Customer Reviews

Cold Fever [Region 2]

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
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It has been seven years since Atushi Hirata's parents died in an accident in Iceland. Hirata is now a successful young executive who has been instrumental in making a good profit for his company. He's ready to take a golfing holiday in Hawaii, but is compelled by obligation to perform the memorial rites for his dead parents by some river near Staadelfyr. Once he does so, according to his grandfather, their spirits can rest in peace. Hirata, like his late father, isn't exactly a spiritual person, but he decides to get this over with, and as Hirata hates the cold weather in Tokyo, he definitely won't be thrilled to spend three weeks in Iceland, a land of snow, cold, and sheep.

His impressions of the country go from "very cold" to "strange," but he does meet some interesting people and is reminded time and again of the way people look at death and God. Among the warmest and most positive is Laura, someone who's a "funeral collector," going to funerals, taking photos, notes, and taping the music, and she is moved by the singing and the candles. She finds death as something joyous, the end of life on earth being the beginning of a beautiful new life. She is for his family obligation, saying "how else would we learn to grieve?"

The other is an old man in his sixties who becomes his guide, a Virgil to his Dante, and given the bleak cold of Iceland, the analogy is kind of appropriate. And for Hirata, Iceland might as well be the innermost core of hell. Another mythology analogy is the bridge Hirata has to cross and the river where the rites are performed, the bridge symbolizing the journey from the living to the dead, and the river akin to the River Styx, the river of the dead.

Most of the people he meets are kind and help him out, as when his car's spare tire goes kaput. He also has a supernatural encounter with a mysterious woman who helps him when his car motor gets frozen, and that is quite a surprising scene. His worst experience comes from picking up Jack and Jill, a married American hitchhiking duo. Jack is coarse, brusque and extraverted, and Jill who complains a lot, but things get uglier as time goes on. The one thing Jack says that relates to Hirata's quest is when he thinks Iceland is God's country, quiet, the endless wastes of snow. Definitely a contrast from the noisy, neon-lit, crowded, smog-ridden streets of Tokyo.

The concept of a hero's journey is played out here. He's initially a creature of the soulless corporation, where tradition is seen as superstition and bad for business. Yet as his father tells him in a videogram they sent, success is important, but that, and any distance should not weaken the bond between parents and children. And thus does Hirata bridge that distance, having never done anything for his parents when they were alive.

Note: when Hirata shows his guide the implements for the memorial rites, he holds up something called senko, whose equivalent in English he doesn't know. Well, senko are incense rods. Also, let me break down the word Hirata uses for "hangover," futsukayoi: futsuka means second day, yoi means inebriation.

A wonderful movie that examines spiritual renewal in a person. Hirata's cold fever eventually breaks, and as he says at the end of the movie, "sometimes, a journey can take you to a place that's not on any map."

I traveled to Iceland this past March, and watching Cold Fever made me positively nostolgic for its wintry landscape and sense of mysticism which this film so gorgeously captured. The landscape seemed to function as the main character in the film, unyielding and rich with stories and secrets. I particularly enjoyed the array of bizarro characters in Cold Fever - the funeral collector, the sock puppet wielding Americans, the Icelandic cowboys and caroling truckers - peppering the film's themes of alienation and ritual with wonderful humor. Anyone who has been to Iceland can attest to its power and eccentricities. From the moment that Atsushi arrived at the Reykjavik airport and took the flybus to the Blue Lagoon, it was as if I was there all over again. I recommend Cold Fever to film lovers everywhere, and especially to those of you who dream of going to Iceland.

A couple of things that I keep thinking about after seeing this film...first, in so many reviews there is mention of the "weird ritual" performed by the cab driver. It looked an awful lot like a Christian nativity play to me, with the cab driver playing the role of Joseph...the only thing "weird" would be the abrupt manner in which he stopped to do so--but I do concede that the whole darn thing would be pretty strange to the jet-lagged and bewildered Atsushi. I too appreciate the look at European culture through a Japanese character's eyes, especially when he's saddled with the horrible American couple, Jack and Jill. But to get to my main point, which is that I saw the latter part of the film as his own journey to the spirit world. There are so many references in the film to spirits, Icelandic and Japanese, and the discussion in the cabin about the spirits centering on the volcanic islands of the two countries is particularly intriguing. What if Atsushi has died at some point along the way? Are the characters he encounters fellow spirits, previously mortal or otherwise? Or are they humans with whom he is making contact as a spirit? I have had a wonderful time trying to figure out at which point he may have died and continued his journey after his death. The comparisons to Jarmusch, especially the film Dead Man, would be even more resonant here... And as a postscript, I found the soundtrack beautiful and haunting, a perfect complement to the cinematography.

