The Eel

The Eel (うなぎ, 1997) is Shohei Imamura's quietly devastating drama, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Mild office worker Takuro Yamashita gets an anonymous letter about his wife's affair, catches her with another man one night, and kills her — then walks into a police station without a word of defense.

Eight years in prison leave him with one companion: an eel he keeps in a tank and takes with him when he's paroled. Yamashita opens a tiny barbershop in a riverside town, dodges people, and saves his conversation for the fish. Then he meets Keiko, a woman he pulls out of her own crisis, and the locked-shut man slowly starts to thaw.

Imamura made a slow, strangely gentle film about guilt and whether a life can restart. The Eel shared the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1997 — the director's second. Koji Yakusho plays the lead almost wordlessly, and that restraint is the film's best trick. One for patient viewers who love contemplative Japanese cinema. Stream The Eel online on iFILM.