User:Paleface Jack/A Page of Madness

Rewrite Lead A Page of Madness (狂つた一頁) is a 1926 Japanese silent experimental horror film directed, co-written, produced, and edited by Teinosuke Kinugasa. The film is set in a psychiatric hospital; Masao Inoue stars as an elderly man who gets a job there in an attempt to see his mentally ill wife who became a patient there after experiencing a traumatic affair. Produced by the New Sensational Film League, it is Japan's first full-scale avant-garde film and was created by a group of artists, known as the Shinkankakuha, who tried to overcome naturalistic representation.

A Page of Madness was conceived by Kinugasa after visiting Tokyo Metropolitan Matsuzawa Hospital and he later co-wrote the script with Yasunari Kawabata, Minoru Inuzuka, and Banko Sawada; Kawabata also penned the story treatment in April, which was later published in a film magazine. Principal photography took place at Shochiku Kyoto Studio, beginning with an incomplete script on May 6th and concluding on May 31st. Kinugasa completed the film and took it to Tokyo on June 6th.

Because film company Shochiku Kinema was reluctant to screen A Page of Madness in their theaters, Kinugasa instead sold the film to several theaters and companies in Tokyo himself. National Art Film Company eventually released the film in several theaters nationwide on September 24th. Critics praised the avant-garde and advanced artistry, but many criticized its lack of intertitles and found it difficult to understand. The film earned ¥7,500 against its ¥20,000 budget, becoming a box-office bomb for failing to break even and leading to the dissolution of the New Sensational Film League.

After its release, the film was long believed to have been lost, but on New Year's Day 1971, Kinugasa accidentally discovered a positive and negative print of the film in some rice cans at his storehouse. Kinugasa himself then re-edited and produced a "new sound version" of the film with background music by Minoru Muraoka, which was first screened at Iwanami Hall on October 10, 1975, as a double feature with Kinugasa's Crossroads (1928). Shortly after its rediscovery, the film had its premiere foreign screenings in France, the United Kingdom, and the United States, where it obtained widespread acclaim. A Page of Madness has gained a cult following, and is now widely considered a monumental film in the history of world cinema, and among the best Japanese, horror, avant-garde, and silent films of all time.

Plot
Amid a torrential rainstorm, a patient at a psychiatric hospital dances wildly in her room. An elderly janitor watches one of the patients, revealed to be his wife, though she does not recognize him. A former sailor, he left his wife and daughter alone during his long voyages at sea, causing his wife to become unstable. After an attempt to kill herself and their child, she became a patient at the hospital, and the man began working as the hospital's janitor to watch over her.

The next morning, the couple's daughter visits the hospital to report her upcoming marriage. She is shocked and angered when she learns her father works there and leaves, unable to forgive her father. A morning examination is held at the hospital, and the janitor asks the doctor who is examining his wife about her condition but is ignored. The janitor later reunites with his daughter, begging for forgiveness, and asks about her engagement. Their conversation is interrupted when an inmate attempts to attack the daughter, causing her to flee from the hospital.

Sometime later, one of the patients begins dancing, exciting the other residents. In the ensuing commotion, one of the patients accidentally hits the janitor's wife and a fight ensues. The hospital staff manage to stop the brawl, and the janitor is reprimanded by the head doctor. These events cause the janitor to experience a number of daydreams, as he loses his grip on reality. When his daughter arrives to tell him that her marriage is in trouble, he imagines taking his wife away from the asylum. His fantasies grow more disturbing as he fantasizes about murdering the head doctor, and his daughter marrying one of the hospital's patients.

His fantasies reach their climax as he envisions himself distributing noh masks to the patients, providing them with happy faces while he dons an okina (old man) mask. In the final scene, he is shown cleaning the floors of the asylum, no longer able to visit his wife's ward after losing his keys. A patient from one of his earlier fantasies appears and bows to him, as if bowing to his father-in-law.

Cast

 * Masao Inoue as the Janitor
 * Yoshie Nakagawa as the Janitor's wife
 * Ayako Iijima as the Janitor's daughter
 * Hiroshi Nemoto as the fiancé
 * Misao Seki as the chief doctor
 * Minoru Takase as patient A
 * Eiko Minami as the dancer
 * Kinnosuke Takamatsu as patient B, the bearded inmate
 * Tetsu Tsuboi as patient C
 * H. E. Aldenborg as a foreign doctor
 * Shintarō Takiguchi as the gateman's son (uncredited)
 * Umeko Akimoto as a patient (uncredited)

Cast taken from Aaron Gerow's 2008 book A Page of Madness: Cinema and Modernity in 1920s Japan, except where cited otherwise.

