Fisshu sutôrî

A comet hurtles towards Earth, and Tokyo is abandoned as people head to high ground. A cynical one-time guru comes across two otaku, a record shop owner and his customer, who believe an obscure seventies song, Fish Story, will save the world. Many years earlier, a timid young man laments his inability to stand up for himself. Some years after that, a narcoleptic high school girl finds herself trapped on a hijacked ship, where a pastry chef is her best hope for a champion for justice.

Director Nakamura fashions a likable, engaging human drama here, but deserves most credit for the naturalistic performances he elicits from his actors. Too often Japanese films are sunk by TV-style mugging from the principles, but here, there is a subtlety and nuanced portrayal evident throughout the ensemble cast. In the band, leader Atsushi Ito and Vocal Kengo Kora have betrayal and remorse to deal with between them. The tension is played out in a series of looks and never over-cooked. Kiyohiko Shibukawa as the drummer takes a while to speak, but when he does, it is with reason and tact. It would be so easy to have proto-punk band members sink into spats and histrionics. These portrayals resonate and convince. Gaku Hamada is especially effective as the meek friend who loses the girl (a spooky, sexy Mai Takahashi) to his overpowering alpha-male 'friend.' His tormenting of himself in the car after that particular episode is tragic and comic in equal degree, and proves the trigger to his redemption.

The portmanteau structure is an over-used trope these days and detracts from the drama here. However, the film succinctly ties it all up at the end, and visually too - the lack of expository dialogue here as compared to other J-cinema is refreshing. A wonderful soundtrack tops it all off, the best use of a song for thematic purpose since Gimme Heaven. "Summer Days" is now the anthem to my August.

A punk song with some very obscure lyrics ends up saving the world: a fishy story indeed, and in the beginning, I was afraid that 'Fish Story' would turn out as one of those wilfully bizarre Japanese films which seem to be driven by nothing more than the director's desire to make something odd, no matter how little sense it makes. But the idiosyncratic charm of Yoshihiro Nakamura's movie soon grows on you. An odd combination of low budget movie, comic book story and sci-fi, set over 40 years, it nonetheless feels surprisingly unforced, and the longer I watched it, the larger the smile on my face. I even liked the song.

What the Fish!!! So I'd thought that it'll be somewhat of a chore to sit through almost two hours late into what's left of a Friday night with Fish Story, directed by Yoshihiro Nakamura and based on the novel by Kotaro Isaka. But I was utterly blown away, leaving me feet tapping and head bobbing all the way through to the end credits roll, and a smile plastered on my face all the way home. It's an Armageddon film done with pizazz and creative flair, and not to mention that dash of comedy and great music, that I'd feel is a hard act for the rest of the festival lineup to keep within touch for the Audience Choice. I know it's still early in the festival, but Fish Story has established itself as one of the best films I've watched this year, and one of the rare few that will likely give you that familiar fuzzy feeling after you've sat through an awesome film.

The story unveils itself in non-linear fashion, and somewhat like Sandcastle, has a little lingering mystery - a punk rock song that contains a minute's silence - to what it actually all means, which comes altogether as a climax when everything gets to show hand. It tackles that wonderment of how events in the past will inevitably shape what's to come in the future, even if it doesn't make sense in the present. And Nakamura takes this premise, and through the narrative structure enables the audience to experience just that. We're brought from timeline to timeline that at the point of presentation the scenes seem disparate to one another and don't make much sense, but contains enough in their individual segments to entertain.

Hinging on a song called Fish Story that's performed by a punk rock band called Gekirin, it's amazing just what this one song can do to carry the entire film, not only because it sounds great (those not into punk rock, I'd think you'd find it hard not to enjoy this, especially when the cast members go into overdrive in their performance), but has an intriguing story on how it got produced, that forms the bulk of the film. Like most songs that seem fated to fade into obscurity without proper promotional or marketing power or fans to ensure some longevity, or worst, a band that's being condemned as talentless and to be let go by their record company, little do the band members know that one day this song will just about save humankind.

And in that respect, with Japanese fantasy/sci-fi stories in a similar mould such as the Twentieth Century Boys trilogy, Fish Story tackles the same doomsday scenario, and that plot element of a song of hope yet unfulfilled and unexplained, in a succinct fashion that doesn't meander unnecessarily. Spanning almost 40 years, we're treated to one off stories such as a timid driver (Gaku Hamada, resembling a youthful looking Jackie Chan with that hairdo he spots) who finds some resolve to stand up for himself and for others after being told of a prophecy about saving the world, and another tale where a young cook onboard a ferry saving a schoolgirl (Mikako Tabe) and other passengers from gun totting hijackers. They're as disparate as they can get, and if you're wondering just what's going on when you see recurring characters or instances in each, I'd say to enjoy the moments crafted, from a tinge of horror to an all out action-adventure, before the payload at the end truly hits you.

All these and more, based upon the single introduction set in the year 2012, where the world is threatened by a comet on a collision course for Earth, and a group of strangers gathering in a niche music shop. It's 5 hours to impact, and the shopkeeper whips out the rare Fish Story vinyl record for them all to give a listen to, thinking that it's quite futile to head toward Mount Fuji to avoid an impending tsunami scenario, and of course hoping for a miracle to come from a country that on one hand is not expected, and on the other totally plausible for the maths and science experts it produces.

There are references to other Japanese icons such as Godzilla and Go-Rangers, and for fans of Hollywood films, you'll probably be able to identify the oh-so-funny references and cheeky dissing of films from The Karate Kid (not the Jackie Chan version though), and Michael Bay's Armageddon, in fact "quoting" the what-if scenario of having the nuclear bombs on the comet, but yet to be exploded because, well, of what happened to Bruce Willis. Some stories are played out in tongue-in-cheek fashion, and they complement one another really well, which of course makes the finale all the more fun, especially when everything starts to make sense, and goes the full circle.

Smart and witty movie about how a forgotten punk rock song (with a mystery within the song) links the lives of several characters who mostly never meet each other. The elements include, of course, a failed punk rock band in the late 1970's, a meek college student in the 1980's, a doomsday cult in 1999, a ferry hijacking in 2009, and a trio of people in a used record shop in a deserted city awaiting a comet strike in 2012. Plus some flashbacks to post WW2 Japan. Much of the movie revolves around the idea of a "champion of justice"

The movie is paced with a natural style so despite the sci-fi aspect the whole film is very low key. Virtually no special effects. That's not to say that there are no hidden pleasures, especially during the ferry hijacking which has excellent action scenes. The film is well-shot, well-acted and well-written. The music is good as well.

An unexpected little gem.

I have to say, FISH STORY is a very strange film. It's a Japanese apocalyptic tale featuring four separate story lines that are woven together in such a way that'll have you scratching your head and trying to figure out how they all intertwine. It's all very low key, with zero sci-fi elements and an extremely slow pacing that's doubtless to put off plenty of viewers expecting something more, well, energetic.

However, something about this kept me watching. It's the sense of whimsy, perhaps, or the sheer long-winded shaggy-doggedness of the storytelling. The fact that the production values are high, the script is very funny, and the actors nail the characters, too. About halfway through, I relaxed a little when I realised I was enjoying what I was watching, and then I started having fun.

Things get better right up until the big reveal at the ending, which is so stupendously good that I can say, right here and right now, that FISH STORY features one of my favourite endings in a film, full stop. It's that good; a tremendous resolution, like that of THE SIXTH SENSE, that turns the whole film around and makes you realise that, actually, this is a great little film; unique and uniquely entertaining with it.