A rather unexciting public official, Yamashita, receives anonymous letters about his wife's adultery. Hence the name of the movie. Shohei Imamura described the main character's complication by using the character's delusion. If that is true, it could have driven him insane. To the institutionalised and alienated Yamashita, the eel serves as a way to avoid communicating with others. A woman he saves from suicide, Keiko, enters his life and tries to break down his barricades. The film is set in Japan, that most self-disciplined and compliant of countries, and it is the limits, and limitations, of conformity and control that are explored. Svensson is the most recent thinker to contend with what scientists call, I’m not kidding, the “Eel Question.” I was drawn to his book the way a child is … It's a great character study and the acting and direction are marvelous--with a few lapses here and there. One huge issue is that our main character starts the film with brutally murdering his wife, spends 8 years in prison, and then comes out with very little repercussion. What we have is a sorry collection of characters unable to think, act or express themselves - (shall I be guessing) oppressed by their culture? Well, it isn't so much the acting that's the problem, but the script. Takura Yamashita (Koji Yakusho) has served eight years in prison for murdering his wife and her lover in a jealous rage and attempts to rehabilitate himself by opening a barbershop in an isolated corner of Japan. He goes fishing but returns home early in time to catch her in medias res. Its a twisted tale of love and hate, that ends up a tale of individual past's and histories. In his case it's a fellow convict who has been put to work as the local garbage man (Emoto) and who threatens to spill the beans on Yamashita's past. So a reasonable start, but it turns into a slow lacklustre run-of-the-mill drama which descends into farce during a punch-up at the barber's shop. | And we never hear about the trial, the other man etc. When this film tried to dress itself as something deep things start to get worse. Truly Unpredictable, Bold, Inventive Film-making, A dostoevskijan history of acceptance of guilt and reintegration, excellent but could have easily been better, a typical Japanese film - shallow, melodramatic and pretentious, A good character study, but with some flaws. Which makes me wonder: did he imagine the adultery as well, and killed his wife only because of his frustrations with himself? Simple, yet effective, a very mature piece of work and pleasing overall. Finding her in the act one night he stabs her to death. Stay up to date with the latest and best in Japanese cinema. And this is where synchronicity starts: because all the form is just equally inept, unable, clumsy, luke warm, unwilling, closed-off, just as the world it portrays. Occasionally Creative Ultimately Disappointing. In a daze, he enters the bedroom with a knife in his hand and kills his wife. 'The Third Hotel' Will Get Under Your Skin Laura Van Den Berg's new novel follows a woman who runs into her ostensibly-dead husband at a Cuban film … User Ratings If the eel is still keen to leave something to the imagination, then perhaps this was an exposé best left for another day. Takuro Yamashita, played very effectively by Koji Yakusho, gets an anonymous letter telling him that his young, pretty wife is entertaining another man while he is out fishing at night, this after she lovingly prepares and packs his supper. Read 4 reviews from the world's largest community for readers. Thank you very much. I tried to spoil my girlfriend, who studies Japanese culture, with a film and it worked! The Eel book. Set in Suffolk in 1939, in the days before the onset of World War II, “The Dig” is based on a novel inspired by the true story of the excavation of one of the Sutton Hoo burial sites. Those turned off by the gruesome violence that begins Shohei Imamura's The Eel, winner of the 1997 Palme d'Or at Cannes, will miss out on a generally lighthearted tale of romance and loyalty. It was based on the 1946 novel Build My Gallows High by "Geoffrey Homes," a pseudonym for the blacklisted Daniel Mainwaring, and the screenplay credit goes to Mainwaring, reportedly with extra dialogue by James M. Cain. I would compare this to Talk to Her and Heaven. In a cold rage he knifes her to death. The film is loosely based on the novel On Parole by celebrated author Akira Yoshimura, combined with elements from the director's 1966 film The Pornographers. Eight years later he gets out of prison. Oh, and everyone will forgive you for it afterward, even if you don't show any remorse. I was shocked to see that reviews commented on the film being so warm and human. Behaviour is checked, emotions kept inward; yet when people look inward they find a seething that terrifies. Both are richly deserved, because this is a film that manages to be both poignant and funny. What didn't I like? All the technological aids that Hollywood would not omit, while creating even the cinema of the most influential themes and we are used to seeing, make us harder to watch the cinema in it's purest form. This film sounded quite interesting - man kills unfaithful wife, serves his time, feels alienated, prefers to avoid people. (I won't go into details on the crime, that's for you to find out) The way he does this is what makes this movie a great one in my book. The Eel is a picture of small virtues, and unusual for the usually corrosive, pessimist filmmaker, kindly and humanist. Businessman Yamashita (Yakusho) receives an anonymous letter, telling him that a strange man visits his wife whenever he's out on his nightly fishing trips. 