The Eel Blu-ray presents Shohei Imamura’s quietly devastating Palme d’Or–winning drama in a limited edition release. After serving time for murdering his unfaithful wife, Yamashita is released on parole and attempts to rebuild his life in rural Japan, accompanied only by his pet eel. Taking over a small barber shop, he becomes an unlikely confidant to a community of eccentric locals, but the fragile calm he constructs begins to unravel when he becomes entangled in the life of a troubled woman whose attempted suicide awakens buried guilt, desire, and unresolved trauma.
 
Awarded the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1997, The Eel marked Imamura’s second win after The Ballad of Narayama and served as a breakthrough role for Koji Yakusho. Blending understated humour, melancholy, and Imamura’s humanist fascination with social outsiders, the film is both intimate and expansive, exploring redemption, isolation, and the quiet persistence of life. Radiance presents the film in a high-quality Blu-ray edition with improved subtitles, critical interviews, and a curated slate of supplements.
 
This limited edition Blu-ray is restricted to 3,000 copies and is presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with a removable OBI strip, alongside a booklet featuring archival material.
 
directed by: shohei imamura
starring: koji yakusho, misa shimizu, mitsuko baisho
1997 / 117 min / japanese / stereo