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A Man Vanishes – never released in the U.S. until now – is one of the most important and complex works by two-time Palme d’Or winning director Shohei Imamura. A Man Vanishes was initially conceived as a documentary about a young salesman named Ôshima Tadashi, who abruptly disappears from society without a single word, leaving behind his fiancée, Yoshie. It was assumed that Yoshie’s relentless hunt for her unfaithful lover would result in a relatively standard plot resolution. But as shooting proceeded, Imamura came to believe that it would be impossible for Yoshie to know Ôshima’s whereabouts, despite her exhaustive search through the media. Ordered to bring an end to a project that had no conventional ending, Imamura was forced to redesign the structure of the film, which was already several months into the shooting. The substantial changes that Imamura made, however, would ultimately secure the work’s unique and now legendary position in the history of documentary film. In Japanese with English subtitles. (130 min.)

"Critics’ Pick! If A Man Vanishes had played at Cannes this year, it would have been hailed as a thrilling discovery. That surely will be the response of filmgoers lucky enough to see this 1967 masterwork from Imamura (1926-2006)... Wildly startling in its execution, it tracks a film crew that, like a detective squad, investigates what became of an ordinary man." —Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

"Explosively provocative! Worth the 45-year wait." –Ronnie Schieb, Variety