Tokyo. After losing his job and having problems with his wife, Yosuke decides to go to the Noto peninsula to search for an alleged stolen golden statue hidden in a house of a deceased old man. Yosuke encounters Saeko living in the house, who is ashamed of having the ability of squirting water up to six ft above her when she gets aroused. The two become passionate lovers. Yosuke accepts a job as a fisherman and meets an African man who is preparing for a marathon. Yosuke finds out Saeko's grandmother was the old man's wife, waiting for him. Evenetually, Saeko tells him there is no treasure in literal sense, but that her grandmother's "pot" was the "treasure". Yosuke's wife files for divorce. Saeko stops squirting, but starts again when Yosuke admits he likes her the way she is, and they become passionate at the beach.
Shohei Imamura's last film as a director, "Warm Water Under a Red Bridge" is a light and comedic depiction of his often themes of repressed sensuality wanting to get out and the human search for happiness. It is overstretched and has too much 'empty walk' and talk, without sharpness from Imamura's best films, yet it has some honesty that gives it sympathy. Imamura contemplates about the rift between social norms and personal wishes: the main heroine Saeko is ashamed that she has this ability of huge squirting when she gets aroused (which is presented more comical than erotic, since the squirting causes her water to splash like a fountain, six ft above as she and Yosuke passionately embrace for the first time) and wants to get rid of it. After a while, she does, but afterwards, Yosuke suddenly cannot get an erection anymore, and realizes he was excited by her squirting. Saeko thus accepts her squirting as she has sex with him again. The message is that people may feel ashamed or embarrassed by some of their physical features, untypical for society, but precisely these features can attract the person who loves this, and can thus find their happiness in a roundabout, unlikely way. Imamura is strangely timid in depicting the three sparse, short sex scenes where not much is shown (even his "Vengeance is Mine" had better sex scenes, even though they were not the main topic of the story), since Saeko never takes her shirt off on the screen, and Yosuke is shown naked from behind only once, leaning more towards the comedic (on the ship, Yosuke spots Saeko giving a signal with her mirror that she is "ready", so he runs so fast towards her house that he even surpasses an African marathon runner in speed), but even this "PG Shohei Imamura" has his virtues.
Grade:++
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