Who is this man? The protagonist in ¡°All is Lost¡± is also its sole character ¡ª an older (but astoundingly fit) stranded sailor portrayed by 77-year-old Robert Redford. He¡¯s unnamed, and does not speak except for right at the beginning of the film when he¡¯s reciting a letter to persons unknown. The letter is couched as an apology, but for what sin we do not know. ¡°I will miss you,¡± he says by way of farewell. He wears a wedding ring on his left hand, but there¡¯s no telling to whom he¡¯s directing this missive.

The story begins eight days earlier, when the man wakes to find that a wayward ship container has pierced a large hole in the side of his yacht. Alone and out at sea, the man goes through a series of tasks in order of importance: 1. Check to see if the electricity is working (it¡¯s not); 2. Assemble the tools necessary to plug and repair the hole; 3. Sustain himself with a can of beans; and so on. It¡¯s a slow, painstaking process, and this man doesn¡¯t even have a volleyball to talk to at night, like Tom Hanks in ¡°Cast Away.¡± One by one, his resources fall away. A cargo ship passes close by, but no one sees him as he signals in vain.

The director is J.C. Chandor, whose debut feature ¡°Margin Call¡± was a story about investment bankers when the global economy took a nosedive toward unmitigated disaster in 2007-8. Now showing in Japan, ¡°All is Lost¡± is his second feature and, at first glance, the two may as well be set on different planets. But there¡¯s one outstanding commonality: Both reveal an inordinate fascination with human beings trying their darnedest to survive and deploying every resource at their disposal, not least their own store of knowledge, experience and willpower.