93 The Eel

[MichaelB]

There is, but I think it's subscribers-only - it's one of the perks.

[Michael Kerpan]

FWIW -- Koji Yakusho is probably my favorite active Japanese actor -- From Shall We Dance On (and Kamikaze Taxi) onward (first appearance I've seen was as his earlier small role as 'the man in the white suit' in Tampopo). While he is best known (in the west) for his work with Imamura and Kiyoshi Kurosawa, one of my favorite performances by him was in Yudan Taiteki (something like 'carelessness is the the greatest enemy') where he plays a game of cat and mouse as a detective dealing with a master burglar (Akira Emoto). Sadly this never got a subbed home video release.

[MichaelB]

For those wondering about the specific differences between the 134 and 117-minute cuts of The Eel, this is all the unique material in the 134-minute cut. I'm reviewing the Radiance disc for Sight & Sound and don't have the space to go into this kind of detail (colossal understatement), so I thought I'd post my notes here. I don't think anything here constitutes a spoiler (not least because very little of this extra material is narratively significant), and I hope I've got all the names right - but I'll happily re-edit if I'm wrong on either or both counts.

00:00:55 - 00:01:03 [00:05]
Establishing shot of the office where Takuro works.

00:11:24 - 00:11:37 [00:12]
Shot of Takuro in a cell (between him handing himself in and the "8 Years Later" title).

00:14:37 - 00:14:48 [00:11]
Having walked Takuro and his probation supervisor Nakajima to the latter's car, the two officers have a brief conversation:
Officer 1: He got ten years, but they're letting him out after eight.
Officer 2: Quite late for a model prisoner.
Officer 1: He's a cold-blooded murderer, though.

00:15:15 - 00:15:46 [00:30]
The conversation between Nakajima and Takuro in the car is extended at the start.
Nakajima: By the way, does your brother in Niigata know you've been released? I thought he'd be here today.
Takuro: I don't think he's coming.
Nakajima: Oh, why's that? He's your only living relative, after all.
Takuro: He stopped writing to me two years ago after our mother died. Also, his daughter graduated from university. She's working now.

00:16:02 - 00:16:37 [00:34]
Nakajima and Takuro pull into the car park prior to their meal together. Nakajima gets out.
Nakajima: Let's stretch our legs.
Takuro nods and gets out, carefully holding the bag with the eel upright.

00:17:34 - 00:17:49 [00:15]
Nakajima and Takuro sit in the car beside Nakajima's temple.
Takuro: My eel doesn't look so good.
The car drives off, and the camera pans before stopping on a sustained shot of the temple.

00:18:10 - 00:18:23 [00:12]
The shot of Nakajima and Takuro walking together has been extended by twelve seconds at the start.

00:18:41 - 00:18:54 [00:12]
The shot of the prisoners exaggeratedly marching has been extended by twelve seconds at the start.

00:22:10 - 00:23:51 [01:41]
Nakajima and Takuro explore the derelict building further.
Nakajima: There's a bathroom and toilet in the back. I'm pretty sure there was a nursery upstairs.
Takuro goes upstairs.
Nakajima: What are you doing over there?
Cut to overhead shot revealing that he's talking to the UFO fan Masaki (NB: This is our intro to him in the longer cut.)
Masaki: I was thinking of getting a haircut.
Nakajima: It's not open yet.
Masaki: Oh...
Nakajima: Go on home. [Masaki leaves] Mr Yamashita!
Takuro comes downstairs.
Nakajima: That young man lives on a farm nearby. He's into flying saucers and that kind of thing. He's not right in the head. Oh yes, before I forget...
They go outside and Nakajima points out the rotating barber's pole.
Nakajima: There's this pole out here. Don't lend it to him if he asks you. Apparently, he wants to put it out in a wide open space and use it to call the aliens.
The fisherman Takada enters the shot.
Takada: A guy called Mizuta used to run this place, but he ruined himself gambling. He kept on having kids even though he had no money, then he did a moonlight flit.
Nakajima: Huh? Where did he go?
Nakajima and Takada go back inside the building to look for Tokura.

