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movie review - The Eel

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

This is an odd Japanese film about a fellow who returns early from a midnight fishing trip on a tip from an anonymous letter to find his wife in bed with another man. He stabs the man, kills the wife, and spends the next eight years in prison. This all happens as the opening credits are still playing.

The flick picks up with his release from prison, and his attempted rehabilitation as a barber. He meets a woman on the run from a terrible marriage by finding her where's she collapsed after a suicide attempt. Things progress slowly toward a finale that involves her gangster husband, the local oddballs that the ex-con has befriended during his time as a barber, and a fellow ex-con who shames the barber at every opportunity.

It's capably made, but advise caution in renting it.

Recommended.