野獣死すべし [Yajū shisubeshi / The Beast Shall Die] (Eizō Sugawa, 1959)
Feb
17
airline food
Kunihiko Date (Tatsuya Nakadai) enjoys an in-flight meal. DP: Fukuzō Koizumi.
人間蒸発 [Ningen jōhatsu / A Man Vanishes] (Shōhei Imamura, 1967)
Apr
15
Rubber Eraser Day
A man hangs a poster of the vanished Mr Oshima. Shoppers pass by. DP: Kenji Ishiguro.
Jōhatsu, literally “evaporation” is the Japanese term for people disappearing without a trace. Salesman Tadashi Oshima is one of them. Director Shōhei Imamura, together with Oshima's fiancé Yoshie Hayakawa and actor Shigeru Tsuyuguchi created an investigative documentary that looks into this man, his motives, his possible whereabouts, and the others that are gone.
人間蒸発 is a fascinating exploration of aspects of 1960s Japanese society that make jōhatsu distinct from similar phenomena elsewhere.