The Eel

The Eel

  • Director: Shohei Imamura
  • Writer: Shohei Imamura,Daisuke Tengan,Motofumi Tomikawa
  • Countries of origin: Japan
  • Language: Japanese
  • Release date: August 21, 1998
  • Sound mix: Mono
  • Also known as: 鰻魚
  • "うなぎ" is a 117-minute drama film released by Japan Shochiku Cinema. The film is directed by Imamura Shōhei, starring Koji Yakusho ,しみずみさ, Akira Emoto , Mitsuko Baishô , Sho Aikawa, etc. It was released in Japan on May 24, 1997.
    The film is adapted from the novel "Shimmer in the Darkness" written by Akira Yoshimura. It tells the mental journey of Takuro Yamashita, who discovered that his wife had committed adultery and stabbed his wife to death in rage after he was released from prison   .

    Details

    • Release date August 21, 1998
    • Filming locations Sawara, Chiba, Japan
    • Production companies Eisei Gekijo, Groove Corporation, Imamura Productions

    Box office

    Gross US & Canada

    $418,480

    Opening weekend US & Canada

    $29,879

    Gross worldwide

    $418,480

    Movie reviews

     ( 49 ) Add reviews

    • By Lonzo 2022-04-22 07:01:49

      real reality doesn't make sense

      After watching a two-hour movie, I saw the faces of the male and female protagonists a handful of times, and other times they were telling stories in the range of medium shots to large panoramas. Moreover, even in close-up, the actor's expression is very restrained, and it is no different from watching the scenery. This sense of distance, this kind of viewing experience, is really not used to it.

      With natural light and live sound, the film is realistic in both subject matter and...

    • By Trudie 2022-04-22 07:01:49

      eel

      Watching "The Eel", I don't know whether to laugh or cry, a tragicomedy, I can only say this, after the male protagonist Yamashita killed his wife, he whistled to the police station and surrendered. Can't laugh or cry. Eight years later, Yamashita was released on parole, opened a barber shop, and rescued Guizi who committed suicide by taking sleeping pills. Guizi helped in the barber shop out of gratitude. From then on, the movie entered the theme, and I, the audience, were forgetting that...

    • By Presley 2022-04-22 07:01:49

      Let's grill the eel


           The movie's promotional poster is a woman's warm smiling face, which is warm enough, but as Zhang Yuan said: "The world is cruel, and the movie is happy." The film "Eel" tells cruelty in peace.
       
           If you read the beginning of "The Eel", you will understand what a mask is and what a hypocrisy is. The wife is preparing the lunch box for her husband when fishing, how tender, how good the love is, OK, you can stop, and then look at her "heart and drip" animal adultery,...

    • By Irma 2022-04-22 07:01:49

      ten years in between

      That year, I was the first year of junior high school, and you were senior year. You study civil engineering at Urban Construction for two reasons. First, you can directly arrange a job after graduation; second, you are very good at drawing. I still remember one summer when I went to your house for summer vacation, you would take a ladder every evening and climb to the roof of your bungalow to study. I went down the ladder to find you, and sat next to you to watch the train in the...

    • By Octavia 2022-04-21 09:03:18

      Eel - a ridiculous and gritty survival

      The distortion and absurdity of human nature are, to a certain extent, just like the smooth snake-shaped body of an eel, crouching and waiting for an opportunity.
      Does that letter really exist? Or is it your own fantasy?
      Betrayed by his wife, he has long trusted others. He talks to the eel to comfort the loneliness.
      The long fish tank, under the dim light, glowed with ghostly blue light. He stared straight at the eel, and gradually, he burrowed into the water, turned into a...

    User comments

      ( 86 ) Add comments

    • By Leopold 2023-09-29 05:26:27

      A river full of iris blooms in the countryside of Chiba. A graceful eel. Schizophrenia...

    • By Dell 2023-09-29 01:15:21

      I've finished watching the film and haven't found the red socks... Then I had to ask the people from the raw materials for the answer → [Kitamura, Tama Central Office の police officer, A service]. A passer-by who doesn't even have a line... 嘤夘嘤... The plot is very in line with the bitter face of Koji Koji of the Kouyakusho....

    • By Tamara 2023-09-23 00:54:38

      Criticism and metaphor for the state of Japan's bubble society are indispensable; the director's brushstrokes have become gentle in his later...

    • By Marianna 2023-09-10 08:36:53

      7.7 When such a beginning appears, the expectations for the follow-up plot of the movie will naturally be greatly increased, as if all the great possibilities of the movie will be presented, but it seems that if there is light, there will be no surprise and shock brought by Peach Blossom Spring, but it is deliberate and...

    • By Jamir 2023-08-17 16:58:43

      The style is obvious, and the cruel world of adults is still the animal paradise of Imamura Shohei. After the official opening of the story, several scenes in the decoration of the barber shop are familiar. Maybe I saw the beginning when I was in class, but I couldn't finish it when I was in school. It must be the result of being unable to study at that age. The ending is sunny and...

    Movie plot

    In the summer of 1988, Takuro Yamashita, an ordinary employee, received an anonymous letter exposing his wife's affair. After witnessing the cheating scene, he stabbed his wife to death in anger and went to jail. Eight years later, Takuro was released on parole and opened a small barber shop by the Tone River in Chiba Prefecture. The experience of the year made Yamashita no longer trust others, and deliberately avoided communication...
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    Evaluation action

    People will always be reminded of the need to improve their communication skills at some point in their lives. In the extraordinary happy world created by director Imamura Shōhei, the two protagonists have had a bleak and bleak encounter. The real enjoyment of this movie is to see how they slowly unload their psychological layers of defense   . (Comment by "South China Morning Post")
    "うなぎ" fully interprets the theme of "the lower part...
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    Movie quotes

    • Jiro Nakajima: Is it bad to have such rumors about a guy on parole?

    • Takuro Yamashita: An eel's all a man needs.