Fish Story (Yoshihiro Nakamura, Japan 2009)

Note: This is a rare TUESDAY screening, two days before Thanksgiving.

Can a forgotten punk-rock song save the world? In this wildly inventive, funny, and gloriously unpredictable Japanese cult favorite, a record nobody bought in 1975 may hold the key to preventing the apocalypse in 2012. Along the way, we encounter a struggling punk band, a mysterious martial-arts expert, a hijacked ferry, and a series of seemingly unrelated stories that somehow fit together in the most delightfully unexpected ways. Mixing offbeat comedy, science fiction, rock ’n’ roll, and a healthy dose of absurdity, Fish Story is the kind of movie that's best experienced knowing as little as possible beforehand—and with a drink in hand. A joyous celebration of coincidence, the power of music, and the strange ways our lives intersect, it's a perfect addition to our Cult Classics and Cool Ones series.

Reviews

“A wonderfully entertaining and affecting patchwork of ideas, incidents, contrivance and coincidence.”

—Tom Huddleston, Time Out

“When the dots are finally joined, the sugar-rush of storytelling kismet is pretty exhilarating.”

—Tim Robey, The Daily Telegraph

“This wildly eccentric Japanese film about a punk rock band who save the planet has a great deal of madcap charm.”

—Catherine Shoard, The Guardian

“A nicely paced, curiously likeable film.”

—Philip French, The Observer

“Funny, melancholy, hopefully, helplessly optimistic, deliciously absurd, Fish Story is a quirky gem of a movie.”

—Eithne Farry, Electric Sheep

Trailer