Background
Potential images: Kinugasa and Yokomitsu

In October 1925, filmmaker Teinosuke Kinugasa began work on a film adaption of the novella Nichirin (novella), written by novelist Riichi Yokomitsu. During the adaption process, Kinugasa became acquainted with Yokomitsu. Nichirin was ultimately canceled at the discretion of Shōzō Makino, due to rising protests by Japanese right wing groups who were against its production. Discouraged by the experience, Kinugasa left Makino's company Makino Productions, who was co-creating the film with Yokomitsu's company United Film Artists Association, and decided to establish his own film company to produce an independent film, a rare occurrence in the Japanese film industry at the time. According to Kinugasa, "I want[ed] to make films freely without being criticized by anyone." New Sensational (Shinkankakuha) Film League was founded on April 10, by Kawabata, Kataoka Teppei, Kunio Kishida, and Shinzaburo Ikeya, to combat what they felt was naturalistic representation.

Rewrite paragraph An acquaintance of Kinugasa, a young German man named Aldenborg, purchased a 35mm Parvo camera, allowing more freedom to shoot the film without assistance from major studios. Parvo's Balbo K model was used for production, had four lens' and could load four hundred feet of film. Kinugasa also set up an editing studio at his home in Kyoto, while additionally renting a vacant lot in a tea plantation near his home, which served as his production studio. Kinugasa began developing an outline for his company's first production, envisioning a story centered on an old man in a circus. In preparation, he hired a traveling circus for a month, and built a circus tent on the studio lot where he began filming scenes of the troupe.

Development
Potential images: Matsuzawa Hospital and Kawabata

Development for A Page of Madness began in March 1926, shortly after the founding of New Sensational. The original story of the old man and the circus was shelved by Kinugasa after he met with Yokomitsu and Yasunari Kawabata. After their first meeting, Kishida wrote up a different story titled Mainspring Play (ゼンマイの戯れ) in two days. This project was planned to be a minor comedy similar to French satire, about a salaryman who is a patent enthusiast, however, they discarded the idea, deeming it to be unsuitable. While housed at a Ryokan in the Shinbashi district of Minato, Tokyo, Kinugasa and Kawabata brainstormed other potential ideas.

The story that eventually developed into A Page of Madness was inspired by an event in Kinugasa's life. According to Kinugasa, while leaving a train station on the way to visit Yokomitsu's house, he met a group of nobles, with one claiming that he was mentally ill. This encounter intrigued Kinugasa, who decided to visit Tokyo Metropolitan Matsuzawa Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Setagaya where the self-proclaimed "emperor" Kinjirō Ashiwara, had been admitted. Viewing the patients, Kinugasa conceived the scenario for the film; he later consulted with Yokomitsu and Kawabata that night and they decided to set it in a mental health hospital. Yokomitsu and Teppei were unavailable to participate in the story treatment and Kawabata was forced to develop the story outline himself.

Writing the script would continue through the start of filming, with Kawabata handing completed pages over to Kinugasa in Tokyo for Kinugasa and scriptwriter Banko Sawada to adapt into a workable script. On writing the story, Kawabata stated: "I should have arrived in Kyoto before filming started, and I was ready to be blamed for being irresponsible as I delayed it for nearly ten days". While Kinugasa believed that shooting with an incomplete script would not be problematic, he recommended that it should be ready for post-production to assist them with the editing process. After Kinugasa received the half-finished story treatment, he and Sawada, adapted it into a screenplay; their shooting script and the shooting memos were subsequently used for filming, but during the production, Kinugasa, Kawabata, Sawada, and Minoru Inuzuka held a meeting regarding the script and resumed writing it.

Inuzuka later wrote in his autobiography Film is Like a Heat Haze that Yokomitsu and Kataoka also penned the script in Kyoto. However, the literary researcher Hirokazu Toeda argued that no existing records suggest Yokomitsu ever went to Kyoto to work on the script and that, even if he did co-create the screenplay, it would have been difficult for him to leave his sickened wife alone in Tokyo for a long time. Likewise, the film critic Inuhiko Yomota also questioned Inuzuka's recollection. The film scholar Atsushi Koyano stated that some scholars have nevertheless accepted Inuzuka's assertion of Yokomitsu and Kataoka involvement. Once filming was completed, Kawabata made several additions and corrections based on the shooting script and notes, compiling it into a story outline which was published in the first issue of Eiga Jidai.

