May 26, 2010 Fish Story
Would you believe if I told you that one song could save the world?
I read that line on an IMDb review of this movie that neither had a cover image, nor much activity on IMDb. Non mainstream low budget world cinema rarely does receive any, anyways.
I took a minute to think about why I decided to get a copy in the first place. It happened quite a few weeks back, on a bizarre day, when the small queer synopsis caught my eye -
“A rock band writes a song called “Fish Story” based on a sentence from a badly translated novel by a quack translator. The song exceeds the boundaries of space and time and ties people and their stories together. Thirty-seven years go by, and the song strikes a comet and saves the Earth from total destruction”
Strange enough huh? I could only trust the Japanese to come up with a storyline like this, and probably pull it off well! 
Let’s move on to the movie….Based on a novel by the same name by Kotaro Isaka, the movie is set in 1975, a time, as per the storyline, when the Beatles had broken up, the future of Rock music was uncertain, and The Sex Pistols had still a year to break into the scene, revolutionising the music world with their Punk and crunchy sound.
Somewhere in the poor alleys of Japan, a struggling band tries its best to make ends meet and break into the big scene. Where they wish to sound radically different, the demand seems to be driven predominantly by ballads and softer strokes.
An abandoned recording and a failed LP buries their career as they disband.That was 1975. That wasnt today.
We start the movie in the backdrop of the Mayan prediction of 2012 & Doomsday as a meteor is approaching the Earth and doomsday seems to be true after all. As everyone has moved away to the mountains for shelter, a music store in another corner of Tokyo is still open…to patrons, to hope and to faith that music will save the world.
While an enthusiast discovers the hidden gem Fish Story and the birth of Punk, an aged cynic mocks them in the store about their belief in super powers, in heroes, in Power Rangers, in the impossible happening, in music and in mankind in general.
The movie takes us in Flashback mode, taking us through 1975, till the current year, going back & forth across different random incidents that leave you with a sense of amusement, wondering somewhere, as to how all this would end, and perhaps (like me), also end up making you think that this was going nowhere towards a big happy end & saving the earth.
I was wrong.
The movie is not a slapstick, but it does have its share of smiles. The story keeps you interested the whole while, and portrays the side of humans who believe, and wont let go of the faith they put in behind the small joys of life, of friendship, of music and mankind.
The punk track – FISH STORY is a great piece of original music which was written for this movie, and as I write this track, a separate tab on my browser searches for a copy of this song on the Internet.
The song accompanies you throughout the movie, the intro, the ups, the lows, the laughs, through shootouts, hijacks, and of course, the end of the world. As it wraps out the outro for this 1 hr 52 mins Jap mixbag of interwoven stories, the song takes you through its entire voyage, starting from 1975, chronologically explaining “How a song could save the world”. Believe me
Rating: 8 / 10
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