The Eel (film)
| Unagi | |
|---|---|
Shohei Imamura | |
| Written by | Shohei Imamura, Daisuke Tengan, Motofumi Tomikawa, Akira Yoshimura |
| Produced by | Hiso Ino |
| Starring |
|
| Cinematography | Shin’ichirō Ikebe |
| Distributed by | Shochiku (Japan) Mongrel Media (North America) New Yorker Films (Eng-Subs) |
Release dates | 12 May 1997 (premiere at Cannes) 24 May 1997 (Japan) 21 August 1998 (U.S.) 20 November 1998 (UK) |
Running time | 117 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| Box office | $5,151,326[1] |
The Eel (うなぎ, Unagi) is a 1997 film directed by
Plot
In
Cast
- Kōji Yakusho– Takuro Yamashita
- Misa Shimizu – Keiko Hattori
- Mitsuko Baisho – Misako Nakajima
- Akira Emoto – Tamotsu Takasaki
- Fujio Tsuneta – Jiro Nakajima
- Show Aikawa – Yuji Nozawa
- Ken Kobayashi – Masaki Saito
- Sabu Kawahara – Seitaro Misato
- Etsuko Ichihara – Fumie Hattori
- Tomorowo Taguchi – Eiji Dojima
- Chiho Terada – Emiko Yamashita
Reception
Lawrence Van Gelder of The New York Times said that the film "swims with grace, insight and vast compassion", complimenting the "vivid" cast that allowed the director "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."[3] David Stratton of Variety described the film as "filled with colorful characters, and fluctuating alarmingly—but with surprising success—among several levels on the emotional spectrum", saying that the director "has created a rich tapestry of characters and situations, all of it vividly brought to life with pristine visuals and a generous emotional warmth."[4] Describing its cinematography, Noah Cowan of Filmmaker said that the film "is shot in sunny, saturated colors, lending it the air of a filmmaker content with his achievements in the sunset of his career."[5]
Film critic Tadao Sato stated that in light of a lack of attention regarding Japanese films in Japan itself at the time, the Japanese public had a lack of awareness about the film, and in regards to positive foreign reception of The Eel, "It was gratifying, then, that 'Unagi' should receive international recognition at a time when Japanese themselves were ignoring such films."[6]
References
- ^ "The Eel". JPBoxoffice. Retrieved March 04, 2012.
- ^ "Unagi - Festival de Cannes". Cannes Film Festival (in French). Archived from the original on October 16, 2023. Retrieved October 16, 2023.
- ^ Van Gelder, Lawrence. "The Eel (1997)". The New York Times. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
- ^ Stratton, David (19 May 1997). "Review: 'The Eel'". Variety. Retrieved 27 September 2015.
- ^ Cowan, Noah. "Festival Roundup". Filmmaker (Summer 1997).
- ^ Nishimura, Kunio (October 1997). "THE REDISCOVERED WORLD OF JAPANESE CINEMA". Look Japan. Archived from the original on 2002-06-12. Retrieved 2019-05-01.
External links
- The Eel at IMDb
- The Eel at the Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese)
