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.