'The Eel' proved how the director Shohei Imamura is good at describing life-sized characterization and mental state. Explaining this would ruin its effect, a sort of thing rarely experienced anymore in filmgoing. ... A Story of Children and Film review â Mark Cousins's 'spine-tingling' visual essay. ‘The Book of Eels’ Review: The Riddle of the Sargasso Sea A slippery mystery at the heart of American history, psychoanalysis, and something much closer to home. Not to mention insulting ethics that disturb even a sworn anti-feminist. But the men of the small, desolate town soon start frequenting his shop, mostly because they have nothing better to do, and a circle of quirky friends quickly forms around the shy, reluctant barber. The Eel tells a story about a Japanese man who copes with his guilt after committing a crime. That leaves a slight sensation of unachievement. More film reviews Re-Agitator: A Decade of Writing on Takashi Miike, Behind the Pink Curtain - The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema, Iron Man - The Cinema of Shinya Tsukamoto, The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film. So, I will leave you to take my word for it. A few parts are unforgettable, and more than a few are quite forgettable. Yamashita sets up a barbershop in a small seaside community. SXSW 2021--Day One 10 Films To See At The 2021 SXSW Film Festival Films I Neglected To Review: Fonda Sings! The film begins in the summer of 1988. His behaviour and actions are irrational and erratic, and whenever he pops up, trouble is never far off. Koji Yakusho is one of the most underrated actors in the history of film. It has also a well thought out plot development. Reviews in chronological order (Total 0 reviews) ... A Story of Children and Film review â Mark Cousins's 'spine-tingling' visual essay. The acting is solid, the night scenes are lovely, and the day scenes are as … From Reviewer Paul Tatara (CNN) -- Shohei Imamura's "The Eel" won the Palme D'Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, which is considered by many people to be a top-level seal of approval. Boosted by the award, The Eel received widespread distribution and critical acclaim. | This film is about the life of a man who served 8 years in prison for murdering his wife. The many strands to these themes are woven together in a complex pattern that defies complete analysis. Performances are terrific all around, with Yakusho as the stand-out center point. The Eel (Unagi) This week's films. The murder is over and done with quickly. There are hallucinations. Indeed he finds his wife in bed with a stranger, enjoying herself with an abandon Yamashita has never experienced. Imamura composed The Eel with an artist's eye and takes his time, so don't expect a fast-paced American-style film. And this transformation of pleasure from the pure form to the polluted is not necessarily a change for the better. Sean, whose father in the first film (Brendan Fraser) has disappeared (from the cast, anyway), now has to deal with Hank (Dwayne Johnson, aka the Rock).Hank is his new stepdad. You won't regret seeing it; you won't be E-mailing myriad acquaintances about a transformational film experience. First it was hard to keep concentrated, then came the resistance to the unusual, finally it was over. What is amazing about what The Eel does is how it really enlightens the audience when it comes to the judgment and expectations of characters. Which made me sympathetic and devoted to the character. And, the usage of psychological and fantastic images strongly helped to express the human mind. He's not too eager to embrace it, but since both are carrying the weight of a dark past, a bond inevitably forms which grows stronger when both their pasts come back to haunt them. I actually enjoyed the film a lot. Maybe it's not one of the most articulated films, but there was liveliness in it,and i think that's the reason the eel got cannes. I have seen works (masterpieces for most) of Kurosawa. I thought it didn't do justice to a story that had a much greater potential. FAQ Yamashita took from prison only the clothes on his back and the eel that he raised in the penitentiary's pond. Complex film with interesting character parallels and contrasts. While the film lacked the vitriol of his best work of the 1960s, it's not hard to see how its combination of the quirky and absurd on the one hand and the dramatic on the other charmed international audiences. The consequences of the instantaneous loss of control molds this story in the way such life happenstances unfold - slowly - and Imamura knows how to take us with him in this strange tale, pausing here and there for the surreal, dreamlike sequences that can and do alter our perceptions of reality. I was slightly disappointed with this Cannes winner, which has many good