Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
Bookmark this pageA Man Vanishes (1967)
Director: Shohei Imamura
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
'Please understand this is pure drama, a fictitious story.' Imamura's first 'documentary', an investigation (initially) of the social phenomenon of 'Johatsu' - the disappearance of thousands of people in Japan every year - approached via a collaboration between the film-makers and one such missing man's abandoned fiancée. But their search gradually dissipates in the face of both the woman's own transference of interest to one of the crew, and the seemingly irreconcilable truths of conflicting witnesses. Eventually, the film grinds to a halt, turning in ever narrower circles of doubtfulness. The tone is scrupulously academic, with Imamura's cool anthropological eye skating over the woman's own story and the logistics of the search. By the time the director intervenes to demand our suspension of belief, we're left with only a disenchanted and a rather outdated essay in self-deconstruction.Author: NB
Cast & crew
Director: Shohei Imamura
Cast: Shohei Imamura, Yoshie Hayakawa, Shigeru Tsuyuguchi full cast
Duration: 130 mins
Top Stories
Ben Drew aka Plan B interview
The singer, rapper and now film director discusses his debut film 'Ill Manors'
Cannes Film Festival 2012: final round-up
Dave Calhoun draws the curtain on the world's greatest film festival
Ridley Scott interview
Director Ridley Scott tells Cath Clarke why he's making a science fiction comeback
What do you think?
Post your review now