00:28:44 - 00:29:48 [01:03]
Tokura painstakingly applies lettering to the door of his new barber's shop. Cut to the interior of the shop, empty but with the barber's pole rotating. Takada rides up on his bike and enters.
Takada: Hey! Anyone there?
He leaves the shop and walks over to the riverbank, where we can see Tokura in the distance.

00:30:34 - 00:31:23 [00:48]
The scene of Takada having a haircut has been extended by 48 seconds at the start.
Takada: Have you been a barber long?
Tokura: Not really.
Takada: You don't seem very used to dealing with customers.
Tokura: I've been doing this five years.
Takada: Five years isn't that long, really.
Tokura: I started learning when I was older.
Takada: What did you do before? Before becoming a barber, that is.
Tokura: This and that. I worked in publishing and also at a food company.
Takada: I see...
Cut to a close-up of the eel.
[The next line is when Takada says "Talk to that eel, do you?", which is in both cuts]

00:32:27 - 00:33:03 [00:36]
Tokura sits in the Buddhist temple garden. He then gets up and steps painstakingly over the stepping stones before walking into Nakajima's room.

00:33:22 - 00:33:34 [00:11]
The conversation between Nakajima and Tokura continues for eleven seconds.
Nakajima: Come here. There's no need to go into this much detail in your reports.
Tokura: All right.

00:34:05 - 00:35:23 [01:18]
A policeman rides his motorbike up to Tokura as he's fishing.
Policeman: Catch anything? What's in there?
Tokura: Food for my eel.
Policeman: Oh, right, I see. Anyway, I might send my son in for a haircut soon. When he comes, I want you to cut it really short. He's in the third year of middle school and he's dyed it brown. All he does is hang round all day, it's driving me mad. The other day, he even went and got his ear pierced! What on earth is he thinking?
He drives off. Tokura has been visibly tense throughout, and finally relaxes.

00:36:27 - 00:36:49 [00:22]
Immediately after Tokura finds the body, we cut to the policeman driving away. In voiceover, we hear Nakajima's voice.
Nakajima: While you're on parole, don't let yourself be drawn into any kind of trouble.

00:37:04 - 00:38:25 [01:20]
Masaki is outside the barber's shop, polishing the pole. Nozawa drives up in his red car.
Nozawa: Did something come up?
Masaki: I don't know.
Tokura comes cycling up, at speed.
Nozawa: You've only just opened and you're closed already? Where'd you go? Pachinko? That's not very professional, you know.
Masaki: I was here first!
Nozawa: I've got an appointment. [To Tokura] By the way, do you happen to like horse racing or bicycle racing? I had a pretty good thing going with Mizuta who used to run this place.
Masaki: Oh, so you're a bookie?
Nozawa: I'm not talking to you. Okay? So, anyway, I was hoping I could carry it on with you. I get a 2% commission. Maybe it doesn't sound like much, but it's pretty good. Toride, Matsudo, Chiba. Do you get me? Well, to put it simply, I want you to pass on messages from your customers. Rather than calling me directly, I thought it would be easier for everyone if they went through you. Pretty good idea, don't you think? You know what I mean, right?

00:40:28 - 00:40:45 [00:16]
The scene of Tokura and Takada fishing at night has this additional sixteen-second establishing shot.

00:43:08 - 00:43:21 [00:12]
After he falls out of bed while thinking about the speared eel, in the longer version Tokura sits up, sighs and gets up.

00:45:49 - 00:46:40 [00:51]
Mrs Nakajima: If you save someone's life, you have to look after them to the end. What if she tries it again? It seems like she's in a dark place.
Tokura: Right.
Mrs Nakajima: Don't worry about paying her for now. Come on. Please. She can cook, clean, do the laundry, whatever you want. Getting along with people's even more important now than it was in prison.
[Pause]
Tokura: Sorry, but you shouldn't be wearing shoes in here.
Mrs Nakajima: I'm sorry.

