Sion Sono has always been an expert on portraying the dark and extreme side of the Japanese family. Behind the apparently perfect family always lie the darkest desires. From “Noriko’s Dinner table” to “Guilty of romance”, Sono has decrypted the pressure that family members are under, trying to follow the social and moral codes that society expects from them. But the strong sexual repressed urges or their hidden violent nature inevitably end up emerging. “Cold fish” is no exception: a humble fish shop owner who is usually slapped around in life and has no personal ambitions is taken under the wing of an unconventional married couple that bring out his darkest desires. They turn him into a new man, perhaps the man that he always wanted to be, but not the man society expects him to be. Sono’s films are unsettling, but there is something fascinating behind his dark tales: discovering the other side of the coin of Japanese society can be as frightening as it can be addictive.