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“Imamura's masterpiece . . . perhaps [his] greatest” (Katherine Monk, Vancouver Sun ). Winner of the Palme d'Or - the second time Imamura took the top prize at Cannes - THE EEL starts like a reprise of VENGEANCE IS MINE as Takuro, a mild mannered white collar worker who spends his evenings fishing, suddenly commits a violent crime of passion. Eight years later, he is released on parole with his pet eel, and the film takes off in an entirely different direction - literally and figuratively. Starting over as a barber in a remote seaside shop, Takuro saves the life of a suicidal woman who looks a lot like his dead wife, and is slowly drawn out of his isolation into community and communion. This being Imamura, however, THE EEL is no allegory of personal redemption. Conventional notions of “healing” are of little interest to the iconoclastic director, and he fills the second half of the film with all manner of strangeness, black comedy, and eccentric characters. “The most interesting new movie around: funny, lyrical, provocative, imaginative, and consistently entertaining” (Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader ).
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