Casting
Potential images: Inoue, Nakagawa and Minami

Kinugasa had always intended for the part of the "Janitor" to go to the stage actor Masao Inoue, who was considered one of the top Japanese stage actors in the world. Both men had previously worked together on stage and were well acquainted with one another, with Kinugasa personally requesting Inoue for the film's lead role. Inoue was reportedly amused by Kinugasa's attempts at making a film regardless of profitability and agreed to appear free of charge. In preparstion for the role, Inoue modified his appearance by plucking his forehead and thinning his hair to appear significantly older as the role required. Kawabata later described being surprised upon seeing the actor's new appearance, stating that Inoue was unrecognizable: "there was no trace of his true face".

The role of the Dancer was originally given to the butoh dancer Emiko Suda, at the suggestion of Kawabata. However, Suda was forced to drop out of production due to scheduling conflicts. Then 15-year-old chorus girl Eiko Minami was subsequently hired as Suda's replacement in her acting and dancing debut. After the film's release, Minami presided over a dance research institute, working on various creative dances, and becoming a well-known performer.

Other performers in the film were acquaintances of Kinugasa and Inoue. H. E. Aldenborg, who assisted Kinugasa with procuring film equipment, appeared in the brief role of the foreign doctor in the hospital. Mitsujo Takase, a member of Kinugasa's Nikkatsu Mukojima studio, portrays one of the residents of the mental hospital. Shintarō Takiguchi, also a member of Inoue's stage group, appeared in a minor role as the Gateman's son, alongside his pet dog.

Filming
Potential images: Kinugasa during production and Tsuburaya

Principal photography began on May 6, 1926, on a budget of ¥20,000. It was originally intended for the film to be shot at the vacant lot of the tea plantation, however, changes in the film's story made it unnecessary. Kinugasa stated that Shochiku executive Shintaro Shirai, gave him and his crew freedom to using their neglected Shochiku Studio in Kyoto for filming. The production crew consisted of seventy individuals, with Kinugasa and the staff camping in the actor's room at the studio throughout filming.

Filming continued for twenty-five days, with Kinugasa and the crew working tirelessly. Since Inoue was only available until the end of May, the schedule was extremely tight, with Kinugasa and his colleagues often working throughout the night. Members of the cast and crew worked multiple roles during production, and Inoue himself would assist in handling props and other miscellaneous tasks. Filming the lottery scene, the local hairdressers were unavailable because the Aoi Matsuri was being held. Yoshie Nakagawa, who portrayed the Janitor's wife, ended up working as the hair stylist. Eight days into production, Kawabata entered the studio and remained onset for roughly ten days. During this period, Kawabata became an important member of the crew, observing filming, participating in scripting discussions, and suggesting masks for the patients in the film's climax. He later wrote about his experience in Weekly Asahi and Plays and Movies.

The cinematography was provided by Kōhei Sugiyama, who would later collaborate with Kinugasa on several other films. The future special effects innovator Eiji Tsuburaya assisted with photography on the picture, exploring various filming methods such as shaking the camera all directions using a pan stick; this would later lead to Tokusatsu (special effects) techniques. According to the biographer August Ragone, Tsuburaya also had many other important positions in the film, including assistant director.

Most of the film's sets were constructed by hand because of the film's low budget. The studio was composed of glass walls for shooting with natural light, and about eight used carbon lights in additional lighting equipment. Kinugasa and his colleagues placed washi paper on the walls of the set and applied silver powder on it to improve the reflection of light. Wanting the walls to stand out in a three-dimensional effect, sets were hand-painted with oil smoke acquired from a nearby public bathhouse. Portions of the set, such as the hospital's iron bars and doors were real, allowing the actors to give realistic performances without worrying about breaking the constructed sets. Scenes outside the psychiatric hospital, including the town and raffle scenes, were filmed near Shimogamo Studios. For the heavy rain scene at the beginning, the crew attempted to create artificial rain themselves with their water supply. The effect was unsatisfactory, and Kinugasa asked for help from the local fire department, using their fire hose to create the artificial rain needed for the scene. Filming was subsequently completed within twenty-five days.

Post-production
Editing was completed by Kinugasa during principal photography, to work around Inoue's limited availability. Completed footage was edited each day by Kinugasa, who compiled the resulting shots based on "the feel of the shots".

