Review: ‘HotSpring SharkAttack 2: Great Kyushu Showdown’

Perfect for a bad movie night, HotSpring SharkAttack 2: Great Kyushu Showdown is an intentionally ridiculous festival of craptastic special effects and big dreams. A sequel to a movie I’ve never seen before (and you don’t need to either), it starts as a warm-hearted small-town story about a girl with big dreams of singing in Tokyo, or maybe becoming an influencer (she’s still figuring it out). That is, until she accidentally unleashes an ancient “Onsen Shark” and runs afoul of an evil pharmaceutical company trying to find eternal life by cloning these hot-spring sharks that literally appear in bathtubs or out of any surface with hot spring water nearby. 

Giant robot sharks, shark rain, sharks sliced by samurai swords, exploding sharks, pectoral-muscle speakers, you name it: this movie has it all! Although surprisingly heartwarming at times and hilarious throughout, the Great Kyushu Showdown stretches its premise to the brink of exhaustion, riffing on Godzilla-esque Kaiju movies, Ultraman-style special effects, and anime tropes. It’s the type of movie you’ll find funny once and never need to see again, apart from showing some of the most bonkers moments to your friends.