
Hirata finds himself canceling his vacation plans to Hawaii when his grandfather reminds him of his duty to his parents. Seven years earlier, Hirata's parents had been killed in an accident in Iceland and Japanese tradition holds that their souls will not be at ease until the proper ceremonies have been performed. Thus, Hirata sets out on a journey, a quest to the river where his parents perished. Along the way, in this Icelandic-Japanese road movie, he encounters many diffic... (Full plot summary below)
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Hirata finds himself canceling his vacation plans to Hawaii when his grandfather reminds him of his duty to his parents. Seven years earlier, Hirata's parents had been killed in an accident in Iceland and Japanese tradition holds that their souls will not be at ease until the proper ceremonies have been performed. Thus, Hirata sets out on a journey, a quest to the river where his parents perished. Along the way, in this Icelandic-Japanese road movie, he encounters many difficulties, tough situations, and odd people in the land of fire and ice. Fridrik Thor Fridriksson's vision infuses Iceland's stark and beautiful landscape with a haunting spirituality.
Leave your thoughts about Cold Fever.
| Los Angeles TimesKevin ThomasIt's been brought to the screen by director John Schlesinger and writer Malcolm Bradbury with such deftness, giving it a life of its own, that it's not necessary for audiences to be familiar with the literature it satirizes. |
| Spirituality and PracticeFrederic and Mary Ann BrussatAn fascinating film that is both a valentine to the charms of Iceland and a flinty meditation on a young man's quest to bestow a blessing on the parents he took for granted. |
| San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleCold Fever serves a useful function right there: It shows an Icelandic winter close up, and it's a lot more fascinating than you might expect. |
| Movie HabitMarty MapesI suppose its quirkiness is a little formulaic (an American outlaw and his girlfriend run from the Iceland police) and its production value is pretty low, but the scenery is great, [and] the story isn't something you'll see every day. |
| New York TimesStephen HoldenFar from being a random sequence of oddball occurrences, Cold Fever, under its jokey surface, has a steady allegorical resonance. |
| VarietyDerek ElleyAn out-there, sometimes wacky, often mystical road movie about a lone Japanese journeyingacross Iceland to perform a family ritual. |
| New York Daily NewsDave KehrThe film has an engagingly hip sensibility that never descends into snobbery and an underlying seriousness that lends a touch of poetry to the self-consciously bizarre proceedings. |
| Ozus' World Movie ReviewsDennis SchwartzFinely tuned English speaking comical road movie set in Iceland. |
| rec.arts.movies.reviewsMark R. LeeperA likable if somewhat unoriginal road picture. |
| Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenCold Fever is thoroughly quirky and unusual, and one-hundred-percent experiential. You've got to sweat it out in order to get to the other side. |