The Eel

After serving time in prison for murdering his unfaithful wife, Yamashita (Koji Yakusho, Perfect Days, Cure) is released on parole, accompanied only by his pet eel. Hoping to stay out of trouble, he takes over a rural barber shop that quickly becomes a gathering point for the eccentric locals. However, the discovery of a woman’s failed suicide starts a chain reaction that brings back past demons - and not just his own. The Eel won master filmmaker Shohei Imamura his second Palme d’Or, after 1983’s The Ballad of Narayama and was the breakthrough of its star Yakusho.

LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY FEATURES

• High-Definition digital transfer

• Uncompressed mono PCM audio

• Contains both the Theatrical cut (117 mins.) and rarely seen Director's cut (134 mins.)

• Interview with critic Tony Rayns (2024)

• Interview with screenwriter Daisuke Tengan (2024)

• Visual essay by Tom Mes on the year 1997 as a turning point in Japanese cinema (2024)

• Trailer

• Newly improved English subtitle translation

• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow

• Limited edition booklet featuring a newly translated archival interview with Imamura
  

• Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

Add all our March releases (Hardboiled, The Eel, Je t'aime, je t'aime, and Rulers of the City) to cart to receive 10% off. Discount automatically applied at cart. Ends January 8th.

Year: 1997
Country: Japan
Cert: 18
Format: Blu-ray
Region: AB
RAD093BDLE
EAN: 5060974681785
Release date: 24/03/25

Press:

"Riveting, wrenching... [director Shohei Imamura] marshals a small cast of vivid characters that enable him not only to bare the passions that seethe beneath the orderly surface and apparent conformity of Japanese life but also to ponder emotions and issues that know no nationality” - Lawrence van Gelder, The New York Times