Director: Mike Wiluan
Year: 2025
Country: Singapore/Indonesia/Japan/United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: Orang Ikan
Genre: Creature Feature
Plot:
Stranded in the middle of the war, Japanese and American soldiers are stuck on a remote island while their sides wage war during World War II, and must work together to fight off the ravenous creature that’s living on the island, hunting everything that sets foot there.
Review:
For the most part, this was a fairly fun creature feature. Among the better qualities of this one stem from the storyline featured here, which takes a somewhat conventional monster movie trope and offers some fresh spins on everything. With the experience detailing the closing days of World War II and the efforts by the Japanese soldiers to come to terms with their stance in the war in the form of a traitor in their ranks only to be prevented from doing anything due to the Allied strike on the ship performing the inquiry, there’s some fun setup at play here. Not only does this provide a fun way to strand everyone on the island when the survivors are washed ashore before the ship explodes with everyone onboard, but it also allows us to generate some sympathy between everyone, and we also get to experience a bit more about the dynamic between the two of them when they arrive on the island. How they bond and interact with each other is a great way to set this one up going forward, with the whole thing being interrupted by the discovery of the creature, all of which helps this one rather nicely as we see their friendship blossom.
The other big positive here is the strength of the creature attacks, which are handled incredibly well. The humanoid stance and fishman-like appearance of the creature being accomplished practically means this one gets up and personal with how it focuses the immediacy of the attacks, interrupting the Japanese soldiers talking to him on the island or stalking the group through the jungle, which gives this some impressive sequences. As well, the second half is devoted almost entirely to the hunt to stop the creature, which means a slew of fun tactics is ready to defend themselves against the creature, only to be confronted with the possibility of having to rely on different tactics to finally stop it. This all results in some exceptionally gruesome and bloody kills featuring the creature ripping not just the soldier victims it comes across but also the other random figures at home on the island, which is just as much fun as the rest of the action involved with the film, all of which makes for a lot of fun positives here.
There are some issues present here that do hold this one down somewhat. The main drawback to be had with this one is the somewhat bland pace featured here, which gives everything a draining experience to sit through. The fact that so much happens in the second half is obvious from the extended amount of time featuring the duo on the island, trying to come to terms with the situation, mostly due to the decision to make all of their bonding occur at that point in the film. Trying to come to an understanding and recognize who they are and what they need from each other to survive is a great way to start everything but it does this at the expense of the action, as that first half becomes a struggle to get through, as it becomes apparent it just doesn’t have enough to justify a feature-length running time. Dispatching as many bodies as it does immediately only to then go through time-wasting scenes such as ammo stock-up or just meandering exploration of the jungle doesn’t offer a lot of thrilling elements throughout here, and it tends to give this one the kind of sluggish start that’s hard to overcome.
Overview: ***.5/5
An overall enjoyable if sluggish creature feature, there’s enough with this one that makes for a fun time here, even with some flaws that keep it down from what it could’ve been. Those with an appreciation for this style or approach taken here will want to give it a shot, while most others out there might want to heed caution.
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