Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on February 2011

Now in his late 30s, director Sono Sion—like Koji Wakamatsu and Teruo Ishii before him—is the enfant terrible of Japanese cinema. He won the auspicious Pia Film Festival with Bicycle Sighs in 1989 before debuting the existential art-house flick The Room at Venice Film Fest in ’92. Then his output dwindled until the cult hit Suicide Club almost a decade later. Since then, Sion has bounced between serious drama, absurd comedy and gore. Tsumetai Nettaigyo is steeped in the last two. The opening credits claim it’s “based on a true story,” but that, as we soon see, is tongue-in-cheek. Shamoto (Mitsuru Kukikoshi) is a schleppy pet-store owner whose second wife (Megumi Kagurazaka) and daughter (Hikari Kajiwara) hate each other. When a fellow fish store owner does Shamoto a good turn, the man’s flashiness and boisterous personality draw him in. Little does Shamoto know that the man is a sadistic mass murderer who revels in sex on mutilated corpses with his steamy wife (Asuka Kurosawa). What starts as a plausible story spirals into over-the-top gory absurdity. Sono has finally assumed his real identity as the new king of schlock. English title: Cold Fish. (115 min)