Elemental and mythic, Mermaid Legend exudes a lyrical melancholia for the dying way of life of seafaring fishermen and ama divers. Set in a coastal fishing hamlet, Toshiharu Ikeda’s eco thriller finds the incursive grasp of industrialization and corporate greed encroaching on natural realms. Migiwa (Mari Shirato), an ama diver who plunges the azure depths for abalone in the heat of summer, becomes entangled in a redevelopment scheme involving powerful local figures and yakuza when her husband is killed for witnessing a murder. Battered and left for dead, the pearl diver plans her vengeance on those who wronged her to devastating effect. Incurring a siren’s sanguinary wrath—one which can only be described as a sheer force of nature—the elegiac Mermaid Legend is a brooding requiem for loss, a cautionary parable for man’s true acquiescence to the natural world. 

Screening 40 years after it was completed, this is a rare exploitation cult movie that before 2024 had never played any film festival outside of its native Japan or ever released in any format internationally. From the late Toshiharu Ikeda, director of Evil Dead Trap (1988,) comes a tale of powerful vengeance.

Content warning: sexual violence See BBFC advice

*****Part of an ongoing series of film screenings celebrating the Directors Company – The legendary 1980s indie Japanese production company, which between 1982 and 1992 became a home for the country’s young, emerging filmmakers.

With thanks to Third Window Films for this new digital restoration.*****

Doors open 30 minutes before advertised start time. All film screenings are ad-free and 18+ unless otherwise stated, and start with no more than a 10 min selection of trailers. 

The Cube is a membership venue, please remember to bring your card. You can join on the door for £1