Movie Title: Fisshu sutôrî / Fish Story
Date Released: March 20th, 2009 (Japan)
Date Seen: February 19th, 2014
Language/Country of Origin: Japanese / Japan
Part 1 – Spoiler Free Quickie Review
An interesting Japanese movie, that at first I was unsure about but it sucked me right in. The movie is basically a frame story with a bunch of short stories that are all connected (even to the frame story). The frame story is that in 2012 a comet is about to crash to Earth, and in a few hours everyone will be dead. A man wanders into seemingly the only place open, a music store, where a man is playing an old forgotten song, insisting that this song will save the world. We then jump to a number of stories that end up all connecting at the end. A couple of the stories are quite obviously related – like the story of the band writing the song, while others might take a little bit of figuring out but eventually will become quite clear.
The introduction to the movie is pretty hilarious, and you will get sucked in and want to keep watching. The movie is good at the beginning of each story sucking you in. Except one story, I wanted to bitch slap a character the whole time. I’ll go ahead and warn you – there is the stereotypical crying Japanese little school girl. She is so freaking annoying I almost turned off the movie because of her. But dang am I glad I watched it because part of her story ended up being really cool – and didn’t involve much of her so that was good.
I really don’t want to talk to much about the movie and ruin something about it. It was funny at times, emotional at times, and overall a movie I’m glad to have seen. Also, the dang song will get stuck in your head so be prepared for that. If you’re a fan of foreign film, Japanese movies, or just like a good short-story based movie, this is definitely one to give a shot.
Part 2 – In Depth Spoiler Ridden Review
I do hate the young guy in the record store, who was there just listening to music. He seems so dumb about the whole comet about to kill them all thing. I imagine his thought process was something like this: OH WHAT THERE’S A COMET COMING LET ME GET ALL UPSET NOW THAT SOMEONE MENTIONED IT AND I’D NEVER HEARD OF IT BEFORE EVEN THOUGH THIS IS LITERALLY THE ONLY PLACE OPEN ON THE WHOLE ISLAND, HUH, DIDN’T THINK ANYTHING OF IT UNTIL NOW JUST THOUGHT IT WAS A NORMAL TUESDAY. Granted, the old man is kind of a hilarious old shit to the kid, but he’s still annoying.
Below is my rant I wrote when the annoying girl on the boat happened. Completely unedited thoughts as I watched it, because I find my unedited thoughts hilarious.
Is this movie just full of whiney people? There’s the little school girl who throws a little brat fit about not getting off the boat. Granted, the boat manager guy is kind of a dick to her, but sheesh, she’s a whiney little brat. Look at that fit she threw over HER mistake of not getting off of the boat… or maybe she was throwing a hissy fit over the realization that she has no friends who even noticed she was gone to wake her up. Omg. I just need to keep typing to ignore that whiney little brat. I did really like the “This ferry will be highjacked in 3 minutes and 33… 32…. 31… etc.” That was a welcome reprieve from whiney face. I also timed it – and it was actually the 3 minutes and 30ish seconds until all the watches started going off. That was fantastic. So ok, after my bitching, this story did get way better though once the boat got hijacked – mostly because it was hilarious after that. First there’s the fact that it’s the religious people from the last story, then just watching the waiter go all kick ass on them…. but once again, whiney girl comes back being dumb again… Why doesn’t she just pull her head down away from the gun? Cause that would make sense, now wouldn’t it… I don’t even care that it was her who ended up saving the world, she’s still a whiney annoying idiot. And of course the crying Japanese school girl is the one to save the world – it just had to happen, didn’t it?!
The massive band fight in the club was quite hilarious, I was a fan of that scene. I actually really enjoyed all the scenes with the band, they probably were my favorite story, and I’m not sure why.
Overall: 7/10
I’m glad to have seen this movie, recommended by one of my friends, Alex, and his wife Rachel. As I said before, if you like a good short story based movie, or interconnecting stories, or just a good interesting foreign film, give it a shot. You will enjoy it and it will suck you in.