When fish shop owner Shamoto's teenage daughter Mitsuko is caught stealing, a generous middle-aged man named Murata helps resolve the situation. The man and his wife offer to have Mitsuko work at their opposing fish store. Shamoto soon discovers that something far more sinister lives behind Murata's friendly demeanor.
Acting
Denden's Murata: unsettling charm that curdles into pure menace.
Direction
Sono's 146-minute suffocation — no escape, no mercy.
Production
The fish store as purgatory: wet, fluorescent, inescapable.
Director
Sion Sono
Mitsuru Fukikoshi
Nobuyuki Shamoto
Denden
Yukio Murata
Asuka Kurosawa
Aiko Murata
Megumi Kagurazaka
Taeko Shamoto
Hikari Kajiwara
Mitsuko Shamoto
Tetsu Watanabe
Takayasu TsuTsui
Tarō Suwa
Akio Yoshida
Jyonmyon Pe
Hiroshi Okubo
Masahiko Sakata
Susumu Kawajiri
Natsumi Seto
Yuko Sawada
Masaki Miura
Akio's Brother
Makoto Ashikawa
Supermarket Manager
Hideo Nakaizumi
Akio's Brother
Ryohei Abe
Akio's Brother
Kazuma Yamane
Mitsuko's Boyfriend
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on the real 1993 Saitama dog-lover murders, where a married couple killed at least four people. Sono shifts the setting to a fish store to explore Japanese masculine anxieties around small-business failure.
The film's Japanese title 'Tsumetai Nettaigyo' (Cold Tropical Fish) references how tropical fish die when water temperature drops — a metaphor for passionless marriages and the 'coldness' required to survive capitalism's demands.
JP
