The Eel

6th movie of Japanuary I loved this movie! It doesn't exactly follow one style. There's surrealistic shots, there's brutality, quiet cinematography, drama mixed with rom-com, yet this movie didn't feel messy at all to me. It felt... empty, but not in a bad way, but in that way where you can hear your own thoughts too clearly, like we personally go through what the main character is going through- trying to live after something inside him already ended. The eel somehow makes it even sadder, being the only thing he knows how to talk to without feeling burdened or misunderstood. You're not guided through emotions, you just sit there with the main character, with his guilt and silence. Sometimes scenes felt awkward, or pointless and then suddenly they hit you, because that's what being numb feels like- things just happen and you don't know how to react or where to channel these emotions. It's just such a gentle movie for something that starts so incredibly dark, and it clearly doesn't try to forgive him or punish him, it gives him room to change, and i loved the development, and the small things that showed us this exact development. Like when he was always pushing away Keiko, always rejecting her lunch boxes, and in the end when he opened himself to her, he took it, or the fact that even though he wasn't comfortable with sharing more about his past, the people that knew the truth didn't judge him or force him to talk about it, they just sat there with him, just like the eel that he was taking care of. Listening, without telling him things that he won't like, that would make him feel like a burden. Finally, when he said goodbye to the eel and put it back into the water, that's when I knew that this character would never run away from his past, but he would learn how to live with it, even if it's not comfortable, and he understands that closing himself won't help him, and when he let go of the eel, he let go of the emotionl prison he built and his need to hide. he doesn’t magically become happy. the ending isn’t optimistic in a cheesy way. it’s more like… quiet survival. There’s the possibility of real connection instead of just silence. it’s a really soft, beautiful way to end such a heavy story not redemption, not punishment, just a man finally stepping back into the world.