Seishin

Suffering from chronic depression, suicidal tendencies, psychotic episodes, the patients of Dr Yamamoto find in him the capacity to listen that society refuses them. Seishin shows us an unusual side of Japan. Although IT and hi-tech have long been applied to Japanese medicine, the Dr Yamamoto’s mental health clinic is collapsing under piles of paperwork, files and forms. A traditional grey-brick building in the middle of small grounds, the clinic itself is not very imposing. As for the “chief’s” office, it is even worse: a table covered with a plastic cloth and strewn with books and files, and a metal chair. Behind the psychological misery of these men and women, an economic and social misery in revealed, which is the fundamental question posed by this film where the shadow of Vivre hovers close by. (Yann Lardeau)