The Eel

West coast premiere of the high-definition digital transfer of the director’s cut, featuring new and improved English subtitles!

Part of the Hanabi Film Festival 2026. Limited festival passes available while supplies last.

Doors open at 5:30 PM; film at 6:00 PM.

After serving time in prison for murdering his unfaithful wife, Yamashita (Koji Yakusho, Perfect Days, Cure) is released on parole, accompanied only by his pet eel. Hoping to stay out of trouble, he takes over a rural barber shop that quickly becomes a gathering point for the eccentric locals. However, the discovery of a woman’s failed suicide starts a chain reaction that brings back past demons—and not just his own.

The Eel won Shōhei Imamura his second Palme d’Or, after 1983’s The Ballad of Narayama, and was the breakout film of star Yakusho.

Screened in Japanese with English subtitles.