Inspired By.
Not Bound To.
"How To Disappear Completely And Never Be Found" is a Mexican cartel runaway thriller set between Mexico City and Los Angeles. The story is its own. The world it lives in is its own.
But every film stands on the shoulders of the people, practices, and works that came before it. These are ours. We acknowledge them here. None of them define the film. All of them helped shape it.
· Acknowledged ·
Johatsu /joh-hah-tsoo/ · noun · Japanese
Literally "evaporation." The term refers to a real social phenomenon in Japan: people who voluntarily vanish, leaving behind their past lives to escape debt, shame, abuse, or personal crisis. Known as "evaporated people," they embody the pressures of a highly conformist culture.
We learned about johatsu while researching the film and were moved by what it represented. The film is not about Japan or Japanese culture. But the universal impulse it names — the wish to disappear cleanly, completely, and start again — is the question our characters wrestle with from the first frame to the last.
· Acknowledged ·
Yonige-ya /yoh-nee-gay-yah/ · noun · Japanese
Translates to "fly-by-night arranger." A real Japanese business that helps people disappear or "night move" to a safe place. Their clients are often victims of stalking, domestic abuse, loan sharks, and organized crime.
The fictional company in our film, T.I.N.A. (There Is No Alternative), is a "yonige-ya" in spirit. It operates in our story out of Mexico City — not Tokyo — and serves clients fleeing cartels, not loan sharks. The practice predates the film. We give credit where it's due.
· Title Origin ·
How To Disappear Completely
And Never Be Found
Doug Richmond · Paladin Press · 1985
An instruction manual published in 1985. A real book. Source material for generations of American runaways. The film's title comes from it. Director Ryan Sheehy read it in early development. Pieces of its philosophy bleed into the script.
· Music ·
How To Disappear Completely Radiohead · Kid A · 2000
The Radiohead song shares the book's title and was inspired by it. We have always loved the song. It captures the desire to be gone in a way nothing else does. Tonally, it sits next to the film like a sibling.