a5c7b9f00b In the year 2012 a comet approaches earth, threatening to end civilization when it impacts. On the streets of Japan, a single music store remains open, its proprietor insisting to his customers that the world is not coming to an end. He plays a forgotten song recorded by an obscure band 37 years ago, and insists that somehow, this song will save the world. A series of short stories spans the years from the recording of the song in 1975 to the modern day, and shows how–in roundabout fashion–the man in the music store is absolutely right. I came to this movie with high expectations since I had heard it loudly praised. Alas – Ozu, Kurosawa and Mizoguchi must be spinning in their graves. Each of them had more talent in his little finger than the entire staff and cast of this profoundly silly movie. We are supposed to be impressed by the way the 4 stories are twined together at the end – in fact, all we get is a handful of mini-films, each of them fairly ridiculous, cobbled together by a flimsy plot device. Everyone acts like a plank – they mightwell be reading from scripts sometimes. And the characters are cardboard cut-outs who appear to have stepped off the page of a cheap manga. Look at the exaggerated poses in the martial arts scene for instance. The old man in the record shop gloating because the human race has no chance of survival was especially irritating, and the moment when he got punched in the face was a rare highlight. This is sophistication? This is avant-garde? This is life-affirming humanist cinema? Lord save us all. Japan 112m, Colour Director: Yoshihiro Nakamura; Cast: Vincent Giry, Gaku Hamada, Atsushi Itô, Kengo Kôra, Mirai Moriyama, Yoshihiro Nagata, Nao Ohmori, Mikako Tabe, Ken&#39;ichi Takitô<br/><br/>It is 2012 and the world is about to end. An obscure Japanese punk song entitled Fish Story is possibly the only thing standing in the way of total annihilation of all life on the planet. The song, which includes a mysterious minute long break where the guitar solo should be, is cleverly interwoven into a number of intriguing stories throughout seven decades of seemingly disconnected events. As the end draws near, the stories are drawn together in spectacular fashion in the film&#39;s closing minutes. A brilliantly written, intelligent and charming multi-genre film, Fish Story is a tall tale brimming with fun, warmth and comedy that you will surely want to watch again, and again (Klaus Ming July 2013).
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