I’ve recently been rewatching the original run of Mystery Science Theater 3000, and while it stands as an iconic vehicle of gen-X slacker snark, its sensibility now seems dated. Early episodes drew heavily on Japanese entertainment, the white American hosts not hesitating to mock actors’ names and dunk on the low-budget special effects.
At the time the show’s writers must have felt like equal-opportunity offenders, since American movies also had their turn on the grill, but in retrospect it feels like the show missed the mark in leading viewers to believe the Japanese filmmakers thought they were making Star Wars. Genre styling, monster movie tropes and — dare I say — knowing camp all played into those films, but rather than crediting any of that, MST3K just collected them all in the “bad movie” bin.
That said, the likes of Star Force: Fugitive Alien II and Gamera vs. Zigra aren’t winking nearly as widely as Hot Spring Shark Attack, a new movie from writer/director Morihito Inoue. In a statement, Inoue said he was working to meet “the growing demand” for shark movies in Japan, but Hot Spring Shark Attack is also a culturally specific tribute to the 50th anniversary of the movie that effectively established the genre.
At first, the movie seems to be a direct satire of Jaws. The resort city of Atsumi, repeatedly referred to as the “Monaco of the East,” experiences a series of disappearances that evidence suggests may be shark attacks. A world-weary lawman (Kiyofumi Kaneko) wants to warn the community, but a nervous mayor (Takuya Fujimura) is concerned about scaring tourists away.
Inoue won’t be confined to a single touchpoint, though, and Hot Spring Shark Attack quickly spirals outward in its nods to everything from superhero cinema to Jurassic Park. A resourceful scientist (Yuu Nakanishi) uses a 3D printer to build a specially designed attack sub, as the sharks somehow develop the ability to swim through pavement and fire electrical charges. They even talk, although all they can say is “Shark!”
It’s all goofy fun, unfolding at a dizzying pace. There would have been an opportunity for Inoue to linger a bit with the comic potential of influencers who willingly jump into shark-infested hot springs, unable to resist the millions of views they might garner if they’re actually eaten alive on camera — but the movie comes in at a tidy 78 minutes, and there’s a literal king shark to get to.
Jaws may be endlessly rewatchable, and is slated to return to theaters next month, but with the U.S. release of Hot Spring Shark Attack, stateside fans can now mix it up and hear the words “smile, you son of a bitch!” cried out in Japanese instead.
Images courtesy Utopia
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