Horrorfest 2016: A Page of Madness

Watching A PAGE OF MADNESS it occurred to me that I've seen plenty of silent films before but never a silent film from Japan. So, there's a first time for everything! This creepy gem was made in 1926 by director Teinosuke Kinugasa.

This film was considered lost for decades until the director found it hidden among his own belongings where he safely stashed it during WW2. Unfortunately, there are some barriers preventing the full enjoyment of the film. The main one is that about a third of the movie is still missing. Aside from that, apparently it was a Japanese custom for a live narrator to accompany screenings of silent films, explaining what's going on to the audience. So, I didn't have that either.

What I was left with was enough to see that the film is indeed super creepy, but not quite enough to understand what's going on, beyond the basics. Left to my own devices, I could tell the bulk of it was about a guy who was in an insane asylum, observing the goings on with the various inmates.

The movie features a lot of camera movement that seems more modern than your average silent film, and some pretty energetic and innovative editing, which also seems more modern than most 1920s productions. The editing also seems to ebb and flow, becoming manic at some points and then backing off and settling down at others in a rhythmic repetition, sometimes cross-fading images, other times using speedy hard cuts. Silent films often feel dream like to modern viewers and this one is no exception, and might even be the most dream like example I've ever seen. Or nightmarish, if you like.

Thanks to an explanation before the film on the bootleg DVD I watched, and some Internet research, I learned that the plot involves a man (Masao Inoue) who becomes a janitor in an insane asylum to remain close to his wife (Yoshie Nakagawa), who has been committed there. At one point he attempts to break his wife out, with deadly results.

But you don't really need to know any of this to be creeped out by the movie. The cinematography, editing and insane asylum setting are enough to unease you. Add to this the fact that the damaged and scratched silent print is even more off putting as a relic from another time, and you begin to feel like you're really watching some kind of documentary about ghosts, or something.