The trailer for Mike Wiluan’s historical monster film, Orang Ikan, has been unveiled, ahead of its world premiere in the Tokyo International Film Festival’s Gala section.
Set in 1942 in the Pacific, the film follows a Japanese soldier named Saito and a British prisoner-of-war named Bronson, who are stranded on a deserted island, hunted by a deadly creature known as the “Orang Ikan.”
Orang Ikan is directed and written by Mike Wiluan, who also helmed Buffalo Boys, Losmen Melati and co-produced Crazy Rich Asians.
The film stars actor-musician Dean Fujioka (Fullmetal Alchemist) and Callum Woodhouse (All Creatures Great and Small).
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The film will have its European premiere at the Trieste Science + Fiction Festival in the Asteroid Competition and its Southeast Asian premiere at the Singapore International Film Festival.
“Orang Ikan is a creature horror that draws its inspiration from the early monster films such as Jack Arnold’s 1954 Creature from the Black Lagoon combined with a popular Malay Folklore and actual reports of sightings by Japanese occupying forces in East Indonesia during the war,” said writer-director Wiluan.
“Orang Ikan is an Asian interpretation of the creature theme set during the tragic real life occurrences of WW2. Aside from the horror, the film accentuates the theme of brotherhood and humanity against devastating reality of survival. This particular theme was inspired by John Boorman’s 1968 classic Hell in the Pacific.”
Orang Ikan means Fish Man for those who don’t know Malay.