A Page of Madness was directed and produced by Teinosuke Kinugasa and written by Yasunari Kawabata in 1926 Japan. The film was made possible with the theater group, Shinkankakuha that adapted an avant-garde approach of art representation in relation to the time period the film was released.
Oxford dictionary defines the word avant-garde as a noun:
“new and unusual or experimental ideas, especially in the arts, or the people introducing them.”
Against the naturalistic way of representation which depicts sceneries that are normal and orderly. A page of madness is a film that showcases chaos, enigma, and abstractions of the mind that contrasts how plays are conducted depicting the mundane during that time period.
This link shows a better image of Eiko Minami’s Photo which became an iconic image for the film. There’s something about this still image and form that had my eyes drawn in.
PLOT
In an asylum where a janitor works, there’s a female patient that became his object of interest. The same patient was visited by a young woman one day. To her surprise, the young woman recognizes the janitor. It is hinted that these two knew each other as snippets of flashbacks show a tragic story of a broken family. The two had a time to reunite in a topic that hinted about marriage from the ring worn by the young woman.
The janitor started having bizarre fantasies involving the patients and health workers within the facility. These mental preoccupations he had started as soon as he recalls their conversation with the young woman that visited the asylum prior. One night, he decides to escape with the patient only to be thwarted by the patient’s refusal to leave. In another scene, the janitor’s desire to make everyone happy made him distribute masks to the patients which made the scene appear like it came out from a fever dream.
Now I my version of the plot is several times off the mark compared to the official written plot the film released. It’s only after I rewatched the film that some of the parts made sense based from reading the clear plot provided by wiki here.
These films were shown with a live narrator back then so the audience can figure out what was happening. There are no words depicting dialogue in the film. I’m only left to have some guess work based on facial expression and context which was a challenge already.
I’m not going to pretend I understood the movie on a first viewing. I tried rewinding some parts just to see if I saw it as what I thought it was or it was another optical illusion. The film has plenty of cinema tricks used during sequences that convey a scene from fantasy. Sometimes, if it weren’t for the change of pace in the music, I wouldn’t be able to visually tell if I was watching a scene depicting what’s in the mind of the character or it’s within reality.
AS A HORROR
A Page of Madness is a straightforward psychological horror ahead of its time. In a time where most films produced were about samurais and Japanese romance, this is a break from the mainstream films of those times. But like anything new introduced, it can take a while before the public could appreciate the creative genius that it is back then. It didn’t receive the praise it had now and quickly faded until rediscovered by accident.
Mental illness was an extremely unpopular subject especially in pre-WW2 Japan, so the thought of exploring psychological horror through film then was guaranteed to raise some curiosity and disinterest. The black and white media was perfect in delivering the shock and intended visual impact. Black and white films have the advantage of showing less detail in everything and this sets up a good foundation for visual horror because less detail means more information are pieced by imagination within the mind.
Unlike colored media we see on screen today, when you see a large part of the scenes background in silhouette or voids, you are left to guess what object may fill in those voids to make sense of the environment. The brain will try to make sense of some recognizable patterns just from the outlines within seconds to focus more on details that are clear within the imagery. Black and white films play with the visual unknown and this unknown element adds more weight to trying to build suspense and horror of what may be the form on screen.
What they see inside their head
What it really is in reality
You can see a lot of imagery conveying the iron bars that is symbolic to how the mentally ill are trapped not only within the physical walls but also imaginary boundaries within their own minds.
Psychological horror is difficult to execute because a lot of it stems from mental imagery and the challenge is bringing that imagery to possess a corporeal form. We see it’s execution from the film by having some scenes throwing flashbacks and gross transition from a normal background to a whimsical scene aided by the orchestral background sounds for some cue. The clear emphasis on the close up facial expressions some of the cast gave the feel of them looking at you but may also be looking at something else otherworldly too.
The asylum scenes definitely depicted what you would expect how the mentally ill would have been treated in the past. I’ve had my clinical rotation in a psychiatric ward and asylum to appreciate the contrast in modern care. Let’s just say past mental health care wasn’t really seen as refined compared to the way institutions handle patient well-being. I think this piece of knowledge further added to the sense of realism that I was looking at a scene from a different time period.
CONCLUSIONS
Did I find the film scary? It had its eerie moments but nothing close to what I’ve saturated myself to see in modern slasher, gore, and psychological horror films of today. Had I been less exposed to horror, I may have experienced more kick in the scare factor. I see the film as an avant-garde art that happens to be about psychological horror. A film that is a prototype of today’s psychological horrors we have come to familiarize with.
I watched the film to satisfy a curiosity of what makes it great during its time. I could agree with the positive sentiments it received. But to say I enjoyed silent films because I found them worth it to pass the time is a stretch, I appreciate them for the influence in modern horror films these have contributed.
I recommend giving the film a watch if you’re into exploring avant-garde films that deal with horror. This being produced in pre-WW2 Japan was bonus given that this was considered a lost media (a lot of silent films in Japan were destroyed during WW2). If you’re looking for a film that gives you a visceral shock factor, this film probably isn’t the one for you. It’s worth the praise it is receiving for blending both art and psychological horror.
Images used are screenshots from film viewing.
If you made it this far reading, thank you for your time.
