♥♥♥♥
+ Best Japanese Movie of the Year
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| An eel-shaped red face of a man is the main element of the film on this secretive poster for Shôhei Imamura's The Eel |
Protagonist Yamashita kills his wife and her lover during their adulterous sex in a fit of furious jealousy and then goes to admit his sin at the police station. Upon 8 years of incarceration, he likes his pet eel more than mankind, until his opening of a hair salon brings about a girl, Keiko, who attaches herself to him and complicates things for old Yamashita.
Co-writer/director Shôhei Imamura (Black Rain/Kuroi Ame (1989)) was a veteran in Japanese cinema, when he made The Eel and triumphed with it by winning the Palme d'Or in Cannes, (actually co-winning it with Abbas Kiarostami's Taste of Cherry/Ta’m-e Gīlās....) As part of the new wave in Japanese cinema from the late 1950s onward, Imamura specialized in complex human stories with strong sexual components. He passed away in 2006 an old man, but his films live on, and The Eel is a testament to his large talent.
For me it was a story of man's delicate relationship with his fellow men, and how that relationship can easily be thwarted by disappointments into misanthropy, but how an outside interference can also again restore some sense of faith in mankind. That is a beautiful thing to say with a film, and also a truthful observation in my experience.
Imamura's style is interesting: There are never any sharp focuses, and often the camera is far away from its subjects. His shots are often long and intricate in terms of their blocking and action. The film has some innovative, striking images SPOILER like the murder scene sprayed in red and the scenes with Yamashita and his eel. (Cinematographer Shigeru Komatsubara (Warm Water Under a Red Bridge/Akai Hashi no Shita no Nurui Mizu (2001)).)
The Eel is full of strange characters and was culturally confusing for me at times, which only enhances its strangeness, a quality which I value high. It is both funny, human, romantic and beautiful, an excellent film for anyone who loves Japanese cinema, although it did not cause any considerable emotional impact on me.
It is co-written by Imamura, Motofumi Tomikawa (Fukumimi (2003)) and Daisuke Tengan (Audition/Ôdishon (1999)), loosely based on Akira Yoshimura's novel On Parole/Kari-Shakuhō (1988) while also incorporating elements of Imamura's film The Pornographers/Erogotoshi-tachi Yori: Jinruigaku Nyûmon (1966).
Related post:
1997 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Cost: Unknown
Box office: 5.1 mil. $
= Uncertainty (likely a flop)
[The Eel premiered 12 May (Cannes Film Festival, France) and runs 117 minutes. The film opened to a 29k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it grossed 418k $ (8.2 % of the total gross.) Its theatrical status is impossible to ascertain without knowing its budget, but it seems likely to be a flop. Besides winning the Palme d'Or in Cannes, the film was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Independent Spirit Award and 14 (!) Japanese Academy Awards, winning 3. Imamura returned with Dr. Akagi/Kanzô sensei (1998). The Eel is fresh at 81 % with a 7.1/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of The Eel?
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