Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (2001)

A Brilliant Conflict

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

I feel like I have to add a comment to this film, because I believe that it has been misunderstood, just as Eyes Wide Shut may have been misunderstood. In fact, it is not a coincidence that I bring up the name of Kubrick's last film: both are similar in themes, and share a strangely similar style.When I first heard of this, my thoughts were: it was either a failure, or people were repulsed by the peculiar and taboo theme of female ejaculation (a very real phenomenon, I assure you, though it was exaggerated here). When I finished watching, I was slightly puzzled, but also concluded that my second hunch was probably correct. Nonetheless, this happens to be the most different film made by Imamura, so one can expect for it to have its lot of skeptics; people were disappointed. Interestingly, Kubrick seems to have drawn very similar conclusions in Eyes Wide Shut, which became his obituary: the couple decide to leave things be, to forget about the odd things that had happened, and just get a healthy relationship working again. The film is about sex. Warm Water is also about sex. Imamura's conclusion did have an extra element though: a wise old bugger who happened to be decidedly insightful about the matters of the nature of man -- Taro. The character brings an intriguing, though not altogether novel, take on society, which is in effect a synthesis of much of what Imamura has previously expressed in his films. I believe that Taro is Imamura.

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...

Believe it or not, this is NOT the weirdest Japanese movie I have seen--that title goes to the fantastic film "Happiness of Katakuris". This film, though weird, just doesn't have the same level of charm as Katakuris plus it really is quite disgusting in spots. You see, the main female character has a bizarre curse--her body begins filling up with water all the time until it leaks from her vagina. And, she has found there are two ways to alleviate the problem--do something bad (she shoplifts) and the water level decreases or have sex and her vagina releases water sort of like Old Faithful (the geyser). This is all true--I am NOT making this up or trying to fool you! The sad thing is that the acting is really good and I think this if the plot did not contain this stupid element, it would have been a splendid film. For a better film by this same director, try "The Eel".

This film is not a as good as Imamura's "The Eel", but is hauntingly memorable. The plot leaves a bit to be desired ,but the characters and the situations are engaging and intriguing. Like "The Eel" the film is populated by people outside of mainstream society, misfits and "losers", but all the more endearing for it. The film is full of memorable vignettes, the fishermen by the river, the couple who run the guest-house, the family run fishing business and the African runner. All of these characters and situations have hand in the transformation of the central character's transformation from unhappy salaryman, trapped by mainstream society, to an outsider with a new found freedom. This and "The Eel" have similar qualities to the films of Julio Medem. A sort of Japanese magical realism.