elements, but not a thoroughly convincing total. He never seems remorseful or anything, it's like the film has no sympathy whatsoever for the wife character it mangles at the beginning. And where people can have a chance to get redemption,,. Contemporary japanese cinema may not be suffering from financial difficulties, the decision to make a movie like "The Eel" is probably depending on raising or even erecting the cinema on its essential natural elements, rather than corrupt, artificial ones. Well balanced movie wandering from dark existentialistic to warm light-hearted situations and back. Unfortunately, content, if we mean intriguing story, never made it in. Guilt and Redemption are the pervasive themes of this quirky, disturbing, very fine film from Shohei Imamura. After pondering for a long time, he sets out for the seaside one night with the intention of returning early and finding out the truth. It seems that if he does connect to someone on a deeper level, he's afraid he might kill again--though he is clearly a decent person who snapped one time in his life and only after being pushed. In the majority of movies I am most attached to the relations between characters and the evolution of this process. But turn it up louder and pay attention and you'll hear all kinds of interesting things. This is where our story begins. Unagi (the Eal) tells a story of man who commits a 'crime passionelle' by murdering his wife. Films I Neglected To Review: !!!!! Another issue with coming to film in 2019 is that there is a LOT of films that have done the small town, girl mysteriously appears and shakes up his life and has a badguy ex-boyfriend story (Ondine, The last Life in the Universe, etc...) so if you've seen a lot of these it feels pretty wrote. There is a suggestion that the main character is insane. Without these and without the LARGE amounts of blood in the murder scene, this would have gotten a rating of 9 or even 10. Master filmmaker Shohei Imamura won his second Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival with this oddball tale about a man and his pet eel. It really makes the audience interact. In may seem a little odd to start comparing legendary Japanese filmmaker Imamura Shôhei to perennially cheerful Blues Brothers and American Werewolf director John Landis, but there's a sequence about ten minutes into Imamura's Palme D'Or winning 1997 Unagi [The Eel] that can't help but recall a similar one from Landis's undervalued 1985 … Shame to the west, whose taste is ignorant to all above, unbearably fake ingredients, cheesy pathos of music - final signature of the Imamura's baton. You really want them to get together,...the problem is, he is SO afraid to open up to people that he distances himself from her and chooses to confide more in his pet eel. I bought this film as a big fan of Koji Yakusho who made several great movies in this same time period (Shall We Dance, Cure, Charisma, Kamikaze Taxi, etc) and ultimately found it disappointing. He imagined it. The Eel (Unagi) Details: 1997, Japan, Rest of the world, Cert 18, 117 mins. They tend to muddle the basic message and confuse the plot. He opens a barber shop on a desolate river shore and tries to mind his own business, interacting only reluctantly with the locals. A UK region 2 DVD review of THE EEL / UNAGI by Slarek. The situation changes when, on instigation of the priest, a girl starts assisting him in his shop. . All the life philosophies preached by it via 'the reel' is nothing more than mere commonsense, and far-stretching to the theme story, to say the least. | I can understand why he has not chosen a technologically more complicated making of cinema. A few days later, Keiko is assisting him in his barbershop and the possibility of something resembling a normal life is opening up to him. It’s an insightful study about a man trying to find himself after spending the last eight years in prison. Films I Neglected To Review: That's What They Want You To Think. 8/10 ************SPOILER!!!! That is visible here as well. In her case, freeloading boyfriend Dojima (Taguchi) is back with several cronies, a lawyer, and a demand for money. Might simply be the difference between "five different movies, I like all of them" … This act may put Yamashita right in the cosmic scheme of things - he took a life and saved one - but as far as Yamashita is concerned, things are slightly more complicated. Drama with humor and a little sex and violence. I do love the occasional bursts of creativity though mostly revolving around talking to the Eel like jumping into the eel tank and swimming around and the weird touches like the guy who's into UFOs, the small town characters remind me of Charisma, go watch that instead. The Eel wouldn't be Imamura's last film to compete in Cannes, as it was followed by Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (Akai Hashi no Shita no Nurui Mizu) in 2001. More film reviews Credits to the master whose work in its success leaves me nauseated. In film, that is where real magic starts and there is no master of medium that hasn't mastered this essence. The man's murder, suicidal heroine and her mad mother, a guy who is obsessed with UFO, which seems unexplainable and their lives are narrated in a messiest possible