WWII Monster Movie Looks Like A Secret Gem
Writer and director Mike Wiluan’s Orang Ikan is a creature feature set on a deserted island during World War II. One Japanese and one British soldier are castaways, first fighting each other and then forming an unlikely bond to fight a monster lurking in the dense jungle of the island. The shipwrecked soldiers are confronted with a harsh environment, and they soon realize they’re not alone.
The trailer for Orang Ikan reveals a South Pacific island where American POW Bronson (Callum Woodhouse) and Saito (Dean Fujioka), a Japanese soldier who was guarding him, have been stranded after their ship sank. The two begin as mortal enemies, struggling to gain the upper hand along the desolate beach, but their real enemy has yet to be revealed. The two discover a creature living on the deserted island, and the Orang Ikan is determined to find and destroy the two men.
The Award-Winning Talent Involved
Orang Ikan, written and directed by Mike Wiluan, co-produced Crazy Rich Asians and wrote Buffalo Boys. Freddie Yeo, who co-produced Crazy Rich Asians alongside Mike Wiluan and was a producer on Westworld, will also join the team, as will Tan Fong Chen of Ramen Shop and Fumie Suzuki Lancaster of Gensan Punch. The two starring actors on the project are Dean Fujikoa of Fullmetal Alchemist and Callum Woodhouse of All Creatures Great and Small and they are joined by Alan Maxson from the Stork segment of V/H/S/Beyond as the Orang Ikan creature.
Based On A Real Legend
Based on a real legend that stems from the experiences of Japanese soldiers stationed on the Kei islands in the Indonesian Maluka cluster during WWII, the Orang Ikan movie tells the tale of this mythic creature through the eyes of two soldiers trapped on an island alone with one. The legend goes that soldiers would sometimes see what the locals called an Orang Ikan in the surf surrounding the remote island. The creatures had humanoid faces and limbs but also fish-like pink skin and spines on their heads. They could be seen frolicking in the surf and even in local lagoons.
The combination of a dynamic talent pool and a spooky historical legend, along with the soldiers from opposing sides in a war, promises to bring some classic creature feature flavor to Orang Ikan. If the trailer is any indication, the film has a dazzling location as a backdrop that manages to be foreboding and breathtaking at the same time. The desolate island where the Orang Ikan legend was born could be a twin for the one the two fictional soldiers in the film are stranded on, giving the historical monster flick a bleak, timeless quality.
Arriving Soon In Japan
Set to premiere at the Tokyo International Film Festival, Orang Ikan has released a trailer in the run-up to the festival, giving audiences a taste of some of its classic monster movie styles. The film will also be shown at the Singapore International Film Festival and is set to be released in Japan on October 30. It will also be available via the streaming service Plex for American audiences. There’s no official release date for Orang Ikan in US theaters yet.
Login with Google