It's a CGI animated film, so no real fish are killed during the movie. The director did state in interviews that he gained experience as a sushi chef prior to making the film.
The fish are aware that they're at a restaurant and that they could be butchered and eaten at any time. All the fish deal with the stress of this seemingly hopeless situation in different ways. One fish is especially devastated by the deaths of its tankmates, and there's a scene where the fish almost appears to be crying.
Body horror of the piscine variety. Of all the ways that fish die in this movie, the worst is probably being gutted, filleted, and served on a plate while still alive and conscious.
None of the fish in the movie are directly related, but the old flatfish has an almost father-like relationship with the child-like Spotty. The flatfish treats Spotty with a tough love attitude, and hides the fact that he really cares about Spotty's well-being.
Padak and the flatfish (who spends most of the film as a scary, abusive antagonist) have a moment near the end where they understand and come to respect each other. This is represented with a song called "Forgive Me."
Yes- fish are shown prepared with their heads detached and displayed with the rest of the fish. A song sequence shows the fish being decapitated. Quite disturbingly, near the end of the film a fish's eyes are shown moving, implying they are still alive for some time after the act or at least still experiencing muscle spasms
The whole movie is about edible fish awaiting their fate at a sushi restaurant. Fish cannibalize each other. Fish are filleted and served to restaurant patrons, sometimes still alive and gasping for air on the plate.
Some of the fish act cruel to each other to cope with the horror and hopelessness of their situation. However, they never truly get revenge on the humans who are ultimately responsible for their suffering.
In a flashback, a male and female fish share a tank and talk to each other as if they're a married couple. The female fish sees the sushi chef approaching and chooses to sacrifice herself so her love can survive.
None of the fish are killed by asphyxiation directly, but there are several scenes of fish out of water struggling to breathe and nearly losing consciousness.
Both the flatfish and the bream fish are bullies. The bream likes to pick on Spotty, and tries unsuccessfully to bully Padak. Everyone in the tank fears the flatfish, who physically assaults Padak to try to keep her in line.
A fish is seemingly unconscious or dazed for several minutes after having been injured offscreen by crabs. A fish that jumped out of water hallucinates and nearly passed out from lack of oxygen.
Sapient fish being confined to a tiny tank and awaiting their planned demise can be seen as a metaphor for the human carceral system, but human inmates and prisons are not shown or mentioned.
Padak is restrained by the other fish when she loses a game so that the winner can bite off a piece of her tail; however, she escapes. Multiple fish are restrained by hand as they're being filleted alive.
Yes. Plenty. The kill count is in the double digits! Both side and main characters are killed off, a lot of it is shown onscreen whether it be the actual death or just the aftermath
The only fish in the movie that could be considered pets are clown fish, which are kept in a small, well-decorated aquarium. All the other fish are intended to be served as sushi. A child moves one of the edible fish into the clown fish aquarium just to see what will happen. The fish quickly devours all but one clown fish, which the kid seems to find amusing.
None in the traditional sense. However, the scenes where the flatfish smacks Padak against the walls of the fishtank may feel reminiscent of domestic abuse.
the fish do not have specific ages but one fish has a bit of a naive and childlike demeanor, and they are injured badly in a few scenes resulting in their death
Yes, this movie is about the fish industry. Fish and crabs are taken from the ocean, caged, cooked and eaten alive, in gorey detail. There are multiple dead bodies shown and killing scenes.
No dogs, so no dog fighting. However, there are scenes where humans pit fish against each other. A kid drops a big fish into a tank with much smaller fish to watch the resulting carnage. The owner of the sushi restaurant feeds edible fish with dead or dying members of their own kind, which the fish eagerly rip apart.
There are numerous shots of dead and dying fish in various states of dismemberment. The most disturbing sequence comes late in the film, when a fish known to the audience is shown dead and partially eaten, with eyes still wide open.
Yes. There is a flatfish that eats another. Other fish eat each other too, and while technically not cannibalism bc they're different species, it is distressing as they are all sapient and it brings other fish distress too.
There are both nonfatal and fatal examples- the fish have to take bites out of one another to stave off their hunger, and then they end up eating weakened fish offered to them by the owner. Many fish are consumed by a bigger one in a rather shocking scene and (Spoilers) one fish in the tank eats the corpse of another with no remorse, causing the others anguish.
No, but there is the fish equivalent of finger/toe mutilation. Fish kept in a crowded tank play a game where the winner gets to bite a piece off of the loser's fins. One fish tries to bite a chunk out of Padak's tail but is unsuccessful. Another fish has damaged fins, implying that he's been victimized repeatedly in the past.
Talking fish are graphically cut up, gutted, and eaten while still alive. However, the humans are not explicitly trying to torture the fish; rather, they're simply indifferent to the fact that the fish are suffering.
A dying fish has its eyes removed and eaten. Only the aftermath is shown: the fish is tossed to the ground with blood seeping from its now-empty eye sockets.
No human children are harmed, and the ages of the fish are somewhat ambiguous. A fish that sounds and acts like a curious child is killed, however, and there are graphic close-ups of the mangled body. Additionally, some cute clownfish with child-like voices are eaten by a larger fish.
while there are no ghosts, the first musical sequence contains abstract and nightmarish imagery, including a giant fish like creature floating through a barren landscape while its body falls apart, which could be seen as ghostly in nature
The closest thing to a jumpscare is a tense scene where the camera rapidly cuts between gruesome close-ups of dismembered fish while creepy music drones on.
No character is outright stated to be mentally ill, but they are under mental distress due to their situation and this constant stress and threat of death leads to the characters mistreating each other and at times becoming violent. They also have to eat other fish, either partially or fully, to survive.
A fish who's on a cutting board and about to be killed panics as he sees firsthand how the other fish in the restaurant are killed, cooked, eaten, and discarded.
Several fish are disturbingly eager to engage in cannibalism, but this is implied to be the result of being kept in a constant state of near-starvation with no other food sources.
One fish angrily calls a flatfish a "fatfish," at least in the English subtitles. The flatfish in question looks no fatter or thinner than the rest of its species.