A Page of Madness is one of few films that attempts to avoid the use of intertitles (title cards) of spoken dialogue or description that characterizes most silent films, in the belief that the visuals themselves should carry most of the meaning. At the beginning of production, several subtitles were inserted to indicate the characters and date/time settings, during the preview stage it was suggested by Yokomitsu to forgo them entirely, something that was agreed upon by Kinugasa. The film is not the first to attempt telling a narrative without subtitles, German films such as Lupu Pick's New Year's Eve (1924), and F.W. Murnau's The Last Laugh (1924) had already begun to explore the medium through an entirely visual perspective. Murnau's film had a lasting impact on Japanese cinema when it was first screened in Japan in September 1924 and many filmmakers would advocate for abolishing subtitles, with the argument that subtitles were an impurity that hindered the use of cinematic discourse. Kinugasa stated in the October 1926 issue of Bungei Jidai that he liked The Last Laugh so much that he watched it five times in a survey entitled "My ideal movie".

Developing a complex story without subtitles was noticeably difficult, as a result, the intention of not including subtitles was not originally attempted by the filmmakers. The screening of the film was accompanied by an explanation by a benshi, which was the usual screening format for Japanese films at the time. The acting benshi functioned as an in-house narrator, explaining to the audience the meaning of the film, such as the location and the history of the main character, which could not be understood from the images alone. Although pursuing the 'purity of the image' without subtitles, the fact that it was screened with an explanation by a benshi to ensure the audience's understanding made the film even more 'impure', and the release of the film was criticized.

As avant-garde
A Page of Madness is widely regarded as Japan's first avant-garde film, influenced by the European avant-garde movement. During the film's production, avant-garde art movements had grown popular in Europe, with the art form making a successful transition into film with the French Impressionist and German Expressionist films. The film corresponds with the trends of these avant-garde film movements and is described as an attempt to break down the conventional wisdom of Japanese film narratives. The film also represents an advance in Japanese cinema, with Kinugasa attempting to realize the possibility of visual expression while making full use of various cinematic techniques. Kinugasa has stated that he experimented with cinematic expression and film technology by making full use of the camera while working on the film. A Page of Madness blurs the lines between fantasy, reality, and time, creating an unreliable narrative through the chaotic interweaving of sanity and madness. For this reason, the film progresses through a form of non-traditional narration. This was done intentionally by Kinugasa, as the story only has a secondary meaning, and the progression of imagery being the primary focus.

Purity of visual expression
A Page of Madness shares a visual style with several art film movements, specifically the French "cinéma pur" and German "absolute film", both classified as an aesthetic of cinematic film that contains no narrative, which was popular in Japan at the time. Some Japanese filmmakers had grown disillusioned with the set "rules" of cinematic storytelling, and attempts were made to eliminate elements such as storytelling and acting that were said to have been borrowed from literature and theater. The primary focus of both movements was for the cinematic medium be purely one of 'visual expression'. Films such as Fernand Léger's Ballet Mécanique (1924), and Man Ray 's Emak Bakia (1926) among others developed their works based on the movement and rhythm of images without a narrative. During the 1920s, theories of pure and absolute film were introduced in film magazines across Japan, leading some filmmakers to create their own works based on the art form.

The film attempts to pursue its thin-narrative structure through imagery. Visual elements, such as the images of dancers whose reflections are greatly distorted by convex and concave mirrors appear from the subjective perspective of the servant's wife, and this can also be seen in works such as Ekma Bakia, which uses geometric movement as its material. The direction is the same as that of an experimental attempt to separate images from the representation of reality as much as possible, reducing them to visually abstract figures. The abstract graphic image of a rotating ring and a vertical line that divides it (see Themes), which frequently appears in the film, is also reminiscent of the influence of Cubism and Dadaism, which influenced pure and absolute films. Literary critic Ryota Fukushima referred to this visual technique as an "Apollo-like sense of form". Furthermore, in the opening scene in which an inmate dances wildly, and the scene in the middle where other patients watch the dance and get excited, Fukushima says, "The movement of a woman who seems to have lost her sense of self is depicted in an inorganic way". The film depicts a Dionysian scene in which the madness infects the surroundings while simultaneously showing the object, he points out that the sequence corresponds to attempts to make ballet's movement itself appear as visual performance, without subordinating it to realism, drama, or narrative.

Influences
A Page of Madness is known for its similarities to that of German Expressionist and French impressionist cinema. In the 1920s, German Expressionism exploded in popularity with the release of Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), a film which used exaggerated shapes and lighting to emphasize light and shadow, creating a dark atmosphere of anxiety and chaos. Caligari was released in Japan in 1921, becoming a major topic of conversation. The literary researcher Yoshiki Kuritssubo would describe this influence on the style of the film, referring to it as "in the vein of German Expressionist films."

