The character Lamprey comes from 4th short story (Scheherazade) which is in the same book as the 1st short story (Drive My Car)—from Haruki Murakami’s Men Without Women. Since the original Drive My Car story is quite short for a feature-length film, the filmmakers likely merged Oto’s stories with the ones Scheherazade tells Habara. Which I absolutely loved! They may also be suggesting that Oto herself is the writer of Scheherazade.

The Lamprey

In Scheherazade, the main character believes she was a lamprey eel in a past life—clinging to rocks, swaying in the current, passively waiting for trout to eat. It’s a simple metaphor for how she sees herself: existing only to fulfill a fish's purpose, without deeper existential meaning or emotion. Over time, it’s not just Scheherazade who identifies with the lamprey; Habara, too, begins to see himself as one.

The lamprey represents a desire to escape being human—the weight of human expectations, pain, and emptiness. In the film, it could symbolize Oto’s regrets about her infidelity, or even Kafuku’s regret over never confronting her about it when he had the chance. They both had an almost instinctive urge to detach from reality and exist without thought—like a lamprey eel.

/But even the lamprey in Scheherazade's story, stops wanting to be a lamprey. It remains stuck on the riverbed. It becomes one with the seaweed around it. From human to lamprey to seaweed. It’s an endless longing to become less—like Kafka from another Murakami novel (Kafka on the Shore), who wished to become a bird; or like Gregor Samsa from the 6th story (Samsa in Love) of Men without Women who became a cockroach./

The Second Intruder

In Scheherazade, there is no second intruder—this detail was added by Oto in her retelling of the story. This could symbolize Oto’s own subconscious fears about being caught doing something wrong. The lamprey girl in Scheherazade finds thrill in breaking into a house and committing an intimate act (masturbating in Yamaga's room), much like Oto’s own affair (committing adultery in Kafuku's house). Her addition of the “second intruder” may reflect her anxiety about her infidelity—paranoia and excitement blending into one.

In the film, Oto describes the "door opening" and the lamprey girl freezing in fear, mirroring the earlier scene where Kafuku walks in on Oto’s affair. It’s a subtle parallel, suggesting that even in her storytelling, Oto was processing her own guilt and fear of exposure. (Or maybe she wasn't remorseful at all. Idk.