Mermaid Legend (1984)

A cautionary parable for man's true acquiescence to the natural world

Toshiharu Ikeda's elemental and mythical adaptation of Takashi Ishii's Angel Guts manga, Mermaid Legend, evokes a lyrical sadness for the fading way of life of seafaring fishermen and ama divers. One that starts as a relatively tender study of grief but shifts dramatically in the latter half to become an absolutely brutal exploitation blood-drenched angel of vengeance and yet, despite those exploitation tendencies, it also channels the intense anti-nuclear sentiment of the decade. An eco-thriller that finds the incursive grasp of industrialisation and corporate greed encroaching on natural realms. Ikeda directs a film that begins a presentation lingering somewhere between the realistic and the idyllic, almost artful in several scenes but it's not long before the film shows its true colours, which are essentially bathed in the red of blood. Mari Shirato gives an astonishing performance as Migiwa, managing to capture everything from sorrowful and vulnerable as much as vengeful and unstoppable, a real shame she wasn't in more. Combined with a truly haunting piano score by Toshiyuki Honda, Mermaid Legend remains a brooding requiem for loss, a cautionary parable for man's true acquiescence to the natural world.

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