It is perhaps unsurprising that the ever-slippery and unpredictable Imamura should mark his career finale with an outré romantic comedy. Kōji Yakusho and Misa Shimizu reunite following The Eel, though in an altogether different register. Shimizu plays Saeko, a young woman who possesses a mysterious “gift”, which Yakusho’s Yosuke – a busted Tokyo businessman – discovers while searching for a hidden treasure in a provincial fishing town in Noto.

Set during Japan’s “Lost Decade”, which left millions unemployed and the economy in tatters, Warm Water Under a Red Bridge is nevertheless imbued with the unexpected buoyancy of its magical realist narrative. The film follows two lonely souls adrift in a bleak new world, as they choose to abandon convention in pursuit of whatever slivers of happiness remain.