Husband gets an anonymous letter telling him his wife is cheating on him with another man when he goes on fishing trips at night. Husband goes fishing, but heads home early to catch her at it. He not only catches them shagging, but then stabs his wife to death, before turning himself in (covered in blood, and still wearing his fishing gear) at the nearest police station.
8 years late he's released from prison, on parole and trying to start a new life (with his pet eel he got in prison). He opens up a barber shop, ignores most of the people in the small Chiba town, and talks to his eel instead.
Then he rescues a woman who has tried to commit suicide, and then a truckload more problems come along and bite him on the ass.
That's not the half of it though. What else? He hallucinates diving into his eel tank to fish out scraps of the letter written to him, he makes friends with a fisherman who tells him all about catching eels humanely, then there's the crazy guy who waits for UFOs outside his barbershop. Oh, and the weird dude (who acts a bit like an eel) who he may, or may not be hallucinating.
This film won an award at Cannes, and I've heard many good things about the director – Imamura Shohei – but it was a little on the crazy side for me. Not a bad watch though. 7/10
