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The Box Man @ SIFF 2024
A man moves through Tokyo wearing a cardboard box while fighting off those who want to take his place. Based on the eponymous 1973 novel by Kobo Abe (“The Woman in the Dunes”).
The titular character in this absurdist take on obsession, addiction, and modern life has chosen to look down upon the rest of the world and judge it anonymously from the safety of a cardboard box. It’s no wonder he sees being a box man as being in a position of power that others would covet. In true Highlander fashion, though, it seems there can be only one, so our box man protagonist must fight off others who aspire to take his place. Initially he’s chased by a flag-wielding student activist, a photographer, and a sniper, but it’s not until he goes to the fake doctor at Abe Hospital where he meets his match. Or rather, that’s one interpretation of what happens in a world where reality can be subjective. There’s also the older doctor and the sexy nurse who have their own plans on becoming the box man. Based on what some call the unfilmable 1973 novel by Kobo Abe (”The Woman in the Dunes”), this playfully-structured film feels like the story Jean-Luc Godard never got around to making. It’s got that French New Wave voiceover, a jazzy soundtrack, a nod to leftist politics, absurd humor, and a tendency to leer at women. This modern metaphor for the internet age, famous for the ability to watch and judge people anonymously, was initially written as a metaphor for being an author, someone with a compulsion to steal aspects from real life and incorporate them into their own art. Director Gakuryû Ishii initially pitched the idea for this movie to Abe himself in the early ’90s and nearly made it in 1997 before financing fell through at the last minute, so this film can be seen as being 32 years in the making.
—Andy Spletzer
Event Links
Tickets: https://go.evvnt.com/2390521-0
