General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

The Eel (うなぎ)

The Eel (うなぎ, Unagi) is a 1997 Japanese drama directed by Shōhei Imamura, adapted from a short story by Akira Yoshimura, about a paroled murderer who opens a barber shop and confides only in the pet eel he kept in prison¹^•². It shared the Palme d'Or at the 50th Cannes Film Festival with Abbas Kiarostami's Taste of Cherry, giving Imamura his second Palme after The Ballad of Narayama (1983)³^•⁴.

Key fact	Detail
Director / screenwriters	Shōhei Imamura; screenplay by Imamura, Motofumi Tomikawa, and Daisuke Tengan, from Akira Yoshimura's short story²^•¹
Japanese release	May 24, 1997; 117 minutes; distributed by Shochiku = Shochiku Fuji²
Principal cast	Kōji Yakusho (Takuro Yamashita), Misa Shimizu (Keiko Hattori), Akira Emoto, Fujio Tsuneta, Mitsuko Baishō⁵^•²
Cannes 1997	Palme d'Or, shared ex aequo with Kiarostami's Taste of Cherry; jury president Isabelle Adjani³
Japanese critical honor	Ranked first in Kinema Junpo's Best Ten for 1997²
US reception	Distributed by New Yorker Films; grossed $413.8K; 83% on the Tomatometer (24 fresh, 5 rotten of 29 reviews)⁵

Spoilers

Plot

In the summer of 1988, salaryman Takuro Yamashita receives an anonymous letter informing him of his wife's infidelity; in a jealous rage he kills her and gives himself up to the police²^•⁶. He spends eight years in prison, where he keeps an eel as his confidant⁶. Released on parole and placed under the responsibility of a Buddhist priest, Jiro Nakajima, he opens a small hairdressing salon in an industrial zone outside Tokyo and avoids contact with nearly everyone except the eel⁶^•⁷.

While cycling, Takuro rescues a young woman, Keiko Hattori, from a suicide attempt, and she comes to work at his shop⁵. A mutual attraction grows, but Takuro's enduring guilt over his wife's murder obstructs the relationship⁵. When a fellow prisoner, Takasaki, threatens to reveal the truth, Takuro confesses to Keiko that he murdered his wife; she does not take offense, and he introduces her to his mother⁶. The Japanese synopsis adds that after Takuro is returned to prison over trouble with a man named Dojima, his exchanges with the people around him restore his humanity, and he resolves to accept Keiko and her unborn child and go on living².

Production and source

The film was Imamura's first feature in eight years, following Black Rain (1989)⁸. The screenplay adapts Akira Yoshimura's short story Yami ni Hirameku (闇にひらめく), credited to Motofumi Tomikawa, Daisuke Tengan (also known as the director of Trap), and Imamura himself². Shigeru Komatsubara served as cinematographer, Hajime Okayasu as editor, and Shinichirō Ikebe composed the music²^•⁶. Production companies included Imamura Productions, KSS, Eisei Gekijo, and Groove Corp⁶.

The eel continues a motif in Imamura's work: the carp in The Pornographers (1966) similarly served as a reincarnation figure and a reminder of an older order in which humans were no higher than the beasts around them⁸. Critics also noted the film's old-fashioned technique, including voice-overs, flashbacks, and double exposures, which made it look out of place in the 1990s⁸.

Cannes and reception

At the 50th Cannes Film Festival in May 1997, the jury awarded the Palme d'Or jointly to The Eel and to Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami's Taste of Cherry, a surprise decision announced by jury president Isabelle Adjani; the festival also gave a special 50th anniversary prize to Egypt's Youssef Chahine³. Most critics at the festival had seen no outright favorite for the top prize³. The 70-year-old Imamura, too tired to attend the ceremony, had learned of the award after returning to Japan⁹^•¹⁰.

Reactions among critics were divided. The Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan, who covered the festival, wrote that the film tells its story of a man attempting a new life after prison "with the delicacy and skill of a master director"⁹. Others were cooler: the Irish Times reported Western critics' dismissiveness toward both shared winners, and one festival reviewer called the film deeply disappointing despite its advance press¹¹^•¹². In Japan the film placed first in Kinema Junpo's 1997 Best Ten².

In the United States, New Yorker Films released the film to a gross of $413.8K, and it holds an 83% Tomatometer score from 29 reviews with an 81% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes⁵. A retrospective ranking of Palme d'Or winners by Tomatometer places it at number 58¹³.

Place in Imamura's career

The award made Imamura one of the few directors with two Palmes d'Or, following The Ballad of Narayama in 1983⁴. His career, which began with Stolen Desire in 1958 and ran through Pigs and Battleships (1961), The Insect Woman (1963), The Pornographers (1966), Vengeance Is Mine (1979), and Black Rain (1989), returned repeatedly to murderers and humanity's brutish nature, and The Eel has been described as a poetical fable about a man's reconciliation with his past¹⁴^•⁸^•⁶.

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1990s › Drama films late 1990s › Released 1995 to 1998

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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