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Melancholy documentary follows the owner of a ‘night moving’ business in Japan, helping people abandon their own lives

‘Johatsu” means evaporation in Japanese, and is used to refer to those people who choose to disappear, severing all ties with their past lives and their families. It became a phenomenon in Japan in the 1960s, and intensified during the 1990s as the country struggled with a debt crisis. While some plot their departures on their own, others call on the services of “night movers”: companies that help people vanish without trace.

Following the owner of one such business named Saita, Andreas Hartmann’s and Arata Mori’s poignant documentary surveys the circumstances that drive people to desperate measures. Unfolding like a suspense thriller, the opening sees a man hurriedly get inside Saita’s van, his voice trembling with fear. Unable to cope with a possessive partner, he finally manages to flee.

As we have mentioned many times before, the documentary is currently experiencing one of its golden periods, with the fact that reality goes beyond any script becoming quite obvious throughout the plethora of entries we have been seeing during that last few years. Furthermore, as a number of courageous filmmakers shed light to issues that are dangerous to depict (to say the least) or even hard to watch, the quality of the category continues to improve. Add to that the biographical ones, the ones that present real but relatively unknown sides of each country’s society and you have the majority of reasons for what we mentioned in the beginning.

Without further ado, here are the 15 Best Asian Documentaries of 2024, in reverse order. Some may have premiered in 2023, but since they mostly circulated in 2024, we decided to include them.

15. Parama: A Journey With Aparna Sen Aparna Sen © Mayaleela Films

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1. Documentary Review: Until I Fly (2024) by Kanishka Sonthalia and Siddesh Shetty

At the same time though, and if one looks at the story in a wider prism, the issues with emigration and the racism that results from it are highlighted quite eloquently, along with a comment that problems like that become even more significant in small societies, where one can definitely not ‘hide in the crowd'. As such, the movie is induced with a more universal essence, which definitely helps raise the quality of its context.

2. Interview: Kanishka Sonthalia and Siddesh Shetty 3. Queer Japan (2019) by Graham Kolbeins

Choosing the protagonist wisely, “Queer Japan” gives space to a good sample of voices to be listened to. Butoh dancers, drag queens, club founders and owners, author of gay manga featuring bear gays, erotic drawing artist, politician. Gay, lesbian, bi, trans men, trans women, non-binary people, pansexuals, all kinds of various fetishes lovers and many many others.

The term Johatsu refers to people in Japan who purposely vanish from their established lives without a trace, in a phenomenon that started being mentioned in the 60s but became prevalent in the 90s when the financial issues the country faced led many to disappear to avoid their debts. The stats talk about 80,000 people per year, most of which are found by the police after reported missing. Thousands, however are never found. The concept, which is considered taboo in Japan, has been already implemented in cinema in the iconic “A Man Vanishes” by Shohei Imamura. Andreas Hartman and Arata Mori, however, present a completely different, rather more realistic and thorough take on the topic, by focusing both on the people who disappear and the ‘night-moving' companies that help achieve their disappearance for a price.

Johatsu-Into Thin Air is screening at Thessaloniki Documentary Festival

The best trait of Andreas Hartmann and...

The 26th edition of the Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival (TiDF) kicks off today (March 7) with 12 features screening in international competition.

Several titles are making their world premiere at the festival including Johatsu - Into Thin Air from Andreas Hartmann and Arata Mori about the thousands of people who disappear in Japan each year.

Also playing is Sundance award-winner A New Kind Of Wilderness from Silje Evensmo Jacobsen. The Norweigan film, which won the grand jury prize in documentary, follows a family living in the wild who are forced to confront contemporary society after a tragic event.

Fellow Sundance-award winner Nocturnes...

"In this neighborhood, nobody cares if your name is real or fake." There's an interesting new documentary film premiering at festivals soon titled Johatsu - Into Thin Air, which is co-directed by the German doc filmmaker Andreas Hartmann + Japanese doc filmmaker Arata Mori. It's premiering soon at both the 2024 Thessaloniki Documentary Festival first then right after at the Cph:dox Festival in Copenhagen in March. No other release dates or details are available - as it's just being unveiled now. In Japan...

Screen can reveal the exclusive first trailer for Johatsu – Into Thin Air, Andreas Hartmann and Arata Mori’s documentary about Japan’s disappearing people.

The film will have its world premiere in the international competition at Thessaloniki International Documentary Festival, which runs from March 7-17.

It will then head to Denmark’s Cph:dox for its international premiere on March 14.

Directed by Hartmann and Mori and produced by Hartmann for Ossa Film, Johatsu depicts a few of the thousands who disappear every year in Japan. Known as the Johatsu – ‘evaporated’ – they abandon their lives to start anew, sometimes with professional assistance and leaving others behind.

The 26th Thessaloniki Intl. Documentary Festival has revealed the lineup of the International Competition section, which includes “A New Kind of Wilderness,” winner of the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema – Documentary section of Sundance Film Festival. Thessaloniki Documentary Festival runs from March 7-17.

The films participating in the section have their world, international or European premiere at the festival.

The films compete for a number of awards, accompanied by monetary prizes. Among them are the Golden Alexander award, accompanied by a 12,000 euro prize, and the Silver Alexander award, accompanied by 5,000 euros.

The Thessaloniki Documentary Festival is an Oscars qualifying festival and the film that wins the Golden Alexander award will automatically be eligible to submit for Academy Awards consideration in the documentary feature category.

The documentaries that will participate in the International Competition section are as follows. (Descriptions supplied by the festival).

“A New Kind of Wilderness”

Silje Evensmo Jacobsen,...