(Akai hashi noshitano nurui mizu). Ancient Japan's upper class knew how to live, mutters a skid-row philosopher in Imamura's final film: "squeeze the peasants, and concentrate on food and sex." Now, "people are too learned to admit their desires," a situation the great director aims to fully dismantle in this lighthearted fable of fish, employment, and orgasms. Traveling to a coastal village to find a dying friend's lost "treasure," the just-fired office drone Yosuke (a hangdog Koji Yakusho) finds a job on a fishing boat and encounters Sakeo (Misa Shimizu), who's a maker of sweets and a lover with some extremely watery orgasms. But a life of food and sex isn't what our uncertain salaryman was hoping for; "I never expected more from life than boring predictability," he notes. One can guess Imamura's choice from the idyllic, relaxed, and frequently loopy charm of this film, the master's summation of his career. "Food and sex have always been the ideal life," indeed.

—Jason Sanders

• Written by Imamura, Motofumi Tomikawa, Daisuke Tengan, from the novel by Yo Henmi. Photographed by Shigeru Komatsubara. With Koji Yakusho, Misa Shimizu, Mitsuko Baisho, Kazuo Kitamura. (120 mins, In Japanese with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From Code Red Films)