- Pitfall (1962 film)
Infobox Film
name = Pitfall
caption =
director =Hiroshi Teshigahara
producer = Tadashi Oono
writer =Kōbō Abe
starring =Hisashi Igawa Kunie Tanaka
music =Toru Takemitsu
cinematography = Hiroshi Segawa
editing = Fusako Shuzui
distributor = Teshigahara ProductionsToho
released = flagicon|JapanJuly 1 ,1962
runtime = 97 min
country =Japan
language = Japanese
budget =
amg_id = 1:229277
imdb_id = 0203612nihongo|"Pitfall"|おとし穴|"Otoshiana", aka "The Pitfall" and "Kashi to kodomo", is a 1962 Japanese film directed byHiroshi Teshigahara , written byKōbō Abe , with music byToru Takemitsu . It was the first of their four film collaborations, the others being "Woman in the Dunes ", "The Face of Another" and "The Ruined Map ".Plot
"Pitfall" is set against the background of labour relations in the Japanese
mining industry, but the film owes as much tosurrealism 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 differenttrade 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.ource
*Booklet and commentary by
Tony Rayns to the Eureka Masters of Cinema DVD edition.External links
*
* " [http://www.filmref.com/directors/dirpages/teshigahara.html#pitfall Pitfall] " at Strictly Film School
* " [http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1962/cl002140.htm Pitfall] " at the Japanese Movie Database ja icon
* [http://www.criterion.com/asp/release.asp?id=393&bid=392 "Pitfall" at the Criterion collection]
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