Imamura’s film is an exuberant, eccentric fairy tale.
Yamashita kills his wife in a fit of jealous passion and then adopts an eel
whilst in prison as an ersatz substitute. His passions have rendered him
incapable of having real relationships with humans. An eel is safer.
The film then gradually traces the return of his humanity.
He finds a sleeping princess, Keiko, (she’s actually taken an overdose) who he
rescues. She falls for him and comes to work in his barber’s shop. Gradually
Keiko helps him overcome his sense of alienation and when her own problems come
back to haunt her, Yamashita finally begins to face up to his true feelings.
As the plot outlines, this is an ultimately sentimental
tale, even its starting point is an act of murder. At times it feels as though
the director runs the risk of being overly whimsical, with the secondary
characters who help to make up Yamashita’s world all having their particular
eccentricities (creating a UFO landing ground or displaying a passion for
flamenco). Sometimes these feel like gimmicks, in contrast to Yamashita’s more
nuanced relationship with his eel. In another way it could be said that they
give the film something of the feel of a US indie movie: there’s a hint of
Imamura’s idiosyncrasy in the work of Wes Anderson, for example.
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