A Page of Madness

"Kurutta "Ippeiji" is notable for several reasons. First, it is one of the few Japanese silent movies of the 1920's to survive.

Second, unlike most silent films, it lacks intertitles/title/dialog cards because a narrator, who also acted out lines and situations is/was to be present in a Kabuki-style setting.

Third, It's a low budget, avant garde movie where the cast is "doing a Roger Corman"; serving as production crew members between takes.

The story: The husband of an asylum inmate has taken the job of janitor to watch over her. She dances on the stage of her mind, oblivious to the staff or other inmates. One day, a formally dressed young woman visits the asylum for the insane to invite her mother to the wedding. She is shocked to see her father is working as a janitor, then dismayed to find her mother living in squalor. She leaves, though her father plots to get his wife out for the wedding. Life goes on, as the inmates parade across the asylum grounds, work on booklets, or wander the corridors.

The discordant soundtrack mirrors the inmates' state of mind, while disparate images flow by. Double exposures, graphic elements, distorted reflections, and quick cuts announce that this is a High Art film. I found this no-context-at-all silent movie hard to follow, but still interesting. 8/10