A Page of Madness

Set inside a psychiatric hospital during a torrential rainstorm, the film unfolds in dim corridors, locked wards, and a sunlit lawn. The hospital is presented as a contained world where routines clash with moments of chaos, blurring lines between sanity and delirium. The rain and confinement heighten the dreamlike atmosphere that drives the janitor's fantasies and the characters' tensions.

🌫️ Reality vs Dream

In the janitor's mind, fantasies intrude on his perception of reality, turning routine hospital life into surreal episodes. He daydreams about winning a chest of drawers to give to his daughter, and imagines taking his wife away from the asylum. The boundary between waking life and dream becomes porous as visions overwhelm his sense of time and duty. These sequences reveal how imagination can distort reality and threaten to sever ties with those he loves.

💔 Duty and Guilt

The custodian's remorse for leaving his wife and daughter on long voyages weighs on his conscience. His attempts to protect his wife by keeping her near her ward clash with the strain it places on his daughter and family. The film probes whether obligation to a loved one can justify isolation, control, or even violence within an institutional setting. Guilt gnaws at him as he confronts the consequences of his past decisions.

🏥 Institutional Confinement

The hospital functions as a micro-society with its own rules, hierarchies, and dangers, emphasizing how confinement shapes behavior and perception. Patients, staff, and the janitor navigate power dynamics, surveillance, and care under the gaze of authority. The setting amplifies the sense of monotony punctuated by sudden eruptions of chaos, amplifying the boundary between control and madness. The asylum becomes a stage where dreams and duties collide.

🎭 Masks and Identity

The janitor distributes noh masks to the inmates, using facial façades to manage emotion and perception within the ward. The masks symbolize happiness or disguise, contrasting with the characters' hidden emotions and fragile identities. The central moment of donning an okina mask suggests a desire to reclaim authority or to become a different person within the asylum's theater. Through masks, the film questions what makes a person truly themselves beneath appearances.