A Page of Madness (1926)

A man takes a job at an asylum with hopes of freeing his imprisoned wife.

Director:

Teinosuke Kinugasa

Writers:

Yasunari Kawabata (short story), Yasunari Kawabata (adaptation)

Stars:

Masuo Inoue, Ayako Iijima, Yoshie Nakagawa

Cast

Cast overview:
Masuo Inoue	...	Servant
Ayako Iijima	...	Servant's Daughter
Yoshie Nakagawa	...	Servant's Wife
Hiroshi Nemoto	...	Young Man
Misao Seki	...	Doctor
Minoru Takase	...	Crazy Man A
Eiko Minami	...	Dancer
Kyosuke Takamatsu	...	Crazy Man B
Tetsu Tsuboi	...	Crazy Man C
Shintarô Takiguchi	...	Boy

Storyline

A husband picks up a job as a janitor at an insane asylum scheming all the time to be close to and free his wife from the institution where she recently attempted suicide. A score was added when in 1970 the reels were unearthed after they were considered lost for decades. The director approved and subsequently repudiated this version.

---

Plot Keywords:

mental illness | madness | insane asylum | father daughter relationship | husband wife relationship | 

---

Genres:

Drama | Horror | Thriller

---

Did You Know?

Trivia

According to Mosk in his Variety interview: "Its silver-painted sets, apparently to give more light, also gives a strange glow reminiscent to 'The Caboet of Dr. Caligari'."

---

Alternate Versions

Reissued in Japan in 1973 with musical score replacing original benshi.

---

Connections

Referenced in Henri Langlois: The Phantom of the Cinémathèque (2004)

User Reviews

Probably a Shadow of Its Former Self ...

Kurutta Ippeji offers a view on the distorted perspective of a troubled janitor in a mental asylum. As a proof of concept, it shows that experimental cinematic techniques can affect the way narration is perceived by the viewer - here, the visual elements contribute to how the viewer experiences the characters' mental state. As an experiment, the movie possibly even makes a stronger case than the comparably surreal Hausu (1977), which is partly imbalanced in its style. However, due to the poor visual quality and the lack of functional storytelling, this experimental feature can't be easily recommended to people looking for a more conventional feature. Overall 7/10 Full Review on movie-discouse.blogspot.com

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

None Japanese

Release Date:

January 1975 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Forgotten Pages

Company Credits

Production Co:

Kinugasa Productions, National Film Art, Shin Kankaku-ha Eiga Renmei Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

59 min (1975 sound) 78 min (2007 restoration)

Sound Mix:

Silent

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1