The Eel

You return to society running a barbershop after years in prison. Your only friend is an eel. But a mysterious young woman appears at the shop, and she needs your help. Imamura calmly observes humanity's darkest corners, finding humor in its resilience. The film lingers.

Streaming availability changes weekly. Check the Where to watch panel above — we re-pull TMDB's JustWatch index every week. If nothing's listed, the film is between licence windows.

Our similarity graph picks 6 films based on shared director, keywords, mood-cluster overlap, and MovieLens user co-rating — niche-biased away from blockbusters. Full list: /like/the-eel-1997/.

Shōhei Imamura directed The Eel in 1997. See Shōhei Imamura's full filmography, where to start with Shōhei Imamura, or where to go after you've seen everything by Shōhei Imamura.

The Eel was released in 1997 (JA original-language production), with a runtime of 117 minutes.