Pitfall (1962)

A man wanders into a seemingly deserted town with his young son in search of work. But after a bit of bad luck, he joins the town's population of lost souls.

Director:

Hiroshi Teshigahara

Writers:

Kôbô Abe (screenplay), Kôbô Abe (story)

Stars:

Hisashi Igawa, Sumie Sasaki, Sen Yano

Cast

Cast overview:
Hisashi Igawa	...	Miner / Otsuka
Sumie Sasaki	...	Shopkeeper
Sen Yano	...	Toyama
Hideo Kanze	...	Policeman
Kunie Tanaka	...	Man in white suit
Kei Satô	...	Reporter
Kazuo Miyahara	...	The miner's son
Akemi Nara
Tadashi Fukuro	...	Second union member
Kikuo Kaneuchi	...	Photographer
Kanichi Ômiya	...	Second miner
Shigeru Matsuo	...	Farmer
Ton Shimada	...	Dead miner
Sanpei Asakura
Heiguro Matsumoto

Storyline

A documentary fantasy. Penniless miners talk in passing about labor unions. A miner and his young son go to a village in Kyushu where the miner has been told he'll find work, but it's a ghost town, save for one woman. The miner leaves and is followed by a man in a white suit and white gloves. A murder takes place: faked footprints, bribery and intrigue, investigations, a frame-up, and a ghost who wants to know why meet in a story of realism and the surreal. A child mutely witnesses all. Does the truth count for anything in this world or in the next? Can everything be manipulated?

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Plot Keywords:

miner | ghost | union | surrealism | emaciation | 

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Fantasy

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

1 July 1962 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Pitfall

Company Credits

Production Co:

Teshigahara Productions,Toho Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This is the first of four film collaborations involving director Hiroshi Teshigahara, author Kôbô Abe, and scorer Tôru Takemitsu. Their other film collaborations were Woman in the Dunes (1964), Tanin no kao (1966) and The Man Without a Map (1968).

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Connections

Featured in Music for the Movies: Tôru Takemitsu (1994)

User Reviews

Parallel Universes

As the ghosts of two of the victims of the man in the white suit chase his Vespa, they yell, "You can't kill someone for no reason." Whatever that reason is, it is never shared with us. It's sad enough that the characters in this movie are so lost, but that someone would care enough about them to seek them out and kill them. The man in the white suit has a book and after carrying out his hit, or setting one up, he quietly writes things in that book. Is he the grim reaper? Does he represent organized crime? Is he a solo player? He is magical in a Satanic sense. He comes between two warring labor unions, creating enough distrust to destroy what they fight for and them also. One of the strangest characters is a little boy, the son of the first victim, who seems only intent on eating throughout the movie. At one point, he catches a frog, smashes it on the rocks, and then pulls off its skin. He seems immune to emotion and we only know that he is a little eating machine. This is a film that you will think about for a long time if you can find it. It is unsatisfying on the one hand and highly provocative on the other.