The first time I saw Cold Fever was May of 98. It was in a time when I was lost in life. That's when Cold Fever was coming on HBO. I sat there for 90 mins and I found the film very funny and quite moving. The way everyone keeps asking Atsushi, "So how do you like Iceland?" or the characters he runs into. Some of them include Laura, a woman who likes to "collect" funerals or American tourists Jack and Jill, who bicker all the time because they disagree on taking a vacation to Iceland. Atsushi first finds this trip as a burden because he was looking forward to going to Hawaii to play golf. Instead, he has to go to Iceland to perform a ritual by the river where his parents drowned. Then, throughout this journey he learns more about himself. He finds some of the strangest people you will meet...a cab driver performing a strange ritual, a girl who restarts his car with a sonic scream, and my favorites, the Islandic Cowboys. When he finally gets his mission accomplished of performing the ritual, he learns that sometimes a journey can take you places that aren't on any map. That is so true. I wanted this movie so bad that I finally received it from Amazon last year. It is still as great as when I saw it a year ago. Check this out because it is brilliant.

Rarely does a film inspire serious dialog between cultures. What is even less seen,was the magnitute of such dialog, that I witnessed at my screening of this incredible piece of work! I viewed this film at a invitation only, pre-release gathering at a Hollywood studio,where the audience was apparently made up of an even mixture of Icelanders and local industry insiders. Plenty of Icelandic cuisine and Brennivin, (a wicked Iclandic spirit) sampled, and after the screening, everyone was discussing the film, Clearly inspired by the potency of the native nectar, the local crowd rained questions on the Icelanders, who were surprised by the issue that seemed to dominate the queries, me included. We were eager to explain the things that we felt were not normal ways of life in Iceland, but we were not prepared for what the locals felt was not normal behavior.Nearing the end of his journey, the main character tells a local stranger, his reason for being there, and that he is so close, yet he cannot complete the task, because it will be impossible for him to find the exact spot where he needs to be due to the harsh winter conditions. The Icelander offers to take him on the last leg of his journey, an undertaking that takes effort, time and preperation. This offer was however expressed more as a duty without words. This was interpreted by the local viewers as an indication that the Icelandic caracter had to be familiar with the Japanese culture, for surely he would not have offered his assistance if he was not. Therefore they felt that it should have been explained how that came about. It was with much inner pride, that we realized that we had taken this behavior for granted, and attempted to explain that it was no need to understand a culture in order to respect it. Clearly the importance of the main caracter's need was obvious for he journey'd half way across the globe to complete it. In general, the Icelandic people at this screening were reminded of the fact that they would have likely done the same thing. Everyone left that gathering with a better understanding of self and others. It is entirely possible that the director did not create this scene,to purposely point out to the audience that the offer of assistance was not made due to this caracter's generosity, but that it was a cultural way of life in Iceland, however, if he did, he had to overcome the need to explain this, for the sublety displayed is remarkable.I have seen similar scenarios in many films, but never without some form of dialog that explains that '...this is how we do things around here". In either case, the director is right on the money. If he had inserted the ever present clearification, there would have been no discussions out in the parkinglot. Sadly, there are to many places on this planet where this film should by required viewing. Needless to say, I truly admire this work.

'One man's journey in a foreign land' is a cliche'd plot line but this storyline is more than a little different. Underlying the basic premise is the synthesis and comparison of two very similar cultures: Two modern island nations, with seperate but similar mythologies, strange native customs and both in love with American Culture.

A Japanese businesman passes up his vacation in Hawii so he can travel to Iceland in order to perform a ceremony for his dead parents. While in Iceland he learns he has a long journey in front of him and along the way he meets a cast of increasingly strange characters. Often 'caught in the wrong place at the wrong time' he is forced more and more out of his way, giving him the chance to see more and more of this Iceland, not so unlike his native Japan.

As simple as the plot structure is it's wonderfully novel in its details. Its a fun ride from beginning to end and there's no film I've seen quite like it.

"Cold Fever" ("Á Köldum Klaka") is a brilliant Icelandic comedic drama from director Friğrik Şór Friğriksson featuring stunningly beautiful scenery, top drawer acting, and absolutely amazing characters. Hirata (Masatoshi Nagase) is compelled by his grandfather (Seijun Suzuki) to cancel his much-anticipated golfing vacation to Hawaii, and instead to perform a spiritual journey to Iceland to perform memorial rites for his parents who were accidentally killed on an obscure river in the middle of nowhere several years earlier. The grandfather explains that only then can his parents rest in peace, and while Hirata resists at first (he hates how cold Tokyo can get after all) he quickly finds himself enroute to Iceland.

