Citation

Tei S, Fujino J. Br. J. Psychiatry 2023; 223(5): e517.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Royal College of Psychiatry)

DOI

10.1192/bjp.2023.108

PMID

37910151

Abstract

Sudden death and suicide complicate grief. They can induce conflicting feelings of guilt and questions of who to blame. Casting light on such grief, the 1995 film Maborosi ('Phantom Light') portrays the universal experience of bereavement through a lens of uncertainty. This tranquil film depicts people's suffering and comfort and the ambiguity and flexibility of human nature.

Maborosi was the fiction film debut of documentarian and Cannes Palme d'Or winner Hirokazu Kore-eda, currently one of the titans of cinema. It is based on the 1979 novel by Miyamoto Teru (published in English in Phantom Lights and Other Stories), whose work explores 'the mutual proximity - or even the identity - of life and death'. This internationally acclaimