An offbeat return to the terrain of Vengeance Is Mine, The Eel again features a murderer as protagonist, although here the killings are a crime of passion. The film primarily concerns the killer’s attempt to isolate and protect himself from society and from emotion upon his parole. Koji Yakusho (Eureka, Babel) plays the main character, whose only confidant is the titular animal and who is offered redemption by a woman he rescues from a suicide attempt and by the eccentric inhabitants of a small town.