Japanese art film. Original title 箱男 (Hako Otoko).
A nameless man gives up his identity to live with a large cardboard box over his head. He meets a range of characters as he wanders in Tokyo.
That description makes it sound silly. It is not. It was adapted from a 1973 novel by Kobo Abe, the internationally acclaimed author of Woman in the Dunes. Abe’s writing is frequently compared to the works of the Western Absurdists/Surrealists like Samuel Beckett and Franz Kafka.
Goodreads describes the novel as follows:
In this eerie and evocative masterpiece, the nameless protagonist gives up his identity and the trappings of a normal life to live in a large cardboard box he wears over his head. Wandering the streets of Tokyo and scribbling madly on the interior walls of his box, he describes the world outside as he sees or perhaps imagines it, a tenuous reality that seems to include a mysterious rifleman determined to shoot him, a seductive young nurse, and a doctor who wants to become a box man himself. The Box Man is a marvel of sheer originality and a bizarrely fascinating fable about the very nature of identity.
If you’re interested, there’s a thorough review of the book here.
