Pitfall (1962)

The existential horror of the marginalized takes root in Japanese surrealist Hiroshi Teshigahara's feature debut.

Directed by: Hiroshi Teshigahara

Cinematography by: Hiroshi Segawa

Country: Japan

Genre: Drama/Crime/Fantasy

One of Japan’s most legendary avant-garde filmmakers, and one of cinema’s preeminent existentialists, Hiroshi Teshigahara’s feature debut, Pitfall, set the stage for his infrequent but impactful career.

Teshigahara wove surreal imagery and fever-dream storylines with social commentary about the exploitation of the working class, amplifying the dread of providing dangerous hard labor, day-after-day, and receiving barely enough to keep a roof over your head and food in your belly - and the absurdity that the only other choices are crime or death. He acknowledges the way those in power pit the underprivileged against each other, manipulating them to blame the guy across town for their struggles, rather than the one’s paying their wages, or lack thereof.

Above all Pitfall shows the horror of the marginalized; the horror of not having a voice. After an unemployed miner is murdered by a mysterious man in a white suit, the miner becomes trapped between the worlds of the living and the dead.

Unseen and unheard, he’s unable to speak out about the man who murdered him, instead forced to wander aimlessly as a silent spectator in the wake of his own life, as the man in the white suit continues his seemingly unmotivated reign of terror.

Distributed by: The Criterion Collection / Janus Films / Toho Company