Rarely have films mixed fiction and documentary with the impact achieved by A Man Vanishes, which began as a documentary about the rising number of missing persons in Japan. The film presents one such case, that of a young man who disappeared while on a business trip. Imamura hired an actor to play an investigator who interacts with the missing man's fiancée. The result is a fascinating mixture of fact and fiction that builds through a series of revelations to a dizzying finale.