Pitfall (1962 film)

Pitfall
Directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara
Produced by Tadashi Oono
Written by Kōbō Abe
Starring Hisashi Igawa
Kunie Tanaka
Music by Toru Takemitsu
Cinematography Hiroshi Segawa
Edited by Fusako Shuzui
Distributed by Teshigahara Productions
Toho
Release dates
  • 1 July 1962 (Japan)
Running time
 97 min
Country Japan
Language Japanese

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, with music by Toru Takemitsu. It was Teshigahara's first feature, and the first of his four film collaborations with Abe and Takemitsu, the others being Woman in the Dunes, The Face of Another and The Ruined Map. Unlike the others, which are based on novels by Abe, Pitfall was originally a television play called Purgatory (Rengoku).[1] The film has been included in The Criterion Collection.

Plot

Pitfall is set against the background of labour relations in the Japanese mining industry, but the film owes as much to surrealism as it does to "socially aware" drama. The mine in the film is divided into two pits, the old one and the new one, each represented by a different trade union faction. A mysterious man in white, whose identity we never learn, murders an unemployed miner who bears an uncanny resemblance to the union leader at the old pit and bribes the only witness to frame the union leader of the new pit. The two union leaders go to the murder scene to investigate only to come across the body of the witness, who has subsequently been killed by the man in white. They blame one another and begin a fight which ends in both their deaths. The film ends with the man in white observing them before riding off on his motorcycle, satisfied his mission is complete. Beyond this realistic plot, Pitfall shows us the realm of the dead as well as the living, as the ghosts of the victims look on, powerless to intervene in events and bring the truth to light.

Cast

Production

The film's focus on the exploitation of coal miners was likely influenced by Teshigahara and Abe's political leanings, and their sympathy with the Tokyo demonstrations in 1960 against Anpo.[2]

The film was shot in Kyūshū, and incorporates stock footage of mining disasters and starvation that had afflicted the area.[2] Many of the visual devices and themes are similar to the contemporaneous work of Shōhei Imamura, whose 1959 film My Second Brother also featured Kyūshū coal miners.[2]

Teshigahara often disagreed with his film crew, and fired two assistant directors who did not wish to include the scene in which the policeman rapes the shopkeeper.[2]

References

  1. ↑ The Word and The Image: Collaborations between Abe Kôbô and Teshigahara Hiroshi - Yuji Matson
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 James Quandt, Video Essay included on the Criterion Collection DVD release of Pitfall

External links