Cult Japanese director Sion Sono (Love Exposure, MIFF 2009; Guilty of Romance, MIFF 2011) brings us a gore-drenched, pitch black comedy about a man drawn into the clutches of a deranged couple.

Shamoto, a quiet, bullied owner of a small tropical fish shop, lives an existence of unhappy mediocrity until he meets Murata, a charismatic, rich man with a much larger tropical fish shop. When Shamoto enters into a shady business deal with Murata and his wife, he discovers that beneath the gleaming facade there is something very wrong with his new friends.

Inventively gory, visually extreme and blackly comedic, Cold Fish is quite definitely the creation of controversialist Sion Sono. An unrelenting and revelrous romp through the darker aspects of the human psyche - in true Sono style - Cold Fish is quite a ride. Don't say you weren't warned.

D Sion Sono P Yoshinori Chiba, Toshiki Kimura S Sion Sono, Yoshiki Takahashi WS Nikkatsu L Japanese w/English subtitles TD 35mm/2010