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The Eel poster

MOVIE · 1997

The Eel

ComedyCrimeDrama117 min

After killing his adulterous wife and serving a prison sentence, a former businessman starts over by opening a small barbershop and keeping almost entirely to himself. Koji Yakusho is the withdrawn man at the center, more willing to speak to the eel he befriended behind bars than to the customers and neighbors who drift into his life. As the shop becomes a meeting point for strangers, the film follows his silence, his routines, and the awkward, tentative contact that comes with life outside prison. Misa Shimizu appears among the people pressing against that solitude.

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