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WARM WATER UNDER A RED BRIDGE Send This Review to a Friend
The most bizarre film I saw at the 2001 New York Film Festival was "Warm Water Under a Red Bridge" by the esteemed Japanese director Shohei Imamura. It is now getting a commercial release. A young man who goes on a journey to find a reputed treasure encounters a young woman who fills up with water and releases it in geysers when she has sex. The man is willing to oblige on call every time the fluid builds up, and this is all very funny for a while, as well as explicit. But after a time the scenes are more ridiculous than humorous, and they certainly aren't stimulating, except for those who may have special tastes. The picture assumes a silliness that doesn't jibe with the considerable skills lavished on it by Imamura and by the appealing acting.
Misa Shimizu is quite charming as Saeko, the young lady with the overload problem, and Koji Yakusho is amusing as the amazed Yosuke, both when he assumes his acquired role with horny dedication and when the situation is starting to get too grueling for him. Of course, it becomes clear that Imamura is indulging in a bit of metaphor, perhaps to examine how humans cope with larger-than-life problems. He is also tweaking our sense of propriety and setting up a situation so bizarre that one cannot take it literally. It's also an opportunity to serve us some sex that is unconventional to say the least.
Imamura, being a master filmmaker, also makes the film visually attractive, and the tale is expanded with other characters and striking situations. But it is hard to accept the "Warm Water Under a Red Bridge" as anything more than a strange exercise that gives rise to such disrespectful thoughts as what anybody who meets Saeko needs most is a good raincoat. A Cowboy Pictures release.
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