A Page of Madness is frequently compared to Caligari; both films share a similar narrative, with both being set within a mental institution and the main narrative depicting the fantasies of an unreliable and mentally unbalanced narrator. As the film historian Kikuo Yamamoto states, the film "develops a Caligari-esque world of madman's fantasies". Sato has argued that, while some of the subject matter and expressions of this work are influenced by Caligari, the results are completely different. Elaborating on this, Sato explained that while Caligari emphasizes a sense of anxiety, Kinugasa's film emphasizes themes of domestic tragedy. In contrast, Film Quarterly's Robert Cohen argues that, while Kinugasa's film shared many similarities with Caligari, there was no suggestion within the film's narrative to support the assumption that it was told through the eyes of its main character. According to Justin Bowyer, Kinugasa himself listed Caligari as a major influence on the film. Nonetheless, the film historian Mariann Lewinsky said the film's comparisons to Dr Caligari are "quite pointless", expressing that film is "too different in its mood and making, and its treatment of madness has nothing in common with A Page of Madness".

The use of lighting to emphasize the contrast between light and dark, or light and shadow, characteristic of German Expressionist films, is used as one of the characteristic expressive techniques by Kinugasa. Yomota argues that in scenes such as when a servant sneaks into a hospital ward, only the shadow of the person is shown, and then the real person appears, making it seem as if the shadow is a being of its own will. This technique of shadows appearing independently of the main body can be seen in expressionist films such as Murnau's Faust (1926), in which shadows appear independently of the main body. He explains that this is the same method used to make it appear that he is acting as another character with his own will.

French impressionism would also gain exposure in Japan around the same time, films by Abel Gance and Jaque Catelain, in addition to Léon Moussinac's film theory, helped the genre rise in popularity, providing additional influence in the development of Japanese cinema. The genre, characterized by the use of new cinematic techniques to express the characters' impressions and emotions, such as memories, thoughts, and fantasies, rather than the story itself, and in particular to express emotional turmoil. French impressionism is also known for its creation of the editing technique called "flash," which rhythmically connects short shots. The beginning of the film uses the flash technique, with a series of short shots depicting a hospital in heavy rain and dancing dancers, to emphasize a sense of urgency.

The author and film critic Alexandra Heller-Nicholas writes that the influence of early stage traditions, such as the Italian commedia dell'arte, upon the film's thematic and stylistic elements. Specifically, the character of the janitor is shown to mirror that of the traditional Vecchio, or "Old Man" commonly a stock character found in commedia dell'arte. In traditional plays the Vecchio commonly has a daughter (Innamorati whom they generally attempt to thwart the reunification between them and their lover ( zanni). Heller-Nicholas further wrote the Japanese Noh theatre as an additional influence upon the films thematic elements.

Themes
Critics have identified several primary themes in A Page of Madness. It is cited as the first Japanese film set in a psychiatric hospital, exploring mental health conditions, and portraying the sequences inside it realistically. It further depicts the power dynamics in a mental hospital, the repression and confinement of patients, and the patients who resist and is a typical example of the "modern ideological apparatus" carried by hospitals, as film critic Inuhiko Yomota wrote, the conflicting systems of confinement and release, treatment, and punishment are given a keen social look. The theme of the rotating circle appears repeatedly in the films as an allegory for ideas such as vicious cycles, fate, self-closure, and infinity. Examples of this include the opening scene where the patients dance in a hospital during heavy rain, the image of a circle proliferates, with the wheels riding through the rain, the huge sphere behind the inmates, and the inmates' spinning dance. In contrast, the image of "cold vertical lines" such as the iron bars and lattice doors of hospital rooms emerged as a force that restricts and suppresses the rotation of the circle, an embodiment of the principle of the psychiatric hospital itself.

The focus and theme of family tragedy is one of the film's most predominant themes, a common focus of classic Shinpa tragedies, that was commonly explored within the mainstream of modern drama in Japanese film and theater at the time. Described as "a combination of innovative methods and sentimental melodrama" by the author Inuhiko Yomota, elements and themes of Japanese family melodramas have been highlighted as one of the films interweaving themes.

