Le traquenard

This film is very difficult to find in the West. It's not on video and you'd probably have to be lucky and find it at a film festival or a revival house. It's the first collaboration between director Teshigahara, writer Kodo Abe, and composer Toru Takemitsu, who went on to make the more widely available WOMAN IN THE DUNES and FACE OF ANOTHER. It's not quite as strong as WitD but is on par with FoA. This is a satire about a deserted town who's inhabitants are ghosts swallowed up by corruption. Teshigahara's direction is solid and Takemitsu comes up with another appropriately dissonant score balancing tension and humor. It's worth seeing for anyone interested in the three principal collaborators, particularly since opportunities to see it are rare. Takemitsu in particular could almost single handedly make a movie worth watching.

From the start of the movie you follow two deserters that are mine workers. A guy dressed in white is spying on them unnoticed from a distance. Then The miners move on to new jobs but the man in white follows still unnoticed....

This movie is much more about moods I think than the actual story. It is a slow moving movie especially the first half of it. But I was absorbed about wondering who was it following him and why. I did also like the boy as the silent observer where I wondered if he would interfere with the story at a time and in what way.

I would not recommend this movie to everybody. I did enjoy it a lot but I would not consider it as a masterpiece. If you are are interested in slow but moody B&W pictures then it may be for you. If you want a bit more action then choose another movie.

An artistic film that defies simple analysis. There are ghosts, but it's not a ghost story. There is a crime scene investigation, but it's not a murder mystery. It's got surreal moments, but it's not strictly a fantasy.

At the heart of this allegory is a very down to earth social criticism of Japan's mining industry. The film shows us the backbreaking work of miners in the Kyushu region, one that has been desolated by industry. Pay is meager and workers are sometimes hunted down for desertion. There are unions but they are weak, and industrialists use one of the many ploys at their disposal to keep them that way - they pit the leaders of different groups against one another. The mysterious man in the white suit to me is simply a symbol for big business. Without a trace of compassion, it leaves entire communities as ghost towns, raping the land, and leaving its workers eternally hungry.

The visuals in the film are stark and brilliant. Teshigahara boldly puts images and sequences on the screen that make us wonder what's happening, and where he's going with this. The film may seem disjointed and odd, but bear with it, or watch it a couple of times (as I did).

It's certainly not cheery though. There is so little hope against unseen forces that leave people in squalor, and have men fighting one another in the mud of life. A shop owner is raped by a cop and it's witnessed by a boy. It's very unfortunate that this seems to evolve into acceptance or consent on her part after a jump cut (the painful to watch trope that 'no' eventually means 'yes' with enough force or persistence). It's a small moment, but this woman sells candy bearing Disney characters, a clear (and sad for Japan) post-war reference. And what of the future? A little boy in a barren landscape who has seen several murders, a rape, and impassively rips apart a live frog? It's bleak.

If you're familiar with Hiroshi Teshigahara's work, especially the notorious "Woman In The Dunes", you will understand the starkness, the harsh reality, the irony of this film. Ostensibly about a miner who is stalked by a man in a white suit and who then is killed for reasons that do not become apparent until nearly the end of the film, the film is, like "Dunes", an uncompromising look at life. The film is technically superb on the DVD box available, and it is highly recommended. This film is not for everyone, it is for people who are interested in serious Japanese cinema. There are nuances in this film that show the mark of a great director, though. Again, be prepared: This is not happy go lucky. It triumphs mostly because of its persistence of vision. That is an endorsement for any filmmaker.

PITFALL is by far inferior to the other two collaborations of Hiroshi Teshigahara and Kobo Abe (The Face of Another/Woman in the Dunes). It was not as interesting/innovative or brilliant, it's more of a cinematic "curiosum" i would say. That doesn't mean it has no merits. I could never guess where it goes, it's overambitious, one could say it has not any identity but i love multiple-genre movies, even the ones which get a bit messy and confusing.

PITFALL starts as drama, then it becomes a drama/fantasy, then, a mystery and it ends like an existential drama. Unfortunately, it ends up less exciting as it sounds. Still it's a good movie and i disagree with the reviewers who said that zero explanations are being given. Actually, it's obvious what happened here, as long as you pay attention to all those "conflicting parties" here. Hint, it's not two but three.