A Page of Madness

Synopsis

A retired sailor takes a job as a janitor in a mental asylum to care for his wife, who has been institutionalized after drowning their child. Devoid of intertitles, the narrative depends completely on striking visual metaphors to depict the chaotic inner worlds of the patients. Teinosuke Kinugasa’s avant-garde masterpiece utilizes rapid editing and superimpositions to create a disorienting, hallucinatory experience, remaining a landmark of Japanese cinema.

Critique

Teinosuke Kinugasa’s masterpiece is a stunning example of the Shinkankaku (New Sensationist) movement. Lost for decades, it rejects intertitles to tell its story purely through visual metaphor, rapid montage, and superimposition. It depicts the chaotic subjective reality of a mental asylum with an intensity that rivals European contemporaries. The film uses the camera to simulate madness, creating a disorienting, rhythmic experience. It stands as a testament to the sophistication of early Japanese cinema and its willingness to embrace radical abstraction.

Technical sheet

Director

Teinosuke Kinugasa

Original title

Kurutta ippēji

Year

1926

Country

Japan

Running time

71 min

Genre

Horror, Drama

Written by

Yasunari Kawabata, Teinosuke Kinugasa, Minoru Inuzuka, Bankô Sawada

Cinematography

Kōhei Sugiyama

Cast

Masao Inoue, Ayako Iijima, Yoshie Nakagawa, Eiko Minami, Misao Seki, Minoru Takase

Production

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

Music

Newly composed original score

Licensing