Theatrical screenings
Once Kinugasa had completed editing the film, the footage was then taken to Tokyo on June 6. While there, Kinugasa arranged for a private screening of the film with Yokomitsu at the Hayama Hospital where Yokomitsu was caring for his wife. Kinugasa and Yokomitsu intended to screen the film to patients in the hospital, but decided against the idea, instead, renting a nearby movie theater after the screening ended and previewing it late that night. Since it was an independent film, it was more difficult to secure screening routes than films produced by regular film companies. Subsequently, theaters run by the company Shochiku were also reluctant to show the film. While in Tokyo, Kinugasa personally went to movie theaters and film companies to promote the film. A Page of Madness was initially previewed at the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun head office on June 17, 1926, and it passed the censorship of the Ministry of Home Affairs on June 22nd.

The film was publicly screened at the Aoyama Kaikan in Tokyo on July 10th. Newspaper advertisements at the time introduced Kinugasa as "Japan's Josef von Sternberg". On the same day as Musashinokan's screening, it was also released at the American film company Paramount Pictures's Tokyo wing in Asakusa and Shochikuza Districts in Osaka, with explanations given by benshi Ishii Omi and Tamai Kyohiro at the Tokyo wing. It was also screened at the theaters Shinjuku Musashinokan, Tokyo Club, and Osaka Shochikuza on September 24th, Kinema Club in Kobe on October 1, and at Shochiku Shochikuza in Kyoto on October 8th. The film was distributed by the National Art Film Company (according to the National Film Archive of Japan), while Honjō Film Distribution Company released it in the Kantō region (according to Aaron Gerow). In September, about three months after completion, Akira Iwasaki, a member of the planning committee that selected works to be screened at Shinjuku Musashinokan, a foreign film museum that screened artistic works, saw a preview screening of the film at Nikkatsu's headquarters. Impressed, Iwasaki proposed showing the film at a committee meeting. At the time Japanese films were not shown at Musashinokan; Iwasaki said, "It was such a far-fetched proposal that it was unlikely that it would be accepted". Iwasaki Mori, a member of the committee who had been working on the film, and Musashinokan's chief orator, Musei Tokugawa, agreed, and with Iwasaki's strong recommendation. The screening at Musashinokan was held for one week from September 24th, and Tokugawa, a popular benshi, was in charge of giving explanations. Many of the theaters screening the film were foreign theaters, and most of them also screened American films. These theaters would treat the film as being on par with other high-end foreign films, something that was unheard of for Japanese films at the time.

Although A Page of Madness achieved decent box-office results, Musashinokan's release of the film was not the huge success the company was hoping for, earning only ¥1,500. Box office results at other movie theaters were poor, and at a time when Japanese movies at the time made a profit by being shown at many movie theaters in Japan over several months, the film was only screened at a limited amount of theaters. In comparison to the production cost of over ¥20,000, the film was a box office bomb, resulting in a loss of over ¥10,000. While Kinugasa was busy promoting the film during its release in Tokyo, the staff from his production company believed that Kinugasa would continue to produce the film and waited at a training camp in Kyoto. Proceeds were paid each time the film was released and screened, subsequently the commission rate would increase during this time, making it difficult to send money to the production staff. Kinugasa planned to produce and direct several other projects, however, none came to fruition. As a result of both the poor financial returns for A Page of Madness and failure to secure any more funding for future projects, the New Sensational Film League (Shinsensaku Eiga Renmei) was disbanded with the film as its only output.

Rediscovery and modern screenings
The only known print of A Page of Madness was believed to have been destroyed by a fire that broke out in the film warehouse at Shochiku Kyoto Studio in 1950 and thus it was considered a lost film thereafter. By that time the only information available to western audiences was its mention in the book The Japanese Film: Art and Industry, published in 1959 by Joseph L. Anderson and Donald Richie. Twenty-seven years later, on New Year's Day 1971, Kinugasa discovered prints of the film by accident in some rice cans at his storehouse. According to Kinugasa's autobiography, Kashiko Kawakita had asked him about the whereabouts of the first issue of the film magazine Cinema Close Up which Kinugasa had founded, and while looking for it in the storehouse of his home in Kyoto, he discovered a tin rice box housing film canisters of the film's negative and positive prints, which were in perfect condition.

Kinugasa himself re-edited the film, producing a "sound version" with new music by Minoru Muraoka and Nobu Kurashima. To properly reproduce the sound recorded on the film, the projection speed was set at the standard projection speed for sound film, rather than the original projection speed of 18 frames per second. As a result, the running time has been shortened from the original seventy-nine minutes to fifty-nine minutes, and the movement of the images appears at a faster pace. In addition, regarding the screen size when projected on the screen during projection, the New Sound version removes the soundtrack cue from the original frame, and also trims the top and bottom of the frame to adjust to the standard size. As a result, there are some missing parts in the video compared to the original.