The story ranges from the touching to the surreal and the characters and situations Hirata encounters along the way are entirely unexpected and, for him, supremely frustrating as he traverses Iceland's forbidding interior first in the most unroadworthy car imaginable, and later via less inviting means. The most sympathetic of the people he meets is Laura (Laura Hughes,) who is an avid funeral collector. Hearing her explanation is both touching and funny. I was particularly amused by the sock puppet criminal element in the movie (Lili Taylor and Fisher Stevens,) and was most amazed at how increasingly heroic Hirata became as he got further and further into the film, and became more and more emotionally committed to his goal.

"Cold Fever" is a stunningly original movie and deserves far greater circulation that it's had. It's available on VHS and a Region 2 DVD, but is still waiting for its US DVD premiere. No matter whether you have to lug out your old VHS player or watch it on your computer, this is a truly great film, and is one of my enduring favorites. It is well worth watching more than once. I love Iceland and the Icelandic people: this film reminded me what a great and unique place it is, and how despite seemingly incomprehensible cultural differences, that certain journeys and desires are nearly universal, even if you have to deal with boiled sheep's heads and Brennivín to come to the end of the road.

I love this movie. It made me want to go to Iceland and be among the quirky people, beautiful landscape, and magical feeling that pervades the film.

Director, Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, founded the ICELANDIC FILM CORPORATION in the early 80's, setting up alliances with others like Lars Von Trier's ZENTROPIA, and Francis Ford Coppola's AMERICAN ZEOTROPE. Fridriksson's film, CHILDREN OF NATURE (1991) was nominated for an Oscar as "Best Foreign Film". He is known for releasing films that are both deeply personal and that have narratives that are deeply rooted in Icelandic culture, full of stirring imagery, and sprinkled with his wry sense of humor. COLD FEVER (1995) won a director's award at THE EDINBURGH FILM FESTIVAL in 1995. Lili Taylor, with her small cameo in the film, won a Best Actress Award at THE SEATTLE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL in 1996.

Masatoshi Nagase played the protagonist, Hirata. He exhibited the proper sense of wonder as his mute Commedia character wandered wide-eyed in the winter wasteland, but for me he never seemed to demonstrate either the depth of character, or the spiritual growth that I wanted to experience through him. Maybe it was a problem with the character as written, penned by the director, Fridriksson. I recalled Nagase as Jun, the Japanese tourist adrift in Memphis in Jim Jarmusch's MYSTERY TRAIN (1989). In that film he was able to show a somewhat wider range of emotions and transitions. He was interesting recently as Ryosuke in THE SEA IS WATCHING (2002) -the paean to Kurosawa. I think I gained more insight into a Japanese tourist as a stranger in a strange land watching Gotaro Tsunashima as Hiromitsu, wandering about in Australia while romancing Toni Collette in JAPANESE STORY (2003).

Lili Taylor and Fisher Stevens were quite a bundle of cranky electricity mid-film as the eccentric, possibly lethal, American tourists who stole his ancient Citroen. Gisli Halldorsson was very warm and intriguing as the kind stranger who meets him in a pub and decides to assist him on his odd quest to reach a distant riverbank, the scene of his parent's death in a car accident several years prior. In honoring his Japanese traditions, forcing himself to give up his Hawaiian golf vacation, Hirata also found himself immersed in several Icelandic traditions that never made sense to him, or to us. The actress who played the character that "collects funerals" livened up the screen a bit.

I did enjoy the cinematography by Ari Kristinsson, giving us the definite feeling of desolation on some distant planet of ice, or moonscape. I responded well to the notion that in Iceland, people could see, could share space with ghosts. Hirata encountered more than his share of them, although his parents never made an appearance. The shrill ghost of a child that through her screams unfroze his Citreon was very freaky, as frightening as it was helpful.

This film was very "watchful", and it had an ironclad sense of place; somewhere most of us had never been before. Even though the characters moved in and out of the story rapidly, and we were overwhelmed with the cascades of oddity and humor -I never felt like I was watching a road movie. Actually it made me pine for a viewing of HARRY AND TONTO (1974) with Art Carney, and/or THE STRAIGHT STORY (1999) with Richard Farnsworth.

Executive isolated from his feelings and zest for life discovers himself on an adventurous search for his parents' spirits in wintertime Iceland.

Humourous adventures, great multimedia.

Mostly english - subtitles otherwise.

A video you will like to see more than once! END