Tweet
Released by: Cinema Epoch
Released on: 10/12/2010
Director: Hijiri John
Cast: Nonami Takizawa, Airi Nakajima, Mika Inagaki
Year: 2010
Purchase From Amazon
The Movie:
The cover art for Cinema Epoch's Psycho Shark is awesome. Look at it for a minute, right up there. Bask in its glory and soak in all that it has to offer, because, dear reader, that's about as good as this release gets right there. This film, originally titled Jaws In Japan though retitled at the insistence of Universal Pictures, features more shark action on its front cover than in all of its hour plus run time.
What the movie does feature plenty of is busty Japanese girls in bikinis. The film follows a few of these nubile ladies as they head to the shore for some rest and relaxation and videotape one another running around on the beach, shrieking in high pitched voices, trying on different bikinis (though never actually getting naked on camera) and listening to irritating music. It should be noted that this makes up the vast majority of the movie's running time.
Once we've had a half an hour or so of that, one of the girls meets a local hunk named Kenji. She walks around the beach with him while her pal hangs out solo in the hotel room grumbling about her manless predicament. While grumbling she comes across a tape, watches it, and then learns that Kenji may not be the dreamboat he seems to be and that her friend may be in some very serious trouble indeed, not very much of which has anything to do with a shark (though to the movie's credit when the titular shark finally does appear it will take you by surprise, even if it only lasts for a few seconds and appears to have been rendered on a state of the art Commodore Amiga).
Very low on psychos and almost entirely devoid of sharks, this one really doesn't have a whole lot going for it. Yes, the girls in the film are quite attractive and fill their bathing suits rather nicely but there's nothing more to them than that - they are without any personality and spend most of the film just sort of aimlessly wandering. The POV style made popular in films like The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield (two films where it was used well) doesn't help here, and for the first two thirds of the film it's almost like we're watching a really boring vacation video. Heterosexual male viewers will find that they spend more time hoping a boob will pop out than paying attention to the plot. The ending does contain an amusing surprise but it doesn't save what is otherwise a rather dull picture.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer looks about as good as you'd expect a low budget shot on video cheapie to look. Detail can be on the soft side as the film isn't always very well lit, but it's certainly watchable enough even if it's nothing to write home about.
The Japanese language Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix is on par with the video in that it's unremarkable for the most part but acceptable given the low budget nature of the picture, though it sounds like the audio was recorded in-camera, so don't expect much. The optional English subtitles are clean, clear and easy to read.
The only extra that might have been of any merit is a nineteen minute behind the scenes featurette - but it's in Japanese with no English subtitles, which makes it rather useless. Aside from that, look for a still gallery and trailers for a few other Cinema Epoch titles, including the amazing Death Tube! Menus and chapter stops are also found on the disc.
The Final Word:
Psycho Shark is not very good at all and is sorely lacking in both shark and psycho appeal. While busty Japanese hotties in bikinis can and frequently do go a long way towards redeeming the bad things in life, this time around it's just not enough to save this one.
.