Photo/Illutration Director Gakuryu Ishii (Photo by Atsushi Ohara)

“The Box Man,” the latest offering from director Gakuryu Ishii, is a surreal story about an individual who withdraws from the world by holing up in a cardboard box but is able to gaze out through a slit in the side without being seen.

Other men, fascinated by the bizarre presence, make desperate attempts to become Box Men themselves.

The drama is based on absurdist writer Kobo Abe’s novel of the same name.

“This is an experience-based work of serious literature and entertainment,” the director said.

When the photographer Myself (played by Masatoshi Nagase) accidentally spots the Box Man, he is intrigued and becomes a Box Man himself.

He is seduced by a mysterious woman (Ayana Shiramoto), while a frivolous fake doctor plans to take over his identity. Meantime, an eerie military physician plots to use him for a crime.

The men lose their identities and descend into a labyrinth.

Ishii was originally ready to start shooting in Germany in 1997, but production came to an abrupt halt the day before filming was scheduled to begin.

The director had a hard time figuring out how to transplant “traps Abe sets in the original novel,” such as its meta structure and the replacement of the narrator.

He came up with a ploy to make the audience participate in the film.

“It means that this is not someone else’s problem and that the Box Man represents us and you as you watch the movie,” Ishii said. “It was an idea I incorporated after I realized that the ratio of the height and width of the peephole is the same as that of the film screen.”

There is also an audience participation trick during the closing credits.

“I thought the audience walked out of the theater a little too early when it had its world premiere (at the Berlin International Film Festival in February),” Ishii said.

But those who remain seated long enough are bound to end up with a wry smile on their faces, he said.

“The Box Man” is currently showing nationwide.

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