watching Ghostbusters 2016 losers or crawl back to the world's only chubby Asian chick in The Last Jedi.

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.

So, this movie is bonkers. To give you an idea just how bonkers, imagine the director having a preliminary chat about the roles of his two female leads: Director Sono: This role is… a bit difficult and… maybe a bit embarrassing.Kagurazaka (as Taeko): Right.Sono: Do you understand fully? To put it bluntly.. Taeko will be raped twice, one of which she seems to be enjoying it, and that's separate from the nude scene.Kagurazaka: Yes, I understand.Sono: Er, so… please do your best.Kagurazaka: I'll do my best with cheer! ********************************************************************* Sono: Ms. Kurosawa, the role of Aiko is… quite irregular.Kurosawa: Yes… it is, isn't it? Sono: Basically... you are a really crazy person. And we don't know why. Your crazy husband's back-story will be explained a little, but you are a mystery. Just really messed up in the head.Kurosawa: I roll around in blood. I cut up bodies. I don't mind. As long as I have a master I'm happy.) Sono: Yeah, that's the idea.Kurosawa: I don't know compassion but I'm still lively and have a pleasant sense of humor.Sono: Right right right. You understand perfectly.