Hot Spring Shark Attack Review: Hilarious Absurdity

In Hot Spring Shark Attack, an ancient breed of shark is awakened and begins to wreak havoc at the onsen in a small Japanese town.

The movie wastes no time, with the first shark attack happening almost immediately, though it’s off the shore of Atsumi, home of the titular hot springs. We then cut to Atsumi’s mayor, Kanichi Mangan (Takuya Fujimura), who is with the police chief (Kiyobumi Kaneko) investigating what looks like a shark attack on a visitor to the hot springs. The mayor decides to bring influencers to the hot springs to make them look attractive in the midst of these attacks, only to see them all eaten by sharks. 

When the springs start to pop up in the middle of the street, in school playgrounds, and all across Atsumi, he brings in Mayumi Kose (Yu Nakanishi), a marine biologist who studies sharks, to figure out what is going on. Based on the bite marks, she believes that the attacks are not from any modern sharks, but rather an ancient shark that has resurfaced to wreak havoc on the residents of Atsumi.

You will need to decide relatively quickly if you’re getting onboard with Hot Spring Shark Attack or not, because this movie is going to escalate in silliness all the way until the end. What makes it work so well is that Inoue provides some kind of explanation, no matter how flimsy, for everything that happens. Sharks magically appearing in the onsen? Sharks are primarily made of cartilage, so their flexible bodies can go anywhere. Sharks causing an explosion when shot at? They vent methane through their gills. Sharks disabling a submarine with an EMP? Their echolocation doubles as a means to disrupt electrical power. Nothing occurs that isn’t explained, and the ridiculousness of the explanations is part of the hilarity of this movie.

You may be asking yourself, ‘But how are the special effects?’ They are bad, but you probably already guessed that. What is fun about this is the variety of terrible special effects that are used throughout Hot Spring Shark Attack. Whether it’s a green screen where a buff man can punch sharks, a magenta CGI glow imposed over the police chief who has an infection from a shark bite, or a plastic model of a shark-busting submarine that can withstand the shark EMP, the variety actually makes sense depending on the circumstances. So even if they aren’t particularly well done due to budget restraints, they are at least thoughtful. 

It is clear that the actors in this movie know what they signed up for, and their performances bear that out. The overacting is abundant and delightful. Kiyobumi Kaneko, as the police chief, was my favorite performance. The shark attack that he is a part of is probably the funniest in the movie, but it doesn’t work unless he sells it, and he absolutely does. It’s unlikely that anyone in this film thinks this is some kind of ground-breaking cinematic event, but that doesn’t stop anyone from giving their all in the roles.

As we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Jaws, the most iconic of the shark attack movies, it’s fun to look for the similarities between these two great movies. A greedy mayor who puts his constituents at risk in the face of shark attacks. A surprising hero who saves the day. A hands-on scientist, willing to risk their life to learn more about the species they are studying. Sure, one is an Academy Award winning film, and the other is a low-budget horror film that has sharks swimming through concrete, but maybe Jaws had to swim so Hot Spring Shark Attack could literally fly.

Hot Spring Shark Attack will be released in select U.S. theatres (NY, LA and more markets) and in VOD across North America on July 11, 2025.

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