SHOREI X

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Selected examples of a New Cinema

Kenichi is thirty-six and lives with his mother who suffers from schizophrenia. Having moved in with her several years before, when the first symptoms appeared, Kenichi divides his time between looking after her and his job. A spare, contemplative film, Symptom X lingers on the details of everyday life: a dish of fried vegetables, the silence between mother and son at mealtimes, an ashtray full of cigarette butts, a fridge door that is repeatedly opened and closed as if a shred of hope is to be found inside.
Combining lyricism and harshness in minimalist compositions, director Yoshida Kohki depicts the days that are so similar one to another in a captivating litany. Kenichi washes the dishes that his mother has already done. When he sees a colleague resign with no other job to go to, he envies the freedom he himself lacks. Every day he locks his mother in her room to prevent her from getting out, yet the elderly woman still manages to escape; she too aspires above all to leave her prison. Constructed as a cycle where everything repeats itself, Symtom X veers between the hope that if this continues long enough an obscure goal will be achieved, and the despair of knowing that this goal does not exist.