guilt and redemption be the pervasive theme of this quirky and disturbing and very fine film from shohei imamura . the consequence of the instantaneous loss of control mold this story in the way such life happenstance unfold slowly and imamura know how to take u with him in this strange tale and pausing here and there for the surreal and dreamlike sequence that can and do alter our perception of reality . takuro yamashita ( kôji yakusho ) be a quietly marry blue collar worker who spend some evening fish for sport and food and his passive wife emiko ( chiho terada ) send him off with boxed lunch . takuro receive an anonymous letter that state his wife be have an affair while he slip away to fish . incredulous and takuro return early form his nocturnal fishing to find his wife engage in passionate sex and takuro stab her to death and then bicycle to the police station and turn himself in for the murder of emiko . he be imprison for eight year and conforms to the rigid life of the incarcerated and his only companion be a pet eel with whom he feel he can communicate . upon release from prison and takuro be place under the supervision of a kindly priest who help him start a barbershop and live a quiet secluded life and his only friend be his pet eel and a strange character who have set up a field station to attract friendly alien from out space . all be calm until he encounter keiko ( misa shimizu ) who closely resemble his murdered wife and indeed be suicidal from her own slash in an attempt to negate the genetic threat of her mentally disturbed mother and her own consignation with an underworld lover eiji dojima ( tomorowo taguchi ) and a man who hold her under his control to gain the mad mother money commit to his evil scheme . takuro save keiko from her suicide attempt and the priest encourage him to take on keiko a an assistant . the barbershop do well and takuro and keiko make good business partner . takuro be emotionally dead over his guilt for the murder of his wife and refuse to entertain the idea of open himself to keiko loving advance . there be too many similarity between the dead emiko and the frightened keiko . yet when all of the force collide in the climax of the film and takuro realize how much of his past be mixed with fantasy or nightmare and and equally and how much his present be dependent on his interaction with keiko ( now pregnant with dojima baby ) and the priest and his sci fi friend and the force who would destroy keiko and his quiet existence . the end and somewhat mar by a keystone kops like fight and reveal the crack in takuro mental armor and the possibility for redemption unfolds in a tender way . there be many level of interpretation to this fable and to explore each of them would rob the first time viewer of this little film of the pleasure of the chess game imamura set for u . the acting be solid and the night scene be lovely and and the day scene be a visually chaotic a the real world in which we live . there could be improvement in the editing and definitely in the musical score and in the camera work . but those be minor blemish in this film that engage the mind in the challenge of enter a new mode of thought . a strange little film and this and and not for everyone . grady harp .