JapanNewbie

Japanese Movie: The Eel

Posted on 09. Oct, 2009 @ 12:49 am by harvey in Movies Views: 379

I watched The Eel by Shohei Imamura last night.

I had hadn’t heard of this film. A friend teaching Japanese at a nearby university told me about it, so I decided to check it out. I’m glad I did!

I heard through “the Internets” that this film was creepy, slow, and a bit psycho. Maybe I’ve just watched too many Japanese movies and become desensitized, but I did not find this slow at all. It is a little creepy, but in a good way. And it’s certainly not over the top psycho. I enjoyed this film a lot and would highly recommend it.

The Eel has just the right balance of intensity, drama, and one off humor to keep it interesting. The film stars Koji Yakusho of Shall We Dance, Tampopo, and Babel fame, and he’s great as always.

The next paragraph is a brief plot introduction. No major spoilers, but if you’re the kind of person who reads NOTHING before seeing a movie, maybe it would be better to skip this next paragraph.

SPOILER WARNING
…

The movie opens up with Mr. Yamashita being clued in by a mysterious letter that his wife has been cheating on him while he is away on his overnight fishing trips. He heads home early one night and catches his wife and her lover in the act. Violence ensues and he ends up killing his wife. Mr. Yamashita turns himself into the cops and does eight years in jail. The bulk of the movie starts when he gets out of jail and attempts to reintegrate himself into society.

Mr. Yamashita has a pet eel that he brings out from the prison. He likes to talk to it. Why does he talk to the eel?

「話を聞いてくれるんです。それによけいな事をしゃべりませんから。」
hanashi wo kiitekurerun desu. soreni yokei na koto wo shaberimasenkara.
“He listens to what I have to say. And he doesn’t say anything unnecessary.”

Indeed…

…
END OF SPOILERS

Okay you can start reading again.

Over the past year I have seen a lot of Japanese movies. Way more than I ever saw while I was actually in Japan. There are a few reasons for this. One, I’m trying to maintain my Japanese listening comprehension. Two, my school library has a ton of international films. And three (and four?), I like movies and I have a decent TV now, unlike when I was in Japan and didn’t watch much TV at home – it was too much fun exploring outside for that!

Good times.

Check out some of my other Movie posts:
Kurosawa: I Live in Fear
My Secret Cache
Maboroshi

There are even more than that, use the search to dig them up.

Hope some of you have a chance to see this one!

- Harvey