Review by Neil Queen
Stars Atsushi Ito, Kengo Kora, Nao Omori, Kenjiro
Ishimaru, Vincent Giry, Gaku Hamada,
Mirai Moriyama, Mikako Tabex
Written by Tamio Hayashi
Certification UK xx | US xx
Runtime 112 minutes
Directed by Yoshihiro Nakamura
It might be an idea to flag up the whole of 2012 on your calendar as a date to avoid. If cinema is to be believed, it looks something really crappy might happen, could be anything from a new Jamie Oliver series to the complete decimation of mankind and the ravaging of the entire planet in a cataclysmic incident that puts us back to the Ice Age. 2012 director Roland Emmerich was up for it and this curious, smart little Japanese number also parks its cinematic disaster truck in the same chronological postcode too.
Fish Story shares a number of cornerstones with Emmerich's squealing CGI clusterbomb - both counterpoint the impending apocalypse with the bland heroism of the common man, though director Yoshihiro Nakamura's execution thankfully varies wildly, showing a greater flair for subtlety, eccentric charm and humour.
As a comet heads for Earth, three people chew the fat in a record shop, musing on how the end of the world might be avoided, with the mystical legend of Fish Story, a track by failed proto-punk band Gekirin, bizarrely mooted as a possible saviour. Jumping from past to the present, Fish Story reveals the fate of the band and the titular track, along with the lives of those affected by it over a span of some four decades, culminating in the potentially apocalyptic finale.
In terms of style and delivery, Fish Story is a slow burner, yet oddly compelling. Nakamura enjoys playing off against the grandiose disaster movie conventions, with characters impotently pondering their fate, belying the expected dynamism of the traditional unsung hero. Much of the peril lurks in the background, just out of focus, with personal problems taking on greater importance, something that Emmerich tried and failed to nail. Genre markers are introduced, with Michael Bay's Armageddon and J-horror alluded to, then discarded, while the film moseys between comedy, drama and action, never really taking a shine to any of them. The anti-linear timeline is backed up by the often discordant soundtrack and angular framing of shots to present a off-kilter, frustrating set-up that will intrigue and irk in possibly equal measure. The oddball tone doesn't always work – much of the humour is either weak or lost in translation, with the script and performances rarely fleshing out the neat ideas. The notion of the Champion of Justice, men of substance who rise up in our hour of need, so much the staple of the action movie, is suavely punctured as the closing scenes reveal a simpler, more common sensical solution to the situation, tying in with the title (which means a tall tale) to give away Nakamaura's intent - that disaster movies rely on the audience and film-maker colluding in the bullshit, that the truth is usually a lot duller.