Fish hour "Taste of Fish" (aka "Third Generation of Tsukiji Fish Market") - the title given by Western translators - seems to fit the film much more than the original. After all, we are talking about two generations (the first is already gone), moreover, not only about fish traders. However, all these characters are united by fish. There is a lot of it here - not eat, but eat, eating fish here is elevated to the rank of poetry, science, philosophy. Fish is a connecting element in many collisions, it is the main participant in the plot, albeit in one, in fact, "amplois" - food. However, this film is not a “big meal”, and it is not a culinary exquisitely soulful oshishi-movie, which the Japanese shoot a great many. Fish here is conceptual, just like rice with green tea in Ozu, so such an allusion is justified. Fish heroes eat not so much for the sake of satiety or pleasure, but for the sake of understanding different truths. As if put in the mouth a piece of this or that dish from it triggers a certain psychological mechanism, up to this point rusted in inactivity, and now serious turns in fate are made, serious decisions are made, spiritual forces are strengthened.
The fact that the main character Shuntaro turns out to be a fish Mozart, who knows how to taste the finest shades of taste without any preparation, in general, is just a beautiful plot trick to show how high the craft of a fish merchant is - and not just dragging boxes and sticking out behind the counter. The hero needs this gift to be taken seriously, because he, like Mikhailo Lomonosov, was late with his apprenticeship. We can say that the form of the gift was “stolen” from a fish gourmet cooker, he had such a gift would look somewhat more natural. However, the gourmet culinary is already in the field of art, albeit “low”, and the wholesale fish merchant will not even be allowed there on the threshold, and the authors of the film do not agree with this. In addition, at least two of the fish traders along the way are shown as excellent cooks. There are also real culinaries here - an old moustician, a mistress, she is a cook, a tiny restaurant, but gourmet is poured throughout the "fish space", here all Mozarts, if not cooking and expertise, then certainly enjoying taste. The word “connoisseur” sounds from the screen, but it is much more important to have true connoisseurs, even when they are profane. Taste papillae speak for themselves, and only a completely devoid of sophistication person, who does not care what to fill the stomach, will not be able to appreciate deliciously cooked fish. Such a person is spiritually rude, he does not understand deep truths.
However, there is one exception - Eiji, who does not like fish, but he was able to find his own in the form of tuna meatballs, which became his favorite dish, and he learned to cook fish perfectly, as well as understand it. He is an antagonist of Shuntaro, who loves fish and feels it on an intuitive level, he is a kind of Salieri, who has achieved professional heights, being deprived of genius. However, in the Japanese interpretation, the fish Mozart and Salieri are not opposed as hostile elements, carefree gift and envious incompetence, rather they are two sides of the same thing - skill. The skill is easy, ingenious and the skill is strained, extracted - both skills and only this is valuable. Therefore, Eiji looks at the gift of Shuntaro condescendingly, knowing his worth, and Shuntaro, already a genius, is still far from mastery.
Since people here are sensitive to the delicate taste of fish, they are able to comprehend deep truths. However, although this is a metaphorical exaggeration, people without “interaction” with fish remain inert, there is no spiritual rise. The fish is the very spirit that people fulfill when they taste it. Although all this conceptuality has nothing to do with Christianity, there is a certain homologous similarity: fish and spirituality are closely linked eventually and symbolically. But the Japanese understanding of spirituality is quite this: fish is an everyday food, it gives life to a person, losing its life, life flows from body to body. This life is spirit, power, and its acquisition through eating is quite natural. The knowledge of the truth is fermented in man himself, simply man does not want or can not recognize this truth, he lacks the strength of spirit. However, it is not just eating food that gives strength of mind – or rather, the degree of coarseness of food and its acceptance corresponds to the degree of coarseness of truths; the people in the film eat fish at the same time simply and exquisitely cooked, in small pieces, rubbing each fiber on the tongue, and truths they comprehend simple and bright, but fateful.
Of course, you can look at everything from the point of view of the fish. Fish are caught and killed. For some reason, such a soulful film about a slaughterhouse seems bad. Or even the concentration camp. But the fish-killing factory appears in the film quite cozy and human, and there is some contradiction to the above, about subtle spirituality. At the same time, fish is something between the horrors of killing warm-blooded and cute pictures of collecting flowers in the field. The latter are not considered by people as a “blood harvest”, but in terms of flowers, they are. The human concept of humanism is extremely relative and contextual, and spirituality, art, philosophy are very much “honed” for a person, and even then inconsistent. Some lives are more miserable than others. In this sense, the fish as a sacrifice also has its philosophical content: it is not so sorry as the calf, but more miserable than the flower; the fish gives us a chance to feel the prick of humanism, but not very strong, and therefore the contemplation of fish death does not turn into the pangs of shudder, but it is not quite complacent contemplation. The death of fish coexists with the death of people, and they are put as if on one board of equality before fate.
Meanwhile, there's a lot of love in the movie. The life of fish merchants and other near-fish people is shown with great love. By the way, in one of the scenes, old Kaburagi-san tells his interpretation of the origin of the phrase “Itadakimasu” (" I accept with gratitude), spoken before a meal, is gratitude for food for a given life. That is, Kaburagi-san himself apologizes daily to those killed - and what can he do, even if he regrets, not stop eating? Fish traders lovingly bow over the vats-sinkers - sincerely caring at this moment about the tired fish, at this moment it is not food, but a pet. These moments do not need to be considered in context, the context may be different, they are self-contained – and the moment exists on its own, full of itself. A dying woman eats a dead fish and enjoys life, even though everyone around her is crying. The fish just as happily splashed into the sea until its time came, and maybe someone is mourning it underwater. This hour could come from the other side - from predators, parasites, disease, old age. Man is not her enemy, but her hour; and man has his hour.