The Eel

Film has weird subplots about eel, its owner

It's tempting to compare the award-winning but peculiar Japanese drama-fantasy "The Eel" with the even more acclaimed American drama "Sling Blade." Yet, despite some common subject matter, they're very distant cinematic cousins.

"The Eel" is even stranger than "Sling Blade" (if that's possible), and has much darker content, along with weird (yet still somewhat coherent) subplots about a pet eel and a UFO-obsessed man.

Admittedly, some audiences may feel the story unfolds too slowly, and they might find the film's storytelling methods off-putting. And some excesses (in the way of graphic violence and sex) do mar the overall effect.

But it's an oddly affecting and haunting film, thanks to the deliberate pacing and an appropriately enigmatic starring turn by actor Koji Yakusho ("Shall We Dance?").

Yakusho plays Takuro Yamashita, a white-collar worker who murders his wife when he catches her with another man. After serving eight years for the crime, he is paroled under the supervision of a Buddhist priest (Fujio Tsuneta).

With his sole companion, a pet eel, Takuro goes about rebuilding his life and even sets up a barber shop. Despite his efforts to remain a hermit, he befriends several of his customers, as well as Keiko (Mira Shimizu), the beautiful suicide survivor he discovers nearby.

Eventually, he grows to care for the woman, despite her resemblance to his dead wife. But as his life grows more and more "normal," Takuro's happiness is endangered by his tragic past, including his former prison cellmate (Akira Emoto), who shows up to harass him and who threatens to reveal Takuro's secret to Keiko.

Believe it or not, there's even more going on to the story than all of that. But most of it works, thanks to filmmaker Shohei Imamura's thoughtful script (which expounds on the source material, a cult-favorite novel by Japanese writer Akira Yoshimura), and an extremely talented cast.

Though his character begins as a very bitter man, Yakusho slowly reveals warmth inside, while Shimizu is similarly excellent as an emotionally scarred — but still giving — woman.

"The Eel" is not rated but would probably receive an R for violent stabbings and some brawling, gore, simulated sex, female nudity, profanity and a scene depicting an attempted rape.