, a.k.a. ''The Pitfall'' and ''Kashi To Kodomo'', is a 1962

Japanese film The has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world; as of 2021, it was the fourth largest by number of feature films produced. In 2011 Japan produced 411 feature films that ea ...

directed by

Hiroshi Teshigahara was a Japanese avant-garde filmmaker and artist from the Japanese New Wave era. He is best known for the 1964 film ''Woman in the Dunes''. He is also known for directing other titles such as ''The Face of Another'' (1966), ''Natsu No Heitai'' (''S ...

, written by

Kōbō Abe , pen name of , was a Japanese writer, playwright, musician, photographer, and inventor. He is best known for his 1962 novel '' The Woman in the Dunes'' that was made into an award-winning film by Hiroshi Teshigahara in 1964. Abe has often bee ...

. It was Teshigahara's first feature, and the first of his four film collaborations with Abe, the others being ''

Woman in the Dunes is a 1964 Japanese New Wave drama directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara, starring Eiji Okada as an entomologist searching for insects and Kyōko Kishida as the titular woman. It received positive critical reviews and was nominated for two Academy Awa ...

'', ''

The Face of Another is a 1964 novel written by the Japanese novelist Kōbō Abe. Like other stories written by this author, the novel explores the alienation of modern man from urban society. It is written in the first person narrative mode, and is divided into ...

'' and ''

The Man Without a Map is a 1968 Japanese film directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara and starring Shintaro Katsu. The screenplay was adapted by Kōbō Abe from his novel '' The Ruined Map''. This was the fifth and final film collaboration between Teshigahara and Abe.Berra, ...

''. Unlike the others, which are based on novels by Abe, ''Pitfall'' was originally a television play called Purgatory (Rengoku).The Word and The Image: Collaborations between Abe Kôbô and Teshigahara Hiroshi - Yuji Matson
/ref> The film has been included in

The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...

Plot

''Pitfall'' is set against the background of labour relations in the

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

industry, but the film owes as much to

surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

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 A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

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 the deaths of both. 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

Hisashi Igawa Hisashi Igawa (井川比佐志 born 17 November 1936) is a Japanese actor who has appeared in such films as Akira Kurosawa's '' Dodesukaden'', ''Ran'' and ''Madadayo''. He starred in Abe Kōbō's production of ''The Man Who Turned Into A Stick'' ...

- Miner / Otsuka *

Sumie Sasaki Sumie or Sumi-e or Sumi e or ''variation'', may also refer to: People Sumie is a feminine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese long jumper *Sumie Baba (born 1967), a Japanese voice actor * Sumie Ishitaka, women' ...

- Shopkeeper *

Sen Yano Sen may refer to: Surname * Sen (surname), a Bengali surname * Şen, a Turkish surname * A variant of the Serer patronym Sène Currency subunit * Etymologically related to the English word ''cent''; a hundredth of the following currencies: ** ...

- Toyama *

Hideo Kanze was a Japanese actor and director, who specialized in the Noh form of musical drama. He was the second son of Kanze Tetsunojō VII, a descendant of Kan'ami and Zeami, who founded the Noh movement in the 14th century. Trained alongside his brothe ...

- Policeman *

Kunie Tanaka was a Japanese actor. Tanaka first made a name for himself as the lecherous antagonist of the ''Wakadaishō'' series (1961–1981) of films. He is also well-known for his roles in Kinji Fukasaku's yakuza films, namely the ''Battles Without Honor ...

- Man in white suit *

Kei Satō was a Japanese character actor and narrator. He is known for his work with Japanese New Wave director Nagisa Oshima, and for several films with Kaneto Shindo, such as '' Onibaba'' and ''Kuroneko''. He won the best actor award from ''Kinema Junpo ...

- Reporter

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 The , more commonly known as the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty in English and as the or just in Japanese, is a treaty that permits the presence of U.S. military bases on Japanese soil, and commits the two nations to defend each other if one or th ...

.James Quandt, Video Essay included on the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...

DVD release of ''Pitfall'' The film was shot in

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...

, and incorporates

stock footage Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures, and file footage is film or video footage that can be used again in other films. Stock footage is beneficial to filmmakers as it saves shooting new material. A single piece of stock ...

of mining disasters and starvation that had afflicted the area. Many of the visual devices and themes are similar to the contemporaneous work of

Shōhei Imamura was a Japanese film director. His main interest as a filmmaker lay in the depiction of the lower strata of Japanese society. A key figure in the Japanese New Wave, who continued working into the 21st century, Imamura is the only director from J ...

, whose 1959 film '' My Second Brother'' also featured Kyūshū coal miners. 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.

Release

''Pitfall'' was first distributed by Japan Art Theatre Guild (ATG) on a limited release on July 1, 1962. ATG had only began distributing films on April 20, 1962. The film then appeared to be acquired by

Toho is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer an ...

for wider release on June 6, 1964. The film was released in the United States in 1964 through Toho International.

References

*Booklet and commentary by

Tony Rayns Antony Rayns (born 1948) is a British writer, commentator, film festival programmer and screenwriter. He wrote for the underground publication ''Cinema Rising'' (its name inspired by Kenneth Anger's '' Scorpio Rising'') before contributing to ...

to the Eureka Masters of Cinema DVD edition.

External links

* * *
Pitfall
' at Strictly Film School *

' at the Japanese Movie Database
''Pitfall: Outdoor Miner''
an essay by Howard Hampton at the

{{Hiroshi Teshigahara 1962 films 1962 drama films 1960s avant-garde and experimental films Japanese avant-garde and experimental films Japanese drama films 1960s Japanese-language films Japanese black-and-white films Films about the labor movement Films directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara Toho films 1960s Japanese films