Hole in One

1957 · Movie · 103 min. · Japan

Comedy Musical

Eccentric film about female reporter fired for writing about police corruption. To make money she hides while a weekly magazine offers a prize for her discovery. A bank embezzler and his underlings take advantage of her disappearance to pin the theft on her, as well as the murder of the weak link in their gang. Meanwhile, the cop she got fired is now a private detective and he gets involved in the investigation. Another example of Ichikawa's mixing of farcical genre filmmaking with perspicacious visual design. Comic highlights include an intentions of murder scene in which each shot reveals the gap in knowledge between potential perpetrator and victim, and the role of unseen objects in accidentally protecting the latter from the former. Another cynical film that finds in cinema a model for the superficial image society of 1960s Japan.

Direction Kon Ichikawa

Cast Machiko Kyô · Eiji Funakoshi · Sô Yamamura · Kenji Sugawara · Jun Hamamura · Fujio Harumoto · Sumiko Hidaka · Shintaro Ishihara · Yasuko Kawakami · Tanie Kitabayashi · Bontarô Miake · Mantarô Ushio