Some years, the top four or five Japanese films quickly leap off my short list to my annual Best Ten. But this was not a great year for the local film industry, in terms of either box office or major awards winners. No masterpieces, in other words, though several have stayed with me, usually more for their performances or their story or their style, rather than all three combined.
1. "Tsumetai Nettaigyo (Cold Fish)": The story of this Sion Sono shocker, about the mousy owner of a tropical-fish store who gets eaten alive, personally and professionally, by his piranha of a rival, is a bad dream brought to life with Sono's by-now-patented Grand Guignol theatrics. The highlight is Denden's superbly evil incarnation as the villain, all avid grins, hellacious rages and voracious appetites.
2. "Egoist (Keibetsu)": Similarly riveting is Anne Suzuki's performance as the gambler hero's pole-dancing lover in this Ryuichi Hiroki drama. Instead of the usual wild/sexy rebel without a cause in this fable about young lovers on the lam, Suzuki plays the character as warily observant and self-aware, and besotted with Kengo Kora's lean, wolfish lead. The climax to this overly long film is worth the wait, as Suzuki mesmerizes in one of Hiroki's signature long takes.