In many cases, you can guess the ending of a movie without even seeing it. From the commercials alone you can deduce the teen lovers in "She's All That" will probably wind up in each other's arms, or that the finale of "Gloria" will find hard-hearted Sharon Stone becoming a mother figure to the orphaned kid she's looking after. Then there are films like "The Eel," which constantly catch you off-guard with more plot twists and surprises than most thrillers would dare to utilize. "The Eel" begins with an illicit affair, followed by a savage murder, then changes courses to become a generally quiet, contemplative study of Takuro Yamashita, the man responsible for the crime. Yamashita is played by Koji Yakusho, best-known in this country for his role as the uptight "salaryman" who discovers the joy of the rhumba in "Shall We Dance?". Again Yakusho has been cast as a sedate type, but Yamashita isn't looking for an escape from the drabness of his life. In fact, he quite prefers being alone and silent, much like the pet eel he keeps in a tank in his barber shop. The eel is a souvenir of the eight years he spent in jail for killing his wife, whom he caught in bed with another man. Now out on parole, Yamashita finds himself haunted by his moment of madness and unable to fit into his new surroundings. Then along comes Keiko (Misa Shimizu), a young beauty who has fled her out-of-control life in Tokyo to hide out in the small coastal town Yamashita is now living in. Just when it seems like "The Eel" is going to settle into a standard love-conquers-fear tale, the writers begin coloring in the characters, revealing their secrets and insecurities. The results are sometimes shocking and sometimes funny, but there's nothing in the movie that feels out of place. Although it flips from drama to thriller to comedy, "The Eel" manages to make its tonal shifts effortlessly; Shohei Imamura's direction is a model of quiet complexity. "The Eel" deservedly received the Palme D'Or -- the top prize -- at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival and though some Cannes winners are so esoteric even the filmmakers might be hard-pressed to explain what their movies are about, this one is surprisingly straightforward and unpretentious. Imamura even manages to blend surrealistic fantasy sequences into the storyline without going overboard, and the performances of Shimizu and Yakusho could not be any better. Best of all, the film keeps you guessing what Yamashita and Keiko's fates will be, up until the final scene. Though "The Eel" is as sinuous and slippery as its namesake, it's a good deal more interesting to watch. James Sanford
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