DVD release - Three Films By Hiroshi Teshigahara (Criterion) available on July 10, 2007

This set of 3 Hiroshi Teshigahara films includes “Pitfall”, “Woman in the Dunes”, and “The Face of Another”. Region 1, NTSC, 4 discs. Japanese audio with English subtitles. Includes James Quandt video wssays, 4 short films by Hiroshi Teshigahara, Teshigahara documentary, and collector’s booklet.

In Pitfall (Otoshiana, 1962), a miner and his son travel to a town where they’re told they can find some work, but only one woman seems to live there. When they leave an assassin in white appears and mysterious murders start occurring throughout their small mining community. Suddenly confused ghosts of the dead appear, demanding answers.

In Woman in the Dunes (Sunna no Onna, 1964), a teacher named Junpei loses track of time while collecting insects on the coast and misses his bus home. A local woman invites him to stay at her hut, which is situated at the bottom of a sand pit. However, her hospitality is short-lived as he is now a prisoner, forced to spend his days shoveling out the sand that will seemingly never stop pouring in on the hut.

In The Face of Another (Tanin no Kao, 1966), Okuyama (Tatsuya Nakadai) is facially scarred in a laboratory fire and has his doctor create a realistic mask for him. The mask is modeled after a complete stranger and looks nothing like his original face, so when he successfully seduces his own wife (Machiko Kyo) he becomes enraged and begins to question the very essence of identity.

Available at the following retailer(s) on July 10, 2007: