Pitfall (1962 film)

Pitfall , Otoshiana? , a.k.a. The Pitfall and Kashi To Kodomo, is a 1962 Japanese film directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara, written by Kb Abe, with music by Toru Takemitsu. It was Teshigaharas first feature, and the first of his four film collaborations with Abe and Takemitsu, the others being Woman in the Dunes, The Face of Another and The Ruined Map. Unlike the others, which are based on novels by Abe, Pitfall was originally a television play called Purgatory Rengoku. The film has been included in The Criterion Collection.

The films focus on the exploitation of coal miners was likely influenced by Teshigahara and Abes political leanings, and their sympathy with the Tokyo demonstrations in 1960 against Anpo.The film was shot in Kysh, and incorporates stock footage of mining disasters and starvation that had afflicted the area. Many of the visual devices and themes are similar to the contemporaneous work of Shhei Imamura, whose 1959 film My Second Brother also featured Kysh coal miners. ........

Source: Wikipedia