Pitfall

Director: Hiroshi Teshigahara

1962 / 97min / 35mm

Teshigahara’s first feature, his first adaptation of the work of novelist/playwright Kōbō Abe, and the first Japanese release from the revolutionary Art Theatre Guild, Pitfall marks a turning point in Japanese cinema, marrying the tradition of the kaidan ghost story to a new spirit of social engagement and avant-garde experimentation in telling the tale of a coal miner’s violent death and the subsequent labor struggles that his ghost bears melancholy witness to. Featuring an indelible score by pioneering composer Tōru Takemitsu, Pitfall is a testament to the remarkably creative fecundity of Japan in the 1960s.

Introduction by Lucy Kerr on Saturday, June 29th

Part of Lucy Kerr Selects