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The Eel Shohei Imamura Winner of the Palme d'Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, this masterpiece from Shohei Imamura is a bold, frequently offbeat exploration of crime and punishment, guilt and redemption, and the elusive possibility of salvation through love. Koji Yakusho stars as an ex-con, paroled after eight years in prison for killing his adulterous wife. Isolated from those around him, his only bond is with the eel he adopted as a pet while behind bars. A new woman in his life presents a chance for renewal, but the past won't leave the couple alone. "...there is an invisible mastery in The Eel, a technique beyond technique" (Dave Kehr, Film Comment). In Japanese with English subtitles. Japan, 1997, 117 mins. DVD | $44.95
The Ballad of Narayama Shohei Imamura Winner of the Grand Prize at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival, The Ballad of Narayama is based on one of the most astonishing of all Japanese legends. A century ago in a remote mountain village, local custom dictated that when a person reached 70 years of age, he or she was taken to Mount Narayama to die. This brilliant film from director Imamura delivers a vigorous and beautiful affirmation of family, life, and death. "The ritual sex and violence, and the long final sequence when a dutiful son carries his old mother up the mountain slopes, cannot fail to impress and shock" (Faber Companion to Foreign Films). In Japanese with English subtitles. "A masterpiece of Japanese Cinema to stand beside Ugetsu, Tokyo Story, or The Seven Samurai" (Michael Wilmington, LA Weekly). Japan, 1983, 130 mins. DVD | $44.95
The Pornographers Shohei Imamura An exact translation of this film's title would be "The Pornographer--An Introduction to Anthropology," suggesting, perhaps, Imamura's incomparable wit and perception of the perverse. The bizarre story, almost entirely shot on location, follows an Osaka man who makes pornographic films out of a sense of duty to his fellow man. The scenes of him making films are, according to critic/historian Donald Richie, "some of the funniest sequences ever to appear in a Japanese film." Throughout, the film is a technical tour-de-force, the camera constantly taking the role of the voyeur. The DVD is a letterboxed Criterion Collection edition and includes a new digital transfer and more. In Japanese with English subtitles. Japan, 1966, 128 mins. DVD | $44.95
Vengeance Is Mine Shohei Imamura One of the most strikingly original films of the modern cinema, Vengeance Is Mine is an "eclectically horrifying portrait of a psychopathic criminal named Iwao Enokizu...[the film] makes every other film on the In Cold Blood theme look like child's play," wrote Tom Allen in The Village Voice. Enokizu (Ken Ogata) becomes a suspect in the murder of two men who work for the government tobacco monopoly. A nationwide dragnet is set up to capture him, but for 78 days he travels throughout Japan committing fraud, cheating women and taking numerous lives. Japanese with English subtitles. Japan, 1979, 144 mins. DVD | $44.95
Warm Water Under a Red Bridge Shohei Imamura Directed by Japanese auteur Shohei Imamura (The Ballad of Narayama, The Eel), this charmingly bizarre slice of magic realism is an engaging variation on the male mid-life crisis movie. Unemployed, middle-aged Yosuke (Koji Yakusho) travels to a small town where he encounters the senile fortune-teller Mitzu (Mitsuko Baisho) and her beautiful grand daughter Saeko (Misa Shimizu). Mitzu is a young woman whose body secretes gallons of water when she makes love, a discharge that irrigates her garden and replenishes the local river. She and Yosuke begin a passionate affair. Rumors abound, however as to the fate of her last lover, who drowned under mysterious circumstances. "An endearing portrait of provincial eccentricity, and a generous tribute to female fecundity" (DVD Asian.com). In Japanese with English subtitles. Japan/France, 2001, 119 mins. DVD | $44.95
