"Warm Water Under A Red Bridge"
2001
Directed by Shohei Imamura

This charmingly bizarre slice of magic realism is an engaging variation on the male mid-life crisis movie. Unemployed, middle-aged Yosuke (Koji Yakusho) travels to a small town where he encounters the senile fortune-teller Mitzu (Mitsuko Baisho) and her beautiful grand daughter Saeko (Misa Shimizu). Mitzu is a young woman whose body secretes gallons of water when she makes love, a discharge that irrigates her garden and replenishes the local river. She and Yosuke begin a passionate affair. Rumors abound, however as to the fate of her last lover, who drowned under mysterious circumstances. "An endearing portrait of provincial eccentricity, and a generous tribute to female fecundity" (DVD Asian.com). Japanese with English subtitles. 119 minutes.