Fish Story

Third Window Films

R2 DVD

Japanese subtitled in English

An unusual film, this one gives us segments of a story that don’t at first seem interrelated. It doesn’t all come together until the last few minutes. A Fish Story is one that grows bigger with each telling. In the film it is also the title of a song by a Japanese would-be band of rockers who are a bit ahead of their time. Although the band fails the song Fish Story lives on in underground cult music, never quite forgotten.

Through the decades it touches many lives. Its odd lyrics can be interpreted any way you like and there is a phrase in the song for anyone who cares to try to relate their lives to it. Each person’s story is left unfinished, implying that there is more to the story and more yet to come. And so there is, for each of them.

We move forward to the present time when a huge asteroid is about to hit the Earth. Most people have gone to higher ground. The cult loonies are fighting each other to establish who predicted Armageddon first. Others are relying on some Champion of Justice or giant robot to save the world – too many superhero shows on TV. Others are fatalistically enjoying their last few days alive.

In Japan the tidal wave will probably be higher than Mt Fuji – it looks like Japan will be gone from the face of the Earth. Anything the tidal wave doesn’t destroy will probably be destroyed by the volcanoes that will open up when the surface is cracked open. Any survivors from that will have to face a “nuclear winter” as the dust in the atmosphere cuts sunlight to the surface and it becomes impossible to grow crops.

Attempts to plant atomic bombs on the asteroid have failed and it seems the Earth is doomed. The Fish Story song is the only thing that can save the planet.

The film starts out seeming quite strange as all the disjointed stories develop. Stay with it – it’s worth it in the end.

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This review will appear in Volume 3 No. 4 of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.

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