The Eel
by Shohei Imamura
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Akira Emoto, Fujio Tsuneta, K?ji Yakusho, Misa Shimizu, Mitsuko BaishoDirector: Shohei Imamura
Writer: Shohei Imamura
Producer: Hiso Ino
Producer: Kazuyoshi Okuyama
Producer: Yasushi Matsuda
Writer: Akira Yoshimura
Writer: Daisuke Tengan
Writer: Motofumi Tomikawa
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Japanese (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0; English (Subtitled)
Format: Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Running Time: 117 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2001-08-28
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: New Yorker Video
Movie Reviews of The Eel
Movie Review: Morality slippery as an eel
Summary: 3 Stars
Esteemed Japanese actor K?ji Yakusho ("Shall We Dance?") stars in "The Eel." Yakusho is a happily married business who suddenly begins receiving letters indicating that his wife is having an affair while he is away on fishing trips. So Yakusho returns home early from one of these fishing trips, catches his wife in the act, and brutally stabs her to death. After serving 8 years in prison, Yakusho attempts to rebuild his life as a barber in a small town with only his pet eel that he acquired in prison as a companion. He explains that he trusts the eel, as it cannot betray him. When he stumbles across a woman trying to kill herself, his suspiciousness gets the better of him; however, he eventually helps her and, in the process, changes his life.
I had heard great things about "The Eel" and knew that it had received the Palm d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. I was expecting a film reflective perhaps even existential in tone befitting its allegorical approach. "The Eel," though, is much lighter, verging on romantic comedy at times; some scenes toward the end even border on slapstick. I found the tone confusing and somewhat inappropriate for the subject matter. To its credit, "The Eel" attempts to address some big issues - betrayal, redemption, guilt - and it does so in an ambiguous way that could have really illustrated the slippery nature of morality. Unfortunately, the script came across as pretty shallow and unreflective to me, which prevented it from saying anything new.
In the end, I'm not sure whether the main character has earned redemption. Perhaps that was the filmmaker's intention, and not all protagonists have to earn redemption to make a movie worthwhile, but I found it unsatisfying. Finally, the music score was one of the most intrusive I've encountered in recent years and undercut the movie's themes. I was hoping for a movie that shed some new light on guilt and redemption, but I was pretty disappointed.
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