''Cold Fever'' () is a 1995 Icelandic film directed by Friðrik Þór Friðriksson. It is a road movie set in

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

and was the first of Friðrik's films to be made in the

English language English is a West Germanic language that developed in early medieval England and has since become a English as a lingua franca, global lingua franca. The namesake of the language is the Angles (tribe), Angles, one of the Germanic peoples th ...

. The movie depicts the travels of a Japanese man across Iceland. It was jokingly promoted as the best Icelandic-Japanese road movie of 1995.

Synopsis

Hirata is a successful Japanese businessman whose plan for a two-week winter holiday in Hawaii to play golf changes when his elderly grandfather reminds him that he should go to Iceland. Hirata's parents died there seven years ago, and the seven-year anniversary of a death is a significant event in Japanese culture. Hirata must perform a ceremony in the river where they died after drowning in an avalanche – the drowned must be fed by the surviving family members if they are to find peace. Hirata arrives in

Reykjavík Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...

, Iceland. His final destination is a remote river on the far side of the island. He encounters one mishap and misadventure after another. He first accidentally gets on a wrong bus filled with German tourists traveling to see the hot springs. He also confronts a language barrier; Hirata cannot speak any Icelandic, and knows very little English. After his first day's misadventures, Hirata decides to purchase an ancient, bright red

Citroën DS The Citroën DS () is a Front-mid-engine, front-wheel-drive layout, front mid-engined, front-wheel drive executive car manufactured and marketed by Citroën from 1955 to 1975, in fastback/sedan, wagon/estate, and convertible body configurations ...

to make the journey. During the long drive, Hirata meets several strange people along the way. These include the mystical woman who sells him the car, which only plays one radio station. Next, Hirata meets a local woman who collects photographs of funerals. The following day, Hirata meets Jack and Jill, two American hitchhikers, who turn out to be armed and dangerous fugitives who proceed to steal his car. Nearing his destination on foot, Hirata arrives in a small village where he meets an old man named Siggi, the owner of a local lodge who teaches Hirata how to drink the most potent alcoholic beverage in Iceland. After explaining his determination to travel to where his parents died, Hirata is aided by Siggi who borrows a pair of Icelandic horses from a local farmer, and the two of them travel on horseback to Hirata's destination. After riding across an ice cap glacier, over a ridge and into the valley where Hirata's parents died, he dismounts and tells Siggi that he must go on alone to complete his journey. After traversing a rickety bridge to the river, Hirata arrives at the river bank where he performs his cleansing ceremony at last. He then rejoins Siggi waiting for him and they both ride on their horses down a gully where they make it to a beach and the final shot shows them riding down the coast towards a nearby coastal village which hopefully will have a ferry to take Hirata back to Reykjavík and presumably back to Japan.

Credits

Cast

Masatoshi Nagase is a Japanese actor and singer. He is best known in the West for his roles in Friðrik Þór Friðriksson's ''Cold Fever'' and Jim Jarmusch's ''Mystery Train (film), Mystery Train''. Nagase was described by Todd Brown of Twitch Film as "one of t ...

: Hirata * Lili Taylor: Jill *

Fisher Stevens Stephen Fisher (born November 27, 1963), known professionally as Fisher Stevens, is an American actor, director, producer and writer. As an actor, he is best known for his portrayals of Ben Jahveri in ''Short Circuit'' (1986) and ''Short Circu ...

: Jack * Gísli Halldórsson: Siggi *

Seijun Suzuki , born (24 May 1923 – 13 February 2017), was a Japanese filmmaker, actor, and screenwriter. His films are known for their florid visual style, absurd humour, and a playful rejection of traditional film grammar. He made 40 predominately ...

: Grandfather *Laura Huges: Laura *Jóhannes B. Guðmundsson: Old Man *Bríet Héðinsdóttir: Old Woman *Guðmundur Karl Sigurdórsson: Guest at Thorrablot (uncredited) * Magnús Ólafsson *Rúrik Haraldsson * Flosi Ólafsson: Hotel owner *Ari Matthíasson *Álfrún Örnólfsdóttir *Hallbjörn Hjartarson: Cowboy of the North *Katrín Ólafsdóttir

Crew

* Director: Friðrik Þór Friðriksson * Screenplay: Jim Stark and Friðrik Þór Friðriksson * Producer: Jim Stark * Co-producer: George Gund III * Executive producer: Reinhard Brundig,

Peter Aalbæk Jensen Peter Aalbæk Jensen (born 8 April 1956 in Osted) is a Denmark, Danish film producer who in 1992 with director Lars von Trier founded the Danish film company Zentropa and later its huge studio complex Filmbyen. His father was writer Erik Aalbæk J ...

, and Christa Saredi * Line producer: Ari Kristinsson * Director of Photography: Ari Kristinsson * Production Designer: Árni Páll Jóhannsson * Editor: Steingrímur Karlsson * Film edition: Steingrímur Karlsson * Sound Design: Kjartan Kjartansson * Sound edition: Ingvar Lundberg * Music:

Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson (; born 23 April 1958), also known as HÖH, is a musician, an art director, and '' allsherjargoði'' (''chief goði'') of Ásatrúarfélagið ("the Ásatrú Association"). Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson was a pioneer in the use ...

** Featuring “Killer Boogie” by Þeyr * Costume design: María Ólafsdóttir * Production manager: Inga Björk Sólnes * Gaffer: Andreas Burkhard * Generator operator: Eggert Einarsson * Still photography: Mark Higashino * Script supervisor: Inga Lísa Middleton * Colour grader: Petra Schütt * Production: Icelandic Film Corporation, Iciclefilm, Pandora Film, Sunrise Inc., Zentropa Entertainments, George Gund III * Support: Film Fond of Hamburg

Critical response

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 95% based on 20 reviews, and an average rating of 7.5/10.

References

External links

*
Cold Fever
' at the Icelandic Film Corporation * * *
Cold Fever
' at the Shopicelandic.com {{Festroia Best Film 1995 films 1990s adventure films 1995 comedy-drama films English-language Icelandic films 1990s Icelandic-language films Icelandic independent films 1990s road movies Films directed by Friðrik Þór Friðriksson Films scored by Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson Films set in Iceland Japan in non-Japanese culture 1990s English-language films 1995 multilingual films Icelandic multilingual films English-language comedy-drama films English-language adventure films