It takes a great deal of careful plotting to make a good confined single location thriller. Films such as Buried (2010), The Pool (2018), and 4×4 (2019) rely on a variety of complications to maintain tension without becoming repetitive or overstaying their welcome. It’s a delicate balance, but when it’s done well, the results can be electrifying.
Writer Michitaka Okada adopts a unique conceit for their latest, #Manhole, which readily employs social media to drive the narrative of a successful realtor, Shunsuke Kawamura (Yûto Nakajima), who falls down an open manhole the night before his wedding.
Director Kazuyoshi Kumakiri cues audiences that phones will play a vital part by opening with an elaborate split-screen video of Shunsuke’s work colleagues taping congratulations at his wedding party. Immediately following the party, a drunken Shunsuke bids his friend Kase (Kento Nagayama) goodbye, stumbles down the street and almost immediately falls down a hole in the ground.
Writer Michitaka Okada adopts a unique conceit for their latest, #Manhole, which readily employs social media to drive the narrative of a successful realtor, Shunsuke Kawamura (Yûto Nakajima), who falls down an open manhole the night before his wedding.
Director Kazuyoshi Kumakiri cues audiences that phones will play a vital part by opening with an elaborate split-screen video of Shunsuke’s work colleagues taping congratulations at his wedding party. Immediately following the party, a drunken Shunsuke bids his friend Kase (Kento Nagayama) goodbye, stumbles down the street and almost immediately falls down a hole in the ground.
- 8/1/2023
- by Joe Lipsett
- bloody-disgusting.com
Twenty-five years after the international premiere of his graduation work “Banquet of The Beasts” in the Panorama section, and twenty-two after “Hole in the Sky”, Kazuyoshi Kumakiri is back in Berlin with the thriller “#Manhole” which celebrates its international premiere in the Berlinale Special program. In this one-man suspense drama, a relatively simple story of an unfortunate incident evolves into a film rich with unexpected twists.
“#Manhole” is screening at San Diego Asian Film Festival Spring Showcase
On the evening before his wedding day, Shunsuke (Yuto Nakajima) walks into into his own stag party he was unaware of. The mood is excellent: as congratulations pour in, so do drinks. A bit wobbly after a drink too many in a pub in Shibuya district, Shunsuke falls inside a manhole, and wakes up injured and unable to climb back to the street. To make things worse, his cellphone Gps stops working and...
“#Manhole” is screening at San Diego Asian Film Festival Spring Showcase
On the evening before his wedding day, Shunsuke (Yuto Nakajima) walks into into his own stag party he was unaware of. The mood is excellent: as congratulations pour in, so do drinks. A bit wobbly after a drink too many in a pub in Shibuya district, Shunsuke falls inside a manhole, and wakes up injured and unable to climb back to the street. To make things worse, his cellphone Gps stops working and...
- 4/22/2023
- by Marina D. Richter
- AsianMoviePulse
It was either Nietzsche or Tex Avery — but one of our great philosophers — who asserted that there are two types of people in this world: those who walk through life blithely unbothered by manholes, and those who are destined to fall into them. Now, for curious members of the former class, comes an intimate examination of what it’s like to be one of the latter: “#Manhole,” Japanese director Kazuyoshi Kumakiri’s slick, increasingly deranged survival thriller about a man who will finally learn to know his true nature from a hole in the ground.
Popular, successful and possessed of highly covetable good looks, Shunsuke Kawamura has the world at his feet. It’s the eve of his wedding to the pregnant daughter of his company’s CEO, and his co-workers have organized a surprise party to toast his good fortune. Walking home drunk from the festivities, Shunsuke suddenly stumbles.
Popular, successful and possessed of highly covetable good looks, Shunsuke Kawamura has the world at his feet. It’s the eve of his wedding to the pregnant daughter of his company’s CEO, and his co-workers have organized a surprise party to toast his good fortune. Walking home drunk from the festivities, Shunsuke suddenly stumbles.
- 3/1/2023
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Yuto Nakajima admits that is a great feeling to be roaming free on the streets of a city that doesn’t recognize his face. In Japan he wouldn’t last a meter without being surrounded by screaming fans. As the member of Hey! Say! Jump band, and as a famous TV personality, he has long forgotten what a quiet life is. It is therefore a great discovery to see him in a challenging role which is the one and only in Kazuyoshi Kumakiri’s cynical thriller gone horror, about a seemingly nice young man in distress who gradually shows his real face, although the face isn’t his at all.
We met with the Japanese director and his star in the Berlinale Palast, to discuss the wonderfully unpredictable movie “#Manhole”, the difficulties of shooting in a narrow space and the challenge of turning a one man show into a pulse-racing show.
We met with the Japanese director and his star in the Berlinale Palast, to discuss the wonderfully unpredictable movie “#Manhole”, the difficulties of shooting in a narrow space and the challenge of turning a one man show into a pulse-racing show.
- 2/25/2023
- by Marina D. Richter
- AsianMoviePulse
Twenty-five years after the international premiere of his graduation work “Banquet of The Beasts” in the Panorama section, and twenty-two after “Hole in the Sky”, Kazuyoshi Kumakiri is back in Berlin with the thriller “#Manhole” which celebrates its international premiere in the Berlinale Special program. In this one-man suspense drama, a relatively simple story of an unfortunate incident evolves into a film rich with unexpected twists.
#Manhole is screening at Berlinale
On the evening before his wedding day, Shunsuke (Yuto Nakajima) walks into into his own stag party he was unaware of. The mood is excellent: as congratulations pour in, so do drinks. A bit wobbly after a drink too many in a pub in Shibuya district, Shunsuke falls inside a manhole, and wakes up injured and unable to climb back to the street. To make things worse, his cellphone Gps stops working and a heavy rain starts falling making his situation more insufferable.
#Manhole is screening at Berlinale
On the evening before his wedding day, Shunsuke (Yuto Nakajima) walks into into his own stag party he was unaware of. The mood is excellent: as congratulations pour in, so do drinks. A bit wobbly after a drink too many in a pub in Shibuya district, Shunsuke falls inside a manhole, and wakes up injured and unable to climb back to the street. To make things worse, his cellphone Gps stops working and a heavy rain starts falling making his situation more insufferable.
- 2/22/2023
- by Marina D. Richter
- AsianMoviePulse
What happens in the manhole stays in the manhole.
That would be one way to describe this initially intiguing and increasingly outrageous Japanese horror flick, which features pop star Yuto Nakajima as a young man who, on the eve of his wedding, falls into the film’s titular trap and can’t get out.
Directed by Kazuyoshi Kumakiri (Sketches of Kaitan City) from a script by Michitaka Okada (Masquerade Hotel), the movie definitely makes the most out of its setting, concocting dozens of obstacles to keep the suspense high as its hero gets sliced, bludgeoned, heralded on social media and poisoned by toxic sewage as he attempts to escape. But about midway through, #Manhole more or less jumps the shark — or is it the manhole? — by throwing in so many twists that it veers toward gory parody.
Premiering in Berlin’s Panorama section, the film should find an audience at home thanks to Nakajima,...
That would be one way to describe this initially intiguing and increasingly outrageous Japanese horror flick, which features pop star Yuto Nakajima as a young man who, on the eve of his wedding, falls into the film’s titular trap and can’t get out.
Directed by Kazuyoshi Kumakiri (Sketches of Kaitan City) from a script by Michitaka Okada (Masquerade Hotel), the movie definitely makes the most out of its setting, concocting dozens of obstacles to keep the suspense high as its hero gets sliced, bludgeoned, heralded on social media and poisoned by toxic sewage as he attempts to escape. But about midway through, #Manhole more or less jumps the shark — or is it the manhole? — by throwing in so many twists that it veers toward gory parody.
Premiering in Berlin’s Panorama section, the film should find an audience at home thanks to Nakajima,...
- 2/21/2023
- by Jordan Mintzer
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Gaga is “strong and we are growing” according to the renowned executive.
Tom Yoda, chairman of Japanese distributor and producer Gaga Corporation, wants everyone in Cannes to know that “Japan is on the mend” after the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Even after a turbulent two years, Gaga is “strong and we are growing” according to the renowned executive. At the Marché, Gaga is announcing a multi-platform strategy that comprises international film distribution; local film and anime production; game and character businesses derived from anime; as well as “aggressive overseas market cultivation” and internet business. The latter involves Nft and metaverse businesses including VR.
Tom Yoda, chairman of Japanese distributor and producer Gaga Corporation, wants everyone in Cannes to know that “Japan is on the mend” after the devastating impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Even after a turbulent two years, Gaga is “strong and we are growing” according to the renowned executive. At the Marché, Gaga is announcing a multi-platform strategy that comprises international film distribution; local film and anime production; game and character businesses derived from anime; as well as “aggressive overseas market cultivation” and internet business. The latter involves Nft and metaverse businesses including VR.
- 5/18/2022
- by Jean Noh
- ScreenDaily
The classic whodunit genre is seeing a revival of sorts, with tentpole Hollywood blockbusters like “Murder on the Orient Express” and “Knives Out” leading the way and recently even Netflix jumping on the bandwagon with the Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston starring “Murder Mystery” and the Hindi-language film “Raat Akeli Hai” proving to be hits for the streaming platform. Yet another project in the same genre which saw a fair amount of success was 2019’s “Masquerade Hotel” by Masayuki Suzuki, which is based on a Keigo Higashino book and was produced and released, like many Higashino adaptations, after a long drawn-out bidding battle over the book’s rights.
A serial killer is on the loose in Tokyo, three seemingly random murders only having a code left at the scene being the connecting factor between them. The code, when decoded, tells of the location of the next murder...
A serial killer is on the loose in Tokyo, three seemingly random murders only having a code left at the scene being the connecting factor between them. The code, when decoded, tells of the location of the next murder...
- 8/10/2020
- by Rhythm Zaveri
- AsianMoviePulse
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