Jaws in Japan
(ジョーズ・イン・ジャパン）
A.k.a. Psycho Shark
The Story:
Two friends, Miki and Mai, go to a beach resort on holidays. The resort has a policy of giving out free video cameras to guests, so the girls decide to film their vacation. When Mai meets a boy and spends all her time with him, Miki discovers a video tape left over from some previous guest. The more Miki watches the more it becomes clear that something terrible has happened, and that Mai's new boyfriend isn't who he appears to be.
The Reason:
It's Jaws. In Japan!
The Stars:
The Shark
...Will not be appearing.
Japanese girls in bikinis
For a movie supposedly about a shark, an awful lot of the budget seems to have went to having girls prancing around in bikinis.
The Review:
Okay, so the official title is "Psycho Shark". Everyone still calls it by its working title of "Jaws in Japan" anyway. Even though it's painfully obvious that this film has no ties to the actual series, that is still a cool title. Also it has the most metal of Jaws theme knock-offs I've ever heard.
(Spoilers ahead)
Two girls arrive a beach resort in Okinawa and are given a camera. Que ten minute montage of them prancing around in bikinis.
Miki and Mai run around at the beach for awhile and it becomes very noticeable that no one ever seems to go any deeper than ankle-deep whenever they enter the water. Very strange considering this movie is supposed to have a shark in it.
After they're done flaunting the cleavage for the time being, Mai abandons Miki to go be with a beach stud she's just met. Miki mopes around the hotel room for awhile until she finds a tape hidden under one of the beds.
It's a video of the previous group of girls that stayed at the hotel. They dance around for the camera and there's a few disjointed shots that seem to jump around for no reason. Miki gets bored pretty soon and goes to have a shower scene (wearing her bikini).
Suddenly a scene where the cast's fear of water seems to be averted. The girls actually go swimming for a change. In the water. A very CG dorsal fin breaks the water. The music builds. Miki screams incoherently for Mai to get out of the water. And then...
It was all a dream. Strange when a movie notices that you've stopped paying attention and decides it needs to spice things up for awhile. Anyway, Miki goes back to watching the footage she's found. It shows the girls discussing a boy they've met, and how one of them has fallen madly in love.
As Miki keeps watching, she discovers that something terrible has happened to the girls. Glimsped briefly at the end of the tape, Miki witnesses one of the girls be brutally murdered by the boy. Shocked and horrified, Miki shows Mai the tape, but she can't seem to find that part again.
Boom. This movie is now about a psycho killer instead of a shark.
Miki keeps watching the tape until she witnesses the entire bizarre sequence of the girls' deaths. Slowly she realises that the boy in the video is the same guy Mai is dating. And she's alone with him. Right now.
Miki runs to the beach to stop him. And then the shark appears in all its 50 foot gloriousness. To say the shark looks fake is to do injustice to the shark. It simply is, that is all.
It ends in much the same way it began. Footage of happy girls dancing in bikinis cutting away to a lone girl sitting quietly in a dark hotel room. The End.
Overall:
There is two ways of viewing this film:
Way 1: Failed B-movie
This film was a terrible excuse for a movie. It couldn't even manage a simple plotline and the shark had no relevance to anything. What a waste of time :c
Way 2: Brilliantly played story of one girl's descent into madness
While the movie seems like it's made up of nothing but cleavage shots and bad acting, there is actually a layer of subtlety present that you wouldn't expect to find here. Instead of being a story about a shark eating people, it's a story about Miki losing her friend and creating a fantasy involving a group of girls she found a video of. As the reality of her friend leaving her encroaches, her fantasy takes darker and darker turns leading up until she snaps and murders everyone.
I tend to lean more towards way 2. The constant disjointed way the footage jumps around, often repeating the same scene out of sync makes me think that this is a case of unreliable narrator in play. The biggest clue that we might not be seeing what everyone else is seeing is the murder scene on the tape. When Miki tries to show it to Mai all she sees is a group of friends hanging around on the beach, but when she watches it herself she witness the murders. The key point being that in both shots the timer remains ticking at the same time.
The inconsistencies build as she draws closer to confronting Mai's boyfriend. Why does he have the same name as the truck driver from the beginning? How does Miki even know his name when Mai never introduced him? Why is that old man with a camera suddenly there? And how is it that a gaint shark can fly?
A lot of people write this movie off as a terrible B-movie, but I like to think it's subtlety done extremely well. Especially if you interpret the final shot in the style of way 2.
(Spoilers ahead)
Miki and Mai run around at the beach for awhile and it becomes very noticeable that no one ever seems to go any deeper than ankle-deep whenever they enter the water. Very strange considering this movie is supposed to have a shark in it.
Boom. This movie is now about a psycho killer instead of a shark.
Miki keeps watching the tape until she witnesses the entire bizarre sequence of the girls' deaths. Slowly she realises that the boy in the video is the same guy Mai is dating. And she's alone with him. Right now.
Overall:
There is two ways of viewing this film:
Way 1: Failed B-movie
This film was a terrible excuse for a movie. It couldn't even manage a simple plotline and the shark had no relevance to anything. What a waste of time :c
Way 2: Brilliantly played story of one girl's descent into madness
While the movie seems like it's made up of nothing but cleavage shots and bad acting, there is actually a layer of subtlety present that you wouldn't expect to find here. Instead of being a story about a shark eating people, it's a story about Miki losing her friend and creating a fantasy involving a group of girls she found a video of. As the reality of her friend leaving her encroaches, her fantasy takes darker and darker turns leading up until she snaps and murders everyone.
I tend to lean more towards way 2. The constant disjointed way the footage jumps around, often repeating the same scene out of sync makes me think that this is a case of unreliable narrator in play. The biggest clue that we might not be seeing what everyone else is seeing is the murder scene on the tape. When Miki tries to show it to Mai all she sees is a group of friends hanging around on the beach, but when she watches it herself she witness the murders. The key point being that in both shots the timer remains ticking at the same time.
The inconsistencies build as she draws closer to confronting Mai's boyfriend. Why does he have the same name as the truck driver from the beginning? How does Miki even know his name when Mai never introduced him? Why is that old man with a camera suddenly there? And how is it that a gaint shark can fly?
A lot of people write this movie off as a terrible B-movie, but I like to think it's subtlety done extremely well. Especially if you interpret the final shot in the style of way 2.
Stats:
Watched: Subbed
Understood: Yes. Dialogue was very fuzzy most of the time.
Does it matter: That is entirely a matter of opinion.
Would watch again: Maybe. Someday.
Recommend: Only if you really feel like doing it.
Rating: What did I just watch? / Bad but good.
Bonus:
There are many shots that don't make any sense unless you view them in way 2, so I'd like to believe the canonical story is that Miki snapped and murdered everyone then constructed a fantasy about a killer and a shark to hide from it. It would explain why the film starts and ends with her staring at TV static in a dark room.
That or the entire production crew was really high while filming this.
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