way. Watch The Eel movie trailers, exclusive videos, interviews from the cast, movie clips and more at TVGuide.com. I wish I could regard it as a little more than your 'routine' foreign prize-grabbing movie but after such emotional knock-outs as "Underground" and "Secrets & Lies", I was perplexed. This was a very engaging film about a guy who murders his cheating wife and then is released from prison 8 years later. He bicycles to the police station and turns himself in. Inevitable his dilemma's come back... Shohei Imamura had already won the Golden Palm for his remake of "The Ballad of Nayarama" when he won again for "The Eel" a decade later. You have to endure it to see what I mean. Films I Neglected To Review: "They Watch. Boosted by the award, The Eel received widespread distribution and critical acclaim. The Eel's high concept premise is beyond fascinating – a powerful story about forgiveness in the face of grave sin and whether or not these characters are worthy or deserve love again. Adapted by the director from "Sparkles in the Darkness," a novel by Akira Yoshimura, "The Eel" swims with grace, insight and vast compassion along the ineradicable fault line that separates flawed mankind from the elusive realization of heavenly perfection. Awards .But They Don't Understand." Though this film exhibits Imamura's trademark fascination with the messy underside of humanity, where barely repressed sexual and violent urges threaten to bubble to the surface, Unagi is a quieter, more reflective work compared to the ribald absurdity of such earlier … Not a watcher. His wife's sensuality, as well as Keiko's, is deeply contrasted with Yamashita's lack of warmth and inability to connect. | This lyrical film shared with “Taste of Cherry” the Palme d’Or for 1997. While out fishing one day, Yamashita saves the life of Keiko (Shimizu), a woman attempting to commit suicide after a disastrous relationship with a scheming boyfriend who used her to get to her mother's money. It's difficult to find movies that actually redirect your thinking and stimulate you and make you suffer in that great, fulfilling way. The Eel probes meticulously and sneakily the strange progression of a person. Keiko's behavior is also a little obscure at times. Be the first to hear about our new reviews, exclusive interviews and features. You really find yourself rooting for him--especially when he meets and saves the life of a lady. Both are richly deserved, because this is a film that manages to be both poignant and funny. Once outside the prison he tries to build up a barber shop and get his life back on track. I think this film is not for analysis or for coming to conclusion, the director wants to show a utopia where misfits can be forgiven and find a harmony with the world, where a human communicates with an eel. Yet 'The Eel' is well-paced and is easy to watch and enjoy. The last Eel Zoom presentation on May 28 will feature retired Six Rivers National Forest archaeologist Thomas Keter, who will talk about the little-known North Fork Eel River. Some parts are terrible and stupid, but many are fascinating. The most obvious example is the eel, who in a parallel to Yamashita lives a lonesome sheltered life in his tank, without the need or the will to communicate with the outside world (the metaphor is somewhat redundantly explained in the final moments of the film). The farcical climax falls flat - what I like best are the calm scenes around the barber shop and by the river where the story comes to a halt. The Host), but in those cases it feels as if the film is continually, creatively expanding its range, whereas The Eel seems to keep feinting at ideas and then lazily retreating. Imamura gives us some interesting casting choices, particularly in selecting Sho Aikawa, better known for his appearances in countless straight-to-video yakuza movies, to play one of Yamashita's newly-found friends. Rather more interestingly executed is the character of local garbage man and fellow convict Tamasaki, who serves as the personification of Yamashita's insecurities and self-doubt. 1997 was the breakthrough year for the former stage actor, who appeared in a string of commercial, critical, or controversial successes, including Masayuki Suo's Shall We Dance?, Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Cure and Yoshimitsu Morita's Lost Paradise (Shitsurakuen). So begins "The Eel," the riveting, wrenching film by Shohei Imamura that won the Palme d'Or at the 1997 Cannes International Film Festival. Repeatedly, flashbacks and psychotic-like hallucinations occur. But... it hints at directions that are never fully explored. Eels (often typeset as eels or EELS) is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1991 by singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mark Oliver Everett, known by the stage name E.Band members have changed across the years, both in the studio and on stage, making Everett the only official member for most of the band's work. A many-stranded film of contrasts and great beauty, Exploring the Inner Turmoil of the Outwardly Placid Mind, Doesn't come together as a satisfying whole. Not only does he turn himself in after the crime (with a great way of response by the police) he even makes a friend