Warm Water Under a Red Bridge

Shōhei Imamura's 2001 Japanese film begins with a man who has lost his job and his home going to the provinces. Yosuke follows a story told him by a dead vagrant: a golden statue is hidden in a house beside a red bridge. What he finds there is not a statue but a woman named Saeko, in whose body water gathers, creating a pressure that drives her to steal unless it is released. Imamura treats this fantastical idea without finding it ridiculous and takes sexuality out of the realm of shame and ties it to nature; the water running to the river, the fish returning and the town coming alive are parts of the same cycle. It is among his last works and carries a lighter tone, far from the harshness of his earlier films. It competed at Cannes. Who it's for: viewers who like Imamura and strange fantastical narratives. Who it's not for: anyone uncomfortable with explicit sexual scenes; the film puts them at the centre.