Shohei Imamura's - The Eel - Unagi - DVD Review Shohei Imamura The Eel Unagi DVD Review Shohei Imamura The Eel Unagi DVD Review Shohei Imamura The Eel Unagi DVD Review Shohei Imamura The Eel Unagi DVD Review Shohei Imamura The Eel Unagi DVD Review Shohei Imamura The Eel Unagi DVD Review Shohei Imamura The Eel Unagi DVD Review Shohei Imamura The Eel Unagi DVD Review Shohei Imamura The Eel Unagi DVD Review Shohei Imamura The Eel Unagi DVD Review Shohei Imamura The Eel Unagi DVD Review

Firstly, a massive thank you to our Patreon supporters. These supporters have become the single biggest contributing factor to the survival of DVDBeaver. Your assistance is essential to our survival.

What do Patrons receive, that you don't?

1) Our weekly Newsletter and Calendar Updates sent to your Inbox!
2) Access to over 100,000 unpublished screen captures in lossless high-resolution format!

Please consider keeping us in existence with a couple of dollars or more each month (your pocket change! / a coffee!) so we can continue to do our best in giving you timely, thorough reviews, calendar updates and detailed comparisons. I am indebted to your generosity.

Search DVDBeaver

S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

The Eel

by Shohei Imamura
Japanese - 1997

The 2025 Radiance Blu-ray of The Eel is compared / reviewed HERE

"The Eel involves the story of a white collar worker, Takuro Yamashita , paroled eight years after murdering his unfaithful wife in a blind rage. He restarts his life as a barber on the small island where his parole officer lives. One day he helps a young lady, Misa Shimizu played by Keiko Hattori, who he finds on the side of the road having overdosed. She recovers and begins to work for him. His only real communication is with the pet eel that he kept in the pond at prison and resides with him in a fish tank.

To enhance the film’s themes of loneliness and isolation, development is extremely subtle and slow as we wait to learn more about any of the major characters. The viewer is left to surmise many undercurrent emotions. We wonder if the pet eel that Shohei speaks to is the incarnation of his dead wife. I often felt that Shohei was constantly troubled by his past, which as a fit of rage could also be judged a “crime of passion”.

I think the film also dealt with repression of emotion. It appeared to take a lot for most of the characters, including the diverse lot of acquaintances who hang around his new barber shop, to express themselves openly. When they do, they tend to explode (very similar to Shohei’s rage against his unfaithful wife). The film tends to juggle many genre’s from very violent episodes to comedic ones. I found it to be very enjoyable and quite memorable."

Posters

Reviews More Reviews

DVD Comparison

New Yorker - NTSC Region 1 vs. Ocean Shores - Keenmind - HK Region 0 - NTSC

(New Yorker -Left, Ocean Shores - Keenmind - Japan DVD - Right)

DVD Box Covers Click to order from:
Distribution	New Yorker Region 1 - (NTSC)	Ocean Shores - Keenmind DVD Region 0 - (NTSC)
Runtime	1:56:20 min	1:52:16 min
Video	1.76:1 Letterboxed WideScreen Average Bitrate: 4.73 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s	1.76:1 Letterboxed WideScreen Average Bitrate: 4.29 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate: R1 New Yorker
Bitrate: R0 Hong Kong
Audio	Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)	Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
Subtitles	White-Bold, English (removable)	Cream-colored, English and Chinese (non-removable)
Features	Release Information: Studio: New Yorker Films Theatrical Release Date: August 21, 1998 DVD Release Date: August 28, 2001 Run Time: 116 minutes Production Company: New Yorker Films Package Type: Keep Case Aspect Ratio(s): Full Screen (Standard) - 1.76:1 Discographic Information: DVD Encoding: Region 1 Available Audio Tracks: Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0) Available subtitles: English Edition Details: • Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only) • Profiles/Filmographies Cast and Director • Theatrical trailer	Release Information: Studio: KeenMind Theatrical Release Date: August 21, 1998 DVD Release Date: Summer, 2000 Run Time: 112 minutes Production Company: Ocean Shores Package Type: Keep Case Aspect Ratio(s): Full Screen (Standard) - 1.76:1 Discographic Information: DVD Encoding: Region 0 Available Audio Tracks: Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0) Available subtitles: English

Comments

The 2025 Radiance Blu-ray of The Eel is compared / reviewed HERE

This is a pretty easy comparison. The New Yorker is heads and tails above the Ocean Shores Hong Kong DVD, which did come out first ( making excuses as to why I own it ). The Ocean shores logo appears occasinally onscreen in the HK disc. Colors are pale and muted and no where near as sharp as the New Yorker. The HK disc has no chapter selection or DVD menu. It also, obviously, has no Extras at all. This is a good film... go buy the New Yorker !

- Gary W. Tooze

Recommended Reading for Japanese Film Fans (CLICK COVERS or TITLES for more information)

The Japan Journals : 1947-2004,

by Donald Richie

The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film
by Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp

Kon Ichikawa (Cinematheque Ontario Monographs)

by James Quandt, Cinematheque Ontario

Shohei Imamura (Cinematheque Ontario Monographs, No. 1)
by James Quandt

Eros Plus Massacre: An Introduction to the Japanese New Wave Cinema (Midland Book, Mb 469)
by David Desser

The Films of Akira Kurosawa by Donald Ritchie

Ozu by Donald Ritchie

A Hundred Years of Japanese Film by Donald Richie

Check out more in "The Library"

DVD Menu
(New Yorker -Left, Ocean Shores - Keenmind - HK DVD - Right)


	No Chapter Menu

Titles