00:50:50 - 00:50:59 [00:09]
The scene of Tokura and Takada fishing has been extended by nine seconds at the start.
Takada: This is moso bamboo. It needs to be 1.3 metres long. If it's too short, the eel won't go in.

00:51:59 - 00:52:04 [00:05]
At the end of the fishing scene, a close-up of a frog loudly croaking.

00:52:10 - 00:53:14 [01:04]
Tokura is relaxing on the riverbank in the sun while Keiko cycles up to him. She gingerly lies down beside him, as if afraid of waking him.
Keiko: I thought I'd find you here.
Tokura: Yeah.
Keiko: The sky here is so blue and clear. I thought so when I took the pills by the river. Why is the sky so blue? Maybe dying means dissolving into that big blue sky.

00:56:26 - 00:56:49 [00:23]
The high-angle shot of Masaki setting up his UFO-attracting crop circle has been extended at the start by 23 seconds, during which time he drives around the circle as Tokura pulls up on his bicycle.

00:57:50 - 00:59:33 [01:42]
Tokura and Masaki have just finished their conversation on the bench when Nozawa drives up with a girlfriend.
Nozawa: Hey, watch out!
Girlfriend: Careful!
Nozawa: You said to slow down.
Girlfriend: Look out!
Nozawa: [to the men] She's from the Philippines. She stayed at mine all night, so... [to her] He runs the barbershop.
Girlfriend: Hello!
Nozawa: Want to go to a club in Itako tonight? Live a little. I asked Keiko and she said, "Sure, go ahead." She didn't look too happy about it, though.
Girlfriend: Come here. [She kisses him and he reciprocates passionately]
Nozawa: [to Masaki] Go away! Fuck off, alien boy!
Tokura: Come on, that's enough. Get out of here.
Masaki: Yeah, get out of here!
Nozawa: Oh, well. Shall we go? My goodness. Let's go somewhere else. There's fun to be had in Itako.
[They walk off]
Girlfriend: Is he Chinese?
Nozawa: No, Japanese.
Girlfriend: He's not a perv like you.
Nozawa: Oh, no, he is. Him and the alien guy, too. Both massive pervs.

01:17:27 - 01:17:55 [00:27]
Just after Tokura has been handed the letter by Takasaki, Takada comes up to him with a bucket.
Takada: Here. Today's catch. There's three of 'em. I had three as well. Here you go.
Tokura: No, thank you.
Takada: You don't want them?
Tokura: I don't eat eel.
Takada: You could put them in your tank, though. I feel sorry for him on his own.
Tokura: It's better that way.
Takada: Is that so? All the more for me, then.

01:36:14 - 01:38:09 [01:55]
After Tokura says "I just couldn't forgive her" in both versions, the scene continues in the longer one as the boat drifts along.
Takada: Have another drink. Want a smoke?
[Tokura avails himself of both]
Takada: Was she young?
Tokura: Huh?
Takada: Your late wife.
Tokura: 34.
Takada: Any children?
Tokura: No. Though I wanted them.
Takada: This isn't very eloquent, but... human women and female eels, you have to give it to them. Eels don't grieve even if they get bitten by a big fish while escorting their babies. They concentrate on moving forward. It's like a suicide mission. They don't know why. The why always comes later.
He starts up the engine and the boat moves more purposefully forward.

01:47:49 - 01:48:33 [00:44]
In both versions, Tokura grabs Takasaki and drags him outside. Exclusively in the long version, there's a shot from inside the barber shop looking outside as they fight, which is briefly interrupted by a car driving past, honking its horn. Much grunting and yelling, no actual dialogue (or rather, that starts when we cut back to footage common to both versions).

01:52:20 - 01:52:32 [00:11]
The scene in which Nozawa, Takada and Masaki interrogate Tokura is extended by 11 seconds at the start.
Takada: Where's Keiko?
Tokura: No idea.
Nozawa: A guy called Dojima came looking for her yesterday, right?
Takada: I asked you a question, where is she?
Tokura: How should I know?

