‘#MANHOLE’ Review — Preposterously silly thriller is a good time [Fantasia 2023]

A review of the new Japanese thriller, from the Fantasia Film Festival

I love single-location thrillers about people getting stuck somewhere. Frozen, the one where they’re stuck on a chairlift. Buried, the one where Ryan Reynolds gets buried alive. Trapped Sisters: 12 Feet Deep, the one where the sisters get trapped in a pool that’s 12 feet deep. ATM, the one where Josh Peck gets stuck near an ATM, wasn’t great, but hey, I watched it. I’ll watch ’em all.

Japanese thriller #Manhole is about — you guessed it — a man who falls down a mahole and finds himself trapped. He’s wounded, the tunnels are too small to crawl through, and the ladder back up to the surface is broken, leaving him unable to climb back up. Also, there’s toxic sludge pumping from a pipe, and there might even be a gas leak. What’s he going to do?!

JPOP boy-band member Yuto Nakajima (of Hey! Say! JUMP) plays Shunsuke Kawamura, the man in the hole. The film starts the night before his wedding. Shunsuke walks into a bar and finds his coworkers waiting for him, surprising him with a pre-wedding party. After having a few drinks, however, he stumbles outside… has a brief conversation with his colleague… wanders off… and the next thing he knows, he’s…