I happened to watch a film titled *A Page of Madness* (Kurutta Ichipeiji). It is a black-and-white silent movie made in 1926—a century ago—and was the debut production of the “Shinkankaku-ha Eiga Renmei” (New Sensationalist Film League), a group formed by literary figures such as Riichi Yokomitsu and Yasunari Kawabata. Set in a psychiatric hospital, the film depicts human madness—or rather, it depicts *nothing but* human madness. Stripped of everything other than madness itself, the content was baffling to me, yet it made a powerful impact; its innovative style made it hard to believe it was a century-old work. Although the original story was by Kawabata, one wonders: what exactly was he trying to convey? (Kei)

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