...and then both versions are in sync till the end.

So, to sum up, there's no truly significant additional narrative material; the extra stuff generally fleshes out certain details and gives the eccentric minor characters more of a voice. We also learn a few more things about Tokura, but nothing that we can't glean by reading between the lines - although seeing him visibly and nervously stiffen as the policeman tries to engage him in casual conversation is very effective, as is the otherwise completely inconsequential conversation with Nozawa at 00:37 - in context, this happens between Tokura finding Keiko's prone body on the riverbank and him finally deciding to get help, so there's an element of suspense there that isn't apparent just from the actual dialogue. (As in Hitchcock, the context makes its very triviality that much more disturbing - you want to reach into the screen and shake them into doing something.)

So while you're not going to lose anything important by watching the shorter cut, there's no particularly good reason not to favour the longer one - especially for the first reason that I mentioned; the minor characters have more of a presence, and this is a film that's all about minor details.

[domino harvey]

Which version is on Radiance's disc? I see no mention of the screentime on their website or retail listings

[swo17]

I mentioned earlier in the thread that they confirmed on Discord to be presenting the full director's cut

[domino harvey]

Thanks swo134

[MichaelB]

Which version is on Radiance's disc? I see no mention of the screentime on their website or retail listings

Both, which is why I was able to do a direct comparison after ripping them and laying them side by side.

And the running times are 01:56:31 (shorter cut) and 02:14:17 (longer cut), which I hope is precise enough for everyone here.

(If it isn't, add ten frames to the shorter cut and nine to the longer - it's impossible to be more precise than that!)

[MichaelB]

Oh, and here's a sneak preview of how that research ended up in paragraph form:

This release marks the British premiere of Imamura’s 134-minute cut of the film, presented alongside the more familiar 117-minute version. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the longer cut doesn’t feature anything narratively important (the overwhelming majority of the additional material comes in the first hour), although we find out more about Tokura both verbally and behaviourally, the latter most clearly when he visibly stiffens at the approach of an entirely friendly policeman. Most appealingly, and the major reason why the longer cut is the best one to watch first, the minor characters are given much more of a voice, particularly Takada the fisherman (Satō Makoto), Tokura’s chattiest companion and Nozawa the wannabe playboy (Aikawa Shō), his most certain irritant. The most significant change comes when Nozawa is trying to persuade Tokura to continue a gambling racket started by his barber predecessor – significant not for the inconsequential dialogue but because it comes between Tokura’s discovery of Keiko’s prone body and him eventually deciding to seek help, thus ramping up the suspense.

You can order this one with complete confidence, by the way - I've only seen dire video editions before: a truly abysmal Hong Kong DVD from circa 2000 whose only virtue was that it was very very cheap, and a bafflingly poor Artificial Eye DVD from 2012 - "bafflingly poor" because anamorphic enhancement really should have been absolutely universal by then, and it was also entirely barebones. Whereas Radiance have got Tony Rayns and Tom Mes doing their usual stuff to their usual high standards, an interview with screenwriter/director offspring Daisuke Tengan, and a booklet with a brief but fascinating 1997 Le Monde interview with Imamura (appearing in English for the first time), during which he denies that the eel has anything sexual about it (as was widely assumed by many Western critics). There's also a reprint of a well-informed 2019 essay by Andrea Grunert.

[Matt]

Thanks for the stamp of approval, MichaelB. I feel confident enough to pre-order now.

Currently 40% off at Barnes and Noble

[ryannichols7]

how long is the Rayns interview?

[MichaelB]

27:31.

Tom Mes is 13:20 and Daisuke Tengan is 18:52.

[ryannichols7]

27:31.

Tom Mes is 13:20 and Daisuke Tengan is 18:52.

awesome. really can't wait to get my hands on this disc. nice knowing a movie I've wanted to see for awhile will come armed with tons of context