Review: PSYCHO SHARK

Spoiler Free Review of the 2009 Japanese Horror Movie Author: A. David Conway

When I think of the distribution company Jolly Roger, I usually think of the Japanese equivalent of a SyFy Channel original movie, the likes of MEGA SHARK VS GIANT OCTOPUS, or any direct to DVD release from Asylum, but director John Hijiri surprised me by focusing at least as much on the idea of suspense as spectacle in the form of horror. I am known for my preference for low-budget movies over blockbusters, but PSYCHO SHARK did not take the path I expected. For a change, this was a good thing. The premise of the secluded island being covered in hidden cameras creates an act of voyeurism on part of the audience, and a question persists through the course of the film: through whose eyes are the cameras truly looking? The majority of this film consists of very little plot, which is not surprising, but it contains quite a collection of subtle imagery to coincide with its blatant visuals. Miki (Japanese swimsuit and photo book model Nonami Takizawa) and Mai (fellow model Mika Inagaki), lost on vacation, accept the invitation of a suave and enigmatic lodge owner named Kenji. As Mai becomes attracted to Kenji and opts to spend most of her time with him on the island, Miki discovers a tape in their room that seems benign at first. The concept of video technology on the island being from the 1990s (or "ancient" and "retro" as these young college girls of 2009 describe it) delays her from discovering the truth as fast-forwarding and rewinding the tape proves to be tedious and fruitless in the beginning, but her boredom from Mai`s absense and a number of strange dreams lead her to study the tape further. The more she watches, the more she begins to grow suspicious of Kenji and the fate of four other girls (who include swimsuit and photo book model Airi Nakajima) seen romping on the tape with him less than one month before Mai and Miki arrive.

Mai`s desire for an island romance makes her impatient and unwilling to dignify Miki`s panicked fiddling with the tape, and it drives a wedge between the two friends that forces Miki to watch the rest of the tape alone as she tries to find out what fate befell the previous vacationers... and may be in store for Mai next. Meanwhile, Kenji receives payment from customers we never see in exchange for packs of marked videotapes eerily similar to the one Miki found in her room. The fact that the camera never reveals the purchasers of these tapes gives off a chilling vibe by answering the question of the film, attaching the identity of the faceless voyeurs behind the cameras to the audience itself. Visually, the film seems to focus on concepts of natural and physical beauty, given both its filming location and a number of scenes of its bikini model stars playing in the surf. The dream sequences, hidden camera views, and hand-held camera playbacks create a montage of multiple-angle shots of the island itself as well as the people on it, and several times the audience is shown a long shot of the island visitors on the beach looking out over the ocean. This view makes the performers look small in comparison with nature and makes the sea look so expansive and endless that no one could imagine what could be living beneath its waters (much less how large it could be), and this image bears great similarity to Peter O`Toole wandering the desert in LAWRENCE OF ARABIA. Cinematography and imagery aside, the film has very little dialogue aside from meaningless conversations caught on tape, and there is almost no dialogue spoken outside of what the island cameras capture.

The film works best by leaving much to the imagination, an idea in horror that is not used today as much as it was in the past. I was surprised to find that even the violence in this film was minimal and happened almost exclusively off-camera. There is blood, but there is no gore or nudity. Exactly what happens to the victims is, although seemingly obvious, left to the viewer`s mind. The title PSYCHO SHARK proves even more appropriate than the original working title of JAWS IN JAPAN as the action of the film revolves more around the spying habits of the island lodge owner than the purpose of the giant shark itself. The end result is more psychological thriller and less giant monster, but giant monster stars are no strangers to getting top billing while garnishing very little screen time. I looked at this film more from a critical standpoint, so I don`t expect other reviews to go into as much detail or to be as generous or kind with their opinions of it. I will say that it is what it is: a low-budget, bikini-driven horror film that focuses largely on the popular body shapes of its stars and the wonders of a bikini`s ability to hold them in place, and the more time the actresses spend playing in the water or posing to show some skin, the less time they spend trying to prove whether or not they have the ability to act. It has its gratuitous aspect, but at the same time it doesn`t try to force anything out of its performers that might not sound convincing (i.e.: a majority of the character development and dialogue found in a SyFy Channel Original Movie).

For those of you with the mental fortitude to put eye candy aside, even if it does take center stage with someone as lovely, physically endowed and renowned as Nonami Takizawa, I also will say that John Hijiri does not follow the standard formula of a Japanese horror movie outside of the female form aspect. It might be somewhat predictable, but the method is worth the time to follow. I was happiest to see a film of this genre follow some more traditional cinematography and less graphic conventions to force the audience to fill in some blanks in the story themselves rather than simply to show every single gory detail. It takes a decidedly more difficult path to its ending as a result, and I believe that allows it to stand out as something a step above the expectations even its own marketing creates for the general public. Technically speaking, the DVD from Cinema Epoch was put together simply. The film was released in Japanese only with English subtitles (an English dub track would have been a curious thing to hear) and contained a number of trailers for other Cinema Epoch releases including DEMEKING. The subtitles, although the viewer most likely did not need them at all to follow the plot, were a standard large yellow text font. They worked well for the film itself, but they proved to have a limit to their encoding in the extras section as some subtitles for the trailers required subtitles to overlap dialogue with splash screen logos and did not perform well together. I watched the film on a 23`` widescreen HD monitor and a 13`` CRTV simultaneously. In both cases, the picture had a little bit of a grainy quality to it but very similar to the quality of earlier DVD releases that has begun to stand out in the wake of DVD no longer being the highest video quality available. These issues, however, were minimal at best and did not detract from my ability to enjoy the film in full.

A photo stills gallery segment appears in the extras, and almost every photo continues the film`s theme of staring out into the endless sea with no true knowledge of what it contains. The extras also include a 20-minute behind-the-scenes documentary titled "Making of Jaws in Japan." This documentary does not feature subtitles but focuses largely on the cinematography and not as much on the opinions of the performers or crew. When it does focus on the cast, it is rather clear that this was intended to be a gravure idol video with a horror movie built in... but the film itself delivers a bit more than that. Still, I would have liked to hear the opinions of the cast in English on their work, and it was the only feature on the DVD without that benefit. I heartily recommend giving the film a look, especially if you are the kind of viewer who likes to look at the entire horizon of a scene rather than to stare at what is splashing around right in front of you, but you get the best of both worlds either way. Out of 5 stars, I give it at least a 3.

For more information on PSYCHO SHARK please see the earlier coverage here on SciFi Japan: