The Pit of Death / 怪談おとし穴 / Kaidan otoshiana (aka ‘The Ghostly Trap’, 1968)

Obscure Japanese Film #147

Mikio Narita

Kuramoto (Mikio Narita) is an ambitious salaryman working at a company based in a tower block said to be haunted by the ghost of a typist who went missing. He’s in a relationship with her replacement, Etsuko (Mayumi Nagisa), who wants to marry him, but he's also being pursued by the boss' daughter, Midori (Mako Sanjo), and he wants to ditch Etsuko and marry Midori so he can get an easy promotion. Etsuko won’t let him go so easily, however, so he begins scheming about ways to get rid of her…

Narita and Mayumi Nagisa

 

As played by Mikio Narita with a Spock-like haircut, Kuramoto seems an unlikely babe magnet. Japanese Wikipedia observes that this was his only leading role in a film, and it’s not hard to see why – most of the time here, he’s so wooden that he resembles a stick with a human face (though, having said that, it’s only fair to point out that he had a reputation for being excellent at playing nihilistic villains, mainly in yakuza films). Narita is also not helped by having to play opposite an actor as expressive as Mayumi Nagisa. 

 

The film was apparently released on a double bill with Satsuo Yamamoto’s Peony Lantern, so it’s a B-movie, but even so it looks as if the penny-pinching at the struggling Daiei studios was really starting to bite. The exterior scenes are mostly shot in too-bright sunlight, and many of the interior ones are lit by equally overpowering sunshine pouring in through a nearby window or by lamps which are part of the set. It’s almost as if director Koji Shima was told that they couldn’t afford those big, expensive movie lights anymore, so he’d have to make do without. 

Narita looks out at one of Koji Shima's trademark storms

 

Recycling elements from The Ghost of Yotsuya, the script is an original work by Kazuo Funahashi – who had an impressive track record – but the thin story feels stretched out even at 78 minutes. An example of this is when a confrontation scene between Kuramoto and Etsuko on the rooftop is virtually repeated again immediately after in the stationery cupboard. However, despite its obvious flaws, The Pit of Death manages some atmospheric and creepy scenes together with a couple of clever surprises. The highlight is probably the murder scene which takes place in the basement of the office building and is accompanied by a cacophonous score evoking the sound of clanking pipes. Speaking for myself, I had low expectations for this film, but was pleasantly surprised on the whole. The film's unusual office block setting, excellent jazz soundtrack (by Shima's regular collaborator Seitaro Omori) and black-and-white VistaVision cinematography together give it a unique feel for a film of this vintage. 

Director Koji Shima ended his career at Daiei with this film, then went to Hong Kong the following year and made a longer version of the story for the Shaw Brothers (entitled Luo shi hen, aka Dear Murderer). 

 

English subtitles courtesy of Coralsundy can be found here.

DVD at Amazon Japan.