Konstantina Kotzamani’s enchanting drama takes place in a Japanese academy for teenagers who want to become mermaids.
At an elite Japanese boarding school, for a certain price, young women can become the impossible. They clamour for places at a “mermaid academy” despite the price tag – it’s there that they are transformed into the ethereal creatures, defined by their youth, beauty and grace. They dye their long hair all the colours of the rainbow, learn to hold their breath for extended periods of time underwater and adopt a special mermaid name; these rituals turn them from ordinary teenagers into something much more special. But it’s not for the weak. Their days are long and the students are encouraged to see each other as competition. After all, they can’t all end up as world-class entertainers – but perhaps it’s not about that for all of them.
Seventeen-year-old Akame (Arisa Sasaki) seems a little indifferent about the prospect of ending up performing in a glass tank at a top aquarium. She’s a talented prospect but prone to fits of reverie; her blossoming infatuation with the handsome, older Coach Kotaro (Masahiro Higashide) doesn’t much help matters. But Akame – or Deep Sea, per her mermaid name – seems to have a more spiritual connection to the water than her classmates. She’s never been to the ocean, but dreams about its deepest depths, dancing with fish and sharks. Deep Sea is also nearly mute; she laments the loss of her voice in her narration when the class have to choose their special “mermaid song”, she opts for Lykke Li’s ‘I Followed Rivers’, fixated on the line “I, I follow I follow you, deep sea baby” which echoes through the film like a siren’s call.
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Titanic Ocean is an ambitious third film for Greek filmmaker Konstantina Kotzamani that demonstrates a keen eye for images and a continued interest in female coming-of-age narratives that first appeared in What Mary Didn’t Know. The dreamy neon lighting and gauzy curtains of the girls’ shared dorm and Kotzamani’s fondness for slow motion suggest that Sofia Coppola (who funnily enough was once slated to make her own mermaid movie) is a likely influence. Despite the overt femininity of Titanic Ocean Kotzamani lets us into this magical world without hypersexualising the teenage occupants. Their mermaid aspirations have a sweetness to them, but there’s also an awareness of how they’re likely to be perceived by others. One of the most well-known students, a redhead named Eternal Sunset (Haruna Matsui), has her school fees paid by an older man her classmates refer to as her “sugar daddy”.
The ethereal qualities of this unique coming-of-age drama are a little hampered by its pacing; the 130-minute runtime does feel misjudged, and the film could be perceived as perpetuating stereotypes about Japanese culture as inherently quirky. (Though, mermaid school is a real thing – the first opened in Nagoya in 2022.) But Titanic Ocean is an excitingly original film that captures familiar teenage anxieties in a fantastical setting, and Raphaël Vandenbussche’s cinematography shines in its many underwater sequences. Kotzamani is firmly establishing herself as one to watch, not just in her native Greek but around the world.
