Cold fever

Hirata, a japanese businessman, is forced to visit Iceland instead of Hawaii based on family matters.

At several occations I found this film very amusing and charming, especially Hirata and the strange icelandic people that he meets, asking; "How do you like Iceland ?" - As Hirata is tricked into buying a deep-frozen car, he uses this to travel across Iceland. The radio play terrible folk music, but can't be turned off.. And when he picks up two american hitchers Lili Taylor and Fisher Stevens, naturally the music drives them mad.. Hence the exclaim: "It's an icelandic torture chamber"...Great! With Masatoshi Nagase from "Mystery Train" as Hirata, thoughts go to Jim Jarmusch though mostly for the directing of the film.. A great, cold, atmospheric vision, strange and beautiful.

This film is evidently a long commercial to lure tourists to Iceland. It contains all the famous national specialities of the country, and of course the beautiful landscape is presented in a particularly beautiful manner. Just like Ein Schloss am Wörthersee is advertising Carinthia – only much more charming!

I find the idea to use as a `hero' a Japanese who comes to Iceland unwillingly quite original (a friend of mine said she had never seen such an ornery Japanese before). The weird characters he meets on his way to the probably remotest and most unpleasant place in the world help to construct some kind of plot, and the movie is a pleasure to watch – throughout.

I am going to visit Iceland next week, and after watching Cold Fever I am particularly looking forward to it. And that's the result Jim Stark and Friðrik Friðriksson were out for, isn't it?

Ten years later this very compact film still works its magic. Much has been said by many of the other contributors with one exception. It is not a film to be rushed. Rather you need to view at the speed the film dictates - not unlike "Paris, Texas. Like the swirling mists and snow it slowly envelops you. No frame is wasted. Even a casual remark in the aeroplane en-route to Iceland gives a link for the future.

Many different cultures have their cultural layers peeled back; American, Japanese, Icelandic and Norse mythology. It's up to the viewer to see what he or she sees.

I think the most telling scene in the film is the Icelander who befriends Hirata. Although he does not want to accompany Hirata to the ritual grave scene because of a 'spirit dream', he nonetheless is there to show him the way home. In so doing, he witnesses a universal value with Hirate - the passing of life.

There's much to be said for good small budget films. The story and direction have to be tightly constrained.

The first time I saw Cold Fever was May of last year. It was in a time when I was lost in life. That's when Cold Fever was coming on HBO. I sat there for 90 mins and I found the film very funny and quite moving. The way everyone keeps asking Atsushi, "So how do you like Iceland?" or the characters he runs into. Some of them include Laura, a woman who likes to "collect" funerals or American tourists Jack and Jill, who bicker all the time because they disagree on taking a vacation to Iceland. Atsushi first finds this trip as a burden because he was looking forward to going to Hawaii to play golf. Instead, he has to go to Iceland to perform a ritual by the river where his parents drowned. Then, throughout this journey he learns more about himself. He finds some of the strangest people you will meet...a cab driver performing a strange ritual, a girl who restarts his car with a sonic scream, and my favorites, the Islandic Cowboys. When he finally gets his mission accomplished of performing the ritual, he learns that sometimes a journey can take you places that aren't on any map. That is so true. I wanted this movie so bad that I finally received it from Amazon today. It is still as great as when I saw it a year ago. Check this out because it is brilliant.

This is really a wonderful film! I might be a little influenced by the fact that I've been to Iceland twice and I loved it (and still do, and pretty surely there's going to be a third time), but I really did feel this movie. The storyline is quite simple and has been well described by other reviewers, so straight to what this movie contains.

Well, anybody who's been to Iceland will realize immediately the high grade of realism, both in the landscapes and in the people the main man meets on his way, their attitudes, mentality, way of talking and all the rest. Icelanders really ARE the way you see them in this movie! Also the atmosphere of the country in the winter is perfect, deeply charming in its desolation. But whats gets the most in this film is the humanity of the various characters.

The main man is a likable guy, a little stiff in his behaving with the rest of the world, but that might be part of the Japanese culture as far as I know. Completely unlikable the two Americans, who are indeed negative characters, while I loved the old man who befriends the protagonist in the last part of the movie. The deepest humanity is to be found in him.

This is a movie that will get stuck into your mind for a very long time, don't miss it!