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The Eel Actors: Kôji Yakusho, Misa Shimizu Director: Shohei Imamura Number of Items: 1 Picture Format: Pan & Scan Format: Color, Widescreen Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Running Time: 117 minutes Studio: New Yorker Films Region Code: 1 Product Group: DVD Release Date: 2001-08-28 Buy from Amazon |
 "A film with a rare kind of integrity."Shohei Imamura returns in fine form with "Unagi" (Japanese word for 'eel'). There are certainly noir-ish themes explored in this film. There's a protagonist in a lonely, secluded state of existence who must face life with staunch stoicism, there are shots where exaggerated emphasis on color depicts the emotional content of the scene/character, dream/surreal sequences, a crime from which everything unfurls, etc... However, to view the film only as an homage to certain noir films is a grave disservice to Imamura's originality and craftsmanship. The characters and storyline are rendered without a trace of sentimentality, which is a feat given that the familiar story matter invites kitsch: a man catches and kills his adulterous wife, receives parole and begins a new life. It just makes me shudder to think what kind of cornball Hollywood would have come up with, given the same subject matter. Koji Yakusho gives another fine performance as a confounded man who does not know the true nature of his crime, who nonetheless craves a new beginning, no matter how uncomfortable he is with all the things in the world. The male and female protagonists are fantastically flawed people, and that's the way most people (us) are, aren't we? There should be more films like this: portraying the worst and redeeming qualities of people with unflinching honesty. Imamura's honesty pays off handsomely when there seems to be a hint of redemption for these fallen people. It is genuinely moving, and the redemption is a believable one, the kind that all of us wish for ourselves when we are down on our knees. All the emotions - sexuality, voyeuristic tendencies, inferiority complex, fear, etc- are so accurately conveyed and palpably summoned up that you begin to muse about the shadows that lurk within yourself.  "IGNORE P. WU'S REVIEW"According to P. Wu, "The Eel" is a "male-dominant movie" because: 1. The guy gets only 8 years for murdering his wife. (Maybe that's the way it is in Japan. What's unrealistic about that???) 2. He was "mean" because he was "unsociable" and "mean" for rejecting the lunches that a woman made for him. Then P. Wu says, "All he had to do was dish out some kindness once in a while, and the girl was hooked. Men's fantansy if you ask me." What P. Wu FAILS to mention is that the reason the man murdered his wife is because she was cheating on him. Plus, the reason he is "unsociable" and "mean" to the woman who makes lunches for him is because SHE LOOKS LIKE HIS LATE WIFE WHO CHEATED ON HIM. I'm pretty sure if your spouse was cheating on you, you would behave in a "unsociable" and "mean or unpleasant" way to a woman who looked like your wife. And that goes for if the gender roles were reversed. I'm sure a woman would behave the same way to a nice guy if he looked like her unfaithful husband. P. Wu, if you're going to write a review--AT LEAST TELL THE WHOLE STORY. Not just what you want to manipulate the readers to think. Aside from all that, "The Eel" is an excellent movie on betrayal, redemption and forgiveness. In many ways it reminded me of "Crime and Punishment." I highly recommend it. Incidentally, "The Eel" co-won the Best Picture award at the Cannes Film Festival. I'm pretty sure the Grand Jury didn't find "The Eel" to be a sexist film that Pet8 would want you to think. "Misunderstood Movie"...The story the Eel resembles most closely is Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, a novel within which the main character is also riddled with guilt after committing a heinous crime, yet also eventually finds a form of redemption. In the Eel, the main character acts coldly towards the woman, yes, because she resembles his wife, but that is the cosmetic reason. The deeper and ultimate reason for his rebuffing her is that he feels tremendous guilt, feels unworthy of her attention. Not knowing how to communicate that to her, he resorts to the simplest measures: he pretends he's not interested in her. His true feelings are revealed when he lavishes her with care after she incurs a minor injury (ironically, a cut--he stabbed his wife to death). A knee-jerk reading of Crime and Punishment might also lead one to believe that Raskolnikov wasn't worthy of a woman's love. But it's not the point of either of these works to illuminate relationships between the genders; rather, it's to make a case for the right to redemption for all human beings. ... Robert Stribley  "A men's fantasy"If you don't mind a male-dominant movie, then this is a good movie. The guy gets only 8 years for murdering his wife. Then, during his parole, he was mean (by rejecting the lunchbox she made for me twice) and unsocialable but the girl still threw herself at him. All he had to do was dish out some kindness once in a while, and the girl was hooked. Men's fantansy if you ask me, but perhaps it reflects the Japanese way. If the roles of male and female were reversed, would the movie still work? I think not. Based on the VHS version. "excellent. go see it--"especially if you like human dramas. you won't be sorry. |
