Yamaguchi Gets Claustrophobic With ABDUCTEE

Best known as the yin to Takasguchi Tak's yang - the duo work together incredibly frequently - director Yamaguchi Yudai has built himself a very well earned reputation as one of the merriest of merry pranksters in the Japanese underground scene. His work is more often than not playful and silly in the extreme, fusing elements of action,horror, scifi and general geekery into some of the oddest concoctions to come out of Japan in recent years. But he's doing something entirely different with his latest effort, Abductee.

Atsushi Chiba, aged 50, wakes up one day half-dead. He's tied up in a container, being shifted somewhere... To make things worse, he's also a world-class loser. Inside the container lies a mysterious stone which doesn't give him even the slightest clue as to who the perpetrator might be, nor any idea of the fate that awaits him. As the container makes its way from truck to ship, he discovers he is one of the 200 other abductees. His conversations through the walls enlighten him to the possibility that his ex-wife and daughter might be there too. The container continues to make its way from ship to train, and his explanations of the situation go from "human trafficking" to "international terrorism". He begins to recall what he truly used to be, and realized what is really important in his life. But when his daughter's container stops besides his, with no means of escape, have his repentances all come too late?

Yes, it's a claustrophobic thriller shot entirely in a shipping container. Intrigued? Check the trailer below.