Pitfall (1962)

Original title

おとし穴

Directed by

Hiroshi Teshigahara

Genre

drama film

Country

Japan

Runtime

1h 37m

Rating

7.3 of 10 from 110 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A wandering miner and his young son arrive in a deserted mining town. The miner is killed by a mysterious man in a white suit, and his ghost wanders the landscape, watching the living people who pass through.

surrealbleakslow-burnunsettlingatmosphericcerebraldreamlikedisorienting

What happens

Pitfall (おとし穴, Otoshiana), a.k.a. The Pitfall and Kashi To Kodomo, is a 1962 Japanese film directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara, written by Kōbō Abe. It was Teshigahara's first feature, and the first of his four film collaborations with Abe, the others being Woman in the Dunes, The Face of Another and The Man Without a Map. Unlike the others, which are based on novels by Abe, Pitfall was originally a television play called Purgatory (Rengoku). The film has been included in The Criterion Collection. It is known for its surreal storytelling structure and themes of hopelessness, exploitation, and human suffering. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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• The Inheritance (1962)
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• Otoko to otoko no ikiru machi (1962)
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