out of an eel in prison. The Invisible Eel (1997) by Shohei Imamura. It shared the Palme d'Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival with Taste of Cherry. Under supervision of a local priest he tries to live a peaceful peasant-life in a place where nobody knows about his past; he becomes a barber, the eal is his friend ('they never say things you don't like..'). A businessman kills his adulterous wife and is sent to prison. This film deals with the theme of faith, its loss, its recovery. Movies are my only form of spending time when I am not at work. The Book of Eels not only fails to deliver one, but sadly proves itself to be a pseudo-philosophical work that poses more questions than it answers. THE EEL borders on dark humour when a man, who after eight years in prison for the murder of his wife, is released from jail. Occasional voice-overs provide glimpses into Yamashita's psyche, but Imamura's method of detailing the inner life of his protagonist is done in a rather more indirect fashion, making extensive use of symbolism. This movie has got to be seen by anyone. **************** At some point Yamashita realises with a shock that perhaps there was no letter about his wife's adultery. It does however prove to be a turning point. The Eel wouldn't be Imamura's last film to compete in Cannes, as it was followed by Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (Akai Hashi no Shita no Nurui Mizu) in 2001. His tormentor claims that he was unable to fulfill his marital obligations. I might have given it a higher rating had the film admitted its own hollowness. His past, however, catches up with him in Shohei Imamura's The Eel, co-winner of the 1997 Cannes Palme D'or with Kiarostami's A Taste of Cherry. Several hours later he walks into the police station, covered in her blood, and turns himself in. Yet 'The Eel' is well-paced and is easy to watch and enjoy. The main character's suspicion, madness, kindness and love, are closely related to what we have inside. Imamura has made 20 features in his 40-year film career. Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 Palo Alto Weekly Film noir is known for its wise-guy dialogue, but the screenplay for "Out of the Past" reads like an anthology of one-liners. 'The Eel' is a unique human drama. His most prized possession is his pet eel. 8 years later he is trying to begin a new life, with his prison pal, an eel, as company. As in real life, his behavior is our only lead. Although keeping to himself, he is befriended by an eel fisherman, a UFO lover, and several others. Synchronicity of form with the content has been an undeniable goal of art since it's conception. Pointless conflict aside, The Eel is a thoughtful film, oddly touching despite its quirks. There are many levels of interpretation to this fable and to explore each of them would rob the first-time viewer of this little film of the pleasure of the chess game Imamura sets for us. Based on a novel by Akira Yoshimura and scripted by Imamura and his son Daisuke Tengan (also screenwiter of Takashi Miike's Audition) The Eel won its director his second Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, after The Ballad of Narayama in 1983. I hated and liked it from time to time, and wanted to fast-forward, but I couldn't. The Eel does something so imaginative and effective in the way it tells its story. Metacritic Reviews. It has strong images, as usual in Imamura's films. The two Eels songs sound like they could have been b-sides from either Electro-shock Blues or Daisies of the Galaxy, while the rest of the songs sound like very unobtrusive, very moody movie music. The Eel is a 1997 film directed by Shohei Imamura and starring Kōji Yakusho, Misa Shimizu, Mitsuko Baisho, and Akira Emoto. Read more: Eels on new album ‘Earth To Dora’: “Dark phases happen, but they will get better” This, after all, is a man who knows a thing or two about emerging from darker days. The protagonist commits a terrible crime but turns out to be a likable guy. External Reviews Based on the Akira Yoshimura's novel Sparkles in the Darkness, The Eel is either an absurdist comedy, a drama about redemption, a surreal poem about states of consciousness, a thriller about jealousy and revenge, or all of the above. I have had a hard time finishing this movie. There are many funny and touching scenes, as when Keiko tries stubbornly to provide Yamashita with a lunch bag against his will, and the many nightly fishing trips, where our hero releases the fish as soon as they are caught, are also unforgettable. The Eel As slippery and succulent as the fish that provides its symbolic core, Shohei Imamura's first film since "Black Rain" eight years ago is a … It opens with an incredibly gruesome murder scene, then goes on to imply that it's really not so bad to kill someone, as long as you "have a reason". Frail of health, the aging Imamura preferred to stay in Japan, leaving ceremonial duties to lead actor Koji Yakusho. When he leaves prison the guards bring him 'his' eal. The lives of misunderstood,isolated finds the peace with themselves in a remote country side, reminded me of Mediterriano a bit. It also won the 1998 Kinema Junpo … I HATED this movie. 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