On April 27, 1971, a special preview of the New Sound version was held at Iwanami Hall in Tokyo, with Kawabata, assistant director Eiichi Koishi, philosophers Tetsuzō Tanikawa and Yoichi Kono, social psychologist Hiroshi Minami, novelist Hiroshi Noma. On October 10, 1975, it was screened again at Iwanami Hall as the 5th road show of "Equipe de Cinéma", which screens the world's hidden masterpieces, along with Kinugasa's Crossroads (1928). It was released and ran until November 3rd. The following year, in March of 1976, an encore screening was held at the same hall, and in August 1982, a memorial screening for Kinugasa, who passed away in that year, was held again in conjunction with Crossroads.

The film was screened in England from circa April to June 1973, as a double feature with Blood of the Condor (1969). On April 25, 1975, the film was screened alongside the German film Fata Morgana (1971), as part of the New Line Cinema Festival, a film festival presenting acclaimed foreign films in the U.S. which took place from April 25-27.

At the 63rd annual conference of the International Federation of Film Archives, which was held in April 2007, Yūji Takahashi provided music for the restored 35mm print of the film. The film was also screened at several festivals outside of Japan during the 2000s and 2010s, including the Nippon Connection Film Festival on April 4, 2008; the Philadelphia Film Festival in October 2010; Jazz day in Lyon on May 2, 2015; the San Francisco Silent Film Festival on June 3, 2017; the Syros International Film Festival on July 19, 2017; the L'Étrange Festival on September 17, 2017; Camera Japan Festival on September 24, 2017; the Lausanne Underground Film and Music Festival on October 17, 2017; the International Film Festival Rotterdam on February 2, 2018; and Ebertfest on April 20, 2018. The San Francisco Silent Film Festival screening featured live music played by the Alloy Orchestra, who also performed live during a screening of the film at Film at Lincoln Center on June 19, 2018. The Flushing Remonstrance performed live during the film's screening at the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival in October 2023. On December 15, 2023, the film was screened at Japan Society alongside Grass Labyrinth. Grass Labyrinth A restored print of the film will be screened as part of the global silent film tour known as "The Art of the Benshi" in April 2024.

In 2021, it was discovered by Akane Nohara of Imagica EMS that the 35mm print of the film found at Kinugasa residence (labeled as the black and white print) had actually been dyed blue. Thus, Nohara and his team, excited by the discovery, began restorating this print of the film.

Home media
Flicker Alley released A Page of Madness on DVD with Henwar Rodakiewicz's Portrait of a Young Man in June 2017. In March 2018, Lobster Films released the film on DVD in France, with French subtitles. A 71-minute 16mm print of the film, accompanied by new music composed by Alloy Orchestra, is available for rent on Flicker Alley's website.

Contemporaneous
Despite initially being deemed a commercial failure, A Page of Madness was highly anticipated and received overwhelmingly positive reactions from film critics and experts, who particularly praised its avant-garde and sophisticated artistry. It was ranked 4th in the film magazine Kinema Junpo's list of best ten Japanese films of 1926. In May 1927, the year after its release, it was designated an "outstanding film" by the All Kansai Film Association, and Kawabata was presented with a medal and a certificate for his efforts.

Junpo critic Akira Iwasaki called it "the first world-class movie made in Japan" and raved about "the beauty [Kinugasa] depicts is by no means dramatic, novel, or painterly; it is a beauty that has nothing to do with any established art." Aoto Tonoshima of Chūkyō Kinema said, "If ordinary movie dramas are common sense, this one is more than common sense, it transcends common sense... It's a sensual movie that is based on humanity and logic.". He added "It's a work that tries to express the film itself, which has no use for values such as seriousness or seriousness," and compared it to Western films, saying, "It's a step more advanced than [The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari]." The deftness of the camera work rivals that of [The Last Laugh]." Eiichi Kato of the same magazine commented, "It occupies a position where it can essentially replace the value of conventional Japanese films. A review of the film in Tokyo Nichiichi Shimbun remarked, "It is horribly advanced compared to traditional novel-like storytelling, or explanatory films," and said that it was a Japanese film that relied on traditional linguistic elements. Unlike the previous works, he acclaimed the film for composing images without relying heavily on language. Kan Kikuchi also commented, "I had a good time watching A Page of Madness and was happy that it didn't have the unpleasant aspects of the Japanese film style."

Seikichi Fujimori felt that "the most successful part of this film is the cinematography", especially praising its lighting and shading and saying that "in terms of technique, it seemed to be on par with first-rate European and American films. Yoshio Ishinomaki also remarked on the use of cinematography and lighting: "It's probably no exaggeration to say that the cinematic value of A Page of Madness is determined solely by its cinematography techniques." Junichiro Tanaka also acclaimed the lighting, stating it is reminiscent of expressionist films and expressed his hopes for the impact that the film will have on Japanese art film. Shin Niwa of Chūkyō Kinema also expressed: "It is a figure of dedication that emerges from pure cinema and absolute cinema, and it is an artistic instinct that is unimaginable to the modern film industry who doesn't think of anything other than the money and business spirit. He hailed it a "true and precious work that strives for the highest level of art," and also expressed his high expectancies for the potential emerging new kind of artistic film A Page of Madness would influence.

Many critics, however, criticized the difficulty of understanding the film due to the lack of subtitles. At a joint review session for Eiga Jidai, one of the seven critics who saw a preview of the movie without any commentary by a benshi, articulated: "I couldn't understand it at first glance. I feel that the photographs are not very kind to the audience, because some parts are so cut back that it is difficult for the viewer to absorb them, and some parts are quite slow. I wish they had made that more consistent." Midorika Furukawa felt that it was unacceptable that the film was unsubtitled, conveying: "You can see things and go back, but without subtitles, it becomes even more difficult to understand." Yoshio Ishinomaki declared that A Page of Madness's shortcomings are that it is too fresh and falls into a formality. Additionally, some criticized the lack of uniformity in the narrative, including Yasuji Yoshida of Chūkyō Kinema, who pointed out that its naturalistic and experimental elements were mixed.

Sanjugo Naoki attacked the elitist standpoint of critics who praise the film excessively: "If a few people can be satisfied with what they consider to be 'artistic,' 'literature' is much better than 'movies'." Naoki also found it contradictory that, although the film is film difficult to understand due to its lack of subtitles, the audience fully understands it because of the narration given by the benshi. Furthermore, Akira Iwasaki suggested that the problem of making movies impure is that "If you let each movie stand alone, it's filled with surprising and new cinematic beauty, but when you look at it as a whole, there are so many foreign elements mixed in that it's confusing."

Retrospective
A Page of Madness has continuously gained universal acclaim since its rediscovery.

Time Out, praised the film, writing, "A Page of Madness remains one of the most radical and challenging Japanese movies ever seen here." Panos Kotzathanasis from Asian Movie Pulse.com called it "a masterpiece", praising the film's acting, music, and imagery. Jonathan Crow from Allmovie praised its "eerie, painted sets", lighting, and editing, calling it "a striking exploration of the nature of madness". Nottingham Culture's BBC preview of the film called it, "a balletic musing on our subconscious nightmares, examining dream states in a way that is both beautiful and highly disturbing." Jonathan Rosenbaum of The Chicago Reader praised the film's expressionist style, imagery, and depictions of madness as being "both startling and mesmerizing". The New York Times noted in their review: "The oblique storytelling — there are no intertitles — and innovative editing may make viewers themselves question their sanity" The San Francisco Bay Guardian said the film is "undeniably innovative".

Legacy
In the years following its rediscovery, A Page of Madness is considered by many film historians as a monumental work in world film history, pioneering and starting the avant-garde film movement in Japan, and one of the primary examples of Japanese literary figures becoming directly involved in film production. Literary figures in the past have been involved in cinema, such as Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, who joined the Taishō Katsuei in 1920 and wrote scripts for films such as Amateur Club (1920), and Sanjugo Naoki, who joined the United Motion Picture Artists Association. As Japanese film critic Tadao Sato wrote, the film represents "a work that carved out an extremely important page in the history of Japanese film". Screen Rant also cited A Page of Madness as the first Japanese horror film.

According to Japan Society, the film is widely considered one of the greatest films of the silent era. It has been included by several publications in their top films of Japan, in addition to some top horror film lists. In 1989, Bungeishunjū ranked the film No. 113 in their Best 150 Japanese Movies list based on 370 votes. It was later included at No. 50 in Slant Magazine's "100 Best Horror Movies of All Time", citing the film's visuals and atmosphere as "lingering long after the film ends". Entertainment Weekly ranked the film No. 13 on their list of "The 16 best Japanese horror movies". Vlada Petrić said it "matches the best avant-garde films of the era".

In recent years, it has gained a cult following, and was called a "cult classic" and "cult favorite" by the National Museum of Asian Art and IndieWire respectively.

Periodicals

 * https://appsv.main.teikyo-u.ac.jp/tosho/kminaguchi24.pdf


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