De l'eau tiède sous un pont rouge

Imamura does here what Neil Jordan does in Crying Game; he takes two seemingly incongruous elements, fetishistic sexual obsession and contemporary socio-political malaise, and weaves them effortlessly together. Imamura's rigorously geometric framing contrasts with the feathery- light content of the tale. Having said that, there are some gritty moments here; a drowning born of insanity is rendered in stark black-and-white, and the social plight of Japan's cast-aside middle-aged salarymen is emblematically captured in Yakusho's performance. However, at heart this is a fun movie that surprises and delights. It is all about the mise-en-scene, perfectly delivered each time by Imamura and the principles. The film does flag at the end; it felt like they opted to go for melodrama purely because the allotted time was running out. The previous two acts make up for that third-act missed beat. One gripe is that the edition I bought had no Extras apart from the theatrical trailer. I would have liked a Making Of to confirm my suspicion that this film was as much fun to make as it is to watch. It must have been murder for cast and crew to keep a straight face during those venting scenes...

I must admit to discovering Imamora only recently. He has all the vivid cinematic detail, the edginess of Oshima, and the humor of Itami; but he is a unique and original master of Japanese cinema. I am delighted that a film like this is even available in America. And, I am not surprised that there have been people here who proclaim it to be a 'silly film.' The film is a great surreal satire. It examines the ridiculous nature of male sexuality, and how we as men are motivated by our fears that one day well 'our little soldier won't be able to salute.' I loved the scene where the title character outruns an African long distance runner so he can meet up with the nymphomaniac shoplifter who he has started to have relations with even though he knows very little about her. I love the way birds and fish are used to symbolize fear and desire. This is an intoxicating film. I saw "The Pornogaphers" earlier this year, and it is a delight to see that a brilliant filmmaker has not lost his touch, not remotely!

I was eager to see WARM WATER UNDER A RED BRIDGE - from the description on the back of the DVD I wasn't really expecting this to be THE EEL or BLACK RAIN but if it's junk, it is very well-crafted junk. The story (well commented upon below) is quirky/kinky and provocative, which is well-handled, and a few scenes were hilarious. The cinematography is beautiful - Imamura's films always have a very striking look, and on this front this film doesn't disappoint. WARM WATER... has a strong 'magic realist' quality - more than anything it reminded me a bit of some of Gabriel Garcia-Marquez' novels (if only Imamura had stuck in a failed insurgency or a grandmother floating into the sky). I didn't always know what to make of it - the mix of realism, quirkiness, kink, cuteness, humor, small-town mundanity and erotic strangeness all taken at once made me wonder what if anything Imamura might be trying to say (aside from the fact that reality can be strange and life doesn't fit so neatly into compartments). So - no masterpiece, but fans of Imamura won't want to miss it.

In many ways this is a distinctively Imamura's film. It contains many of the themes characteristic of his oeuvre: His obsession with sex, women and Japanese mythology. WWURB's story somehow mirrors Unagi. The main character of both films, a salariman, for different reasons end up leaving the city for the countryside and establish a relationship with strange women and with the peculiar villagers. But these similarities can also be applied to any of his other films. With a persistent disregard for a clear and logical narrative, many of his films amount to anecdotes and observations made by the characters, some of them appearing and disappearing inexplicably. Take as example the Insect Woman or The Pornographers in the 60s or the historical films Zegen and Eijanaika that he made in the 80s. Imamura has portrayed sex, in most of his films, as something positive even beneficial and in several ones he has acknowledged incest (Insect Woman, The Pornographers and The Profound Desired of the Gods) as part of traditional rural Japan without criticising it. In WWURB Taro (Kitamura Kazuo), the homeless who Yosuke (Yakusho Koji), recently unemployed, befriends seems to be Imamura's alter ego. He advises Yosuke to have sex as much as he can as long as he can keep his instrument up and explains of the beneficial (physically and mentally) qualities of sex and its importance throughout the history of humanity. Sex is closely linked with nature and being suggested as the main essence of life. The film also points to the power of women, so the enormous amount of water produced by Saeko (Shimizu Misa), when having sex with Yosuke, that falls in the river seems to be so rich that attracts fish and seagulls. Saeko's body fluids can also the solution for the purification of the contaminated river. An attempt to cure the river was made by her mother, the village's shaman but was ostracised by the villagers for her use of unscientific methods. Eventually she drowned in the river when trying to perform a ritual. Saeko's grandmother Mitsu (Mitsuko Baisho) seems to possess some sort of clairvoyant power. The conflict between, and eventual loss of, ancestral beliefs (pre-Shinto and pre-Buddhist culture) and modern Japan is also another important characteristic of Imamura's work. In early Japan women, as some were actually shamans, took an active role in religious, social and political matters. Things changed with the advent of Buddhism (religion) and Confucianism (politics and social ethics).

Yosuke is warned by some villagers that he will dry up and lose his vital essence if he keeps on having his sexual encounters with Saeko. He is an outsider from modern Japan, Tokyo, who gets involved with women that represent primitive Japan, a Japan of sexual freedom, finally accepting their customs and beliefs. As Taro tells Yosuke "Drown yourself in a woman's arms, be faithful to your desires without worrying about daily cares." In this sense he is like Kariya, an engineer from Tokyo, who goes to Kurage, a Southern island of Japan, in "The Profound 'Desire' of the Gods". He is believed to be a "god from overseas" by the island's community. After showing little concern for local customs and traditions he marries Toriko, a retarded young woman who epitomised primitive Japan, all sexual freedom, and sister of the island's shaman. So WWURB is certainly a charming, sometimes funny, sometimes kinky film but that lacks the power, challenge and innovation of Imamura's previous films. Certainly the ones made before Black Rain (Kuroi Ame). Still it is worth pointing out that the issue of sex doesn't seem to be a major concern for younger Japanese filmmakers with the exception of Miike Takashi (with his special way of dealing with the subject) and I cannot remember of any sex scene in any of the films I have seen by these directors.

A movie from 75 year old director Shohei Imamura. First observation - it's definitely not the steamy sex-romp that the Hong Kong DVD case might have you believe. Far from it in fact. It's quite a gentle, very quirky somewhat philosophical character driven romance.

A man in his fourties loses his job when the company he works for goes bankrupt. In Japan, with the tradition of 'employment for life', this is not a hard situation to be in - especially with an estranged wife and child nagging for money. On something like a whim he travels to a small village to follow the directions of a friend that just passed away, who told him of a treasure that he left behind 40 years ago, in a house by a red bridge. When he arrives, he meets the woman that now lives in the house and through rather unusual circumstances ends up in bed with her. The woman has a strange secret, a source of shame - and the source of the 'Warm Water' under the Red Bridge. The two embark on a peculiar relationship, and when the man gets a temporary job on a fishing boat he begins to blend in and adapt to the small village way of life.

The movie is a slightly surreal meditation on life and love, and what is really of value in each of them. The message is an encouragement of individuality and independence of thought, an affirmation that 'strange' and 'different' are words closer to 'good' than 'bad'. The characters are all a little bit tragic, beaten down by life, but in their own community they find that life can be beaten back.

It's a slow paced movie, quite touching and gently funny. It's mostly character & dialogue driven, and both are well developed. I believe it's based on a novel, which usually does imply good character and dialogue if the director has enough skill to adapt a written work to a visual one. After nearly 50 years in the business, Imamura clearly has that skill.