“Pitfall” a movie that shares many similarities with “Woman of the Dunes” and Shohei Imamura’s works, was Hiroshi Teshigahara‘s feature debut and also marked the first of four collaborations with Kobo Abe, the aforementioned included. However, unlike the others, which are based on novels by Abe, “Pitfall” was originally a television play called “Purgatory” (Rengoku). The production had its share of problems, as Teshigahara often disagreed with his film crew, and fired two assistant directors who did not wish to include the rape scene in the movie. It was distributed by the Art Theatre Guild on a limited release, in one of the first distribution efforts of the company, and was later acquired by Toho which released it in the United States in 1964.
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A miner manages to escape a mining camp he was imprisoned along with his son, and ends up in a mining village in Kyushu, where he is told he will find work. However, he finds himself in an abandoned town inhabited only by a candy seller woman, who informs him that the mine has been abandoned. She also tells him to go over the hill where another mining village is situated. On his path, though, he is followed by a man in a white suit, who was previously taking photos of him, and who eventually proceeds on killing and robbing the miner. Later on, he bribes the candy woman, the only witness, to keep silent.
The miner however, soon comes back to life as a ghost, witnessing the police investigation of the crime. In the meantime, a journalist who is covering the murder is wondering about the circumstances that led to it, since the victim looks much alike with the Old Pit union chief Otsuka who is in a battle for worker support with the new unscrupulous union head, who is in charge of the New Pit.
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Despite the fact that Teshigahara includes a number of elements in a rather layered narrative, the main metaphor here is quite palpable. The union workers, whom the initial miner ‘fantasizes’ about joining, eventually start fighting, with the instigation of the ‘capital’ of course, are split, and taken down in the end, in what is, to a rather large degree, the history of the left throughout time.
Apart from this, the existential questions, directly asked by the miner, add another level to a movie that also deals with the role of the press and the police, with the latter, in particular, being presented in the darkest colors. The presence of the murder induces the narrative with a noir-like sense of mystery, while the fate of the candy seller refers to the place of women in the then society. At the same time, it adds a sense of sensualism to the movie, as Sumie Sasaki moves around in just a negligee for the majority of her presence.
Furthermore, both her presence, and the frequent peeping on various occasions, including hers on the murder, allow Teshigara and his DP, Hiroshi Segawa, to play with the concept of voyeurism in various forms, in one of the most intriguing aspects of the whole movie.
The presence of ghosts on the other hand, although necessary for the economy of the film, is not handled particularly well, both in terms of visuals and in the story, in a testament to the fact that the director had not perfected his command of the medium yet.The combination of a crime thriller with noir elements and an existential, surrealist drama—while grounded in realism through its cinematographic style—is undoubtedly intriguing, but it doesn’t always work seamlessly as a whole, reinforcing the aforementioned comment. Fusako Morimichi’s editing results in a relatively fast pace that works well for the story, allowing it to unfold without rushing in the economical 97 minutes of the duration.
Hisashi Igawa in the double role of the Miner and Otsuka is impressive to watch on occasion, particularly in the way the two differ from each other. Furthermore, the choice of him having a double role perhaps meant to highlight two different sides of workers, the timid who follows and the activist who fights against authority, with the fate of the two, adding to this comment. Kunie Tanaka as the Man in White is captivating as the mysterious villain of the story, in a show-stealing performance.
Although not in the same level with films such as “Woman in the Dunes”, “The Face of Another” and “The Man Without a Map”, “Pitfall” is definitely a high above average film, with the experimentation Teshigahara later perfected being enough to carry it from beginning to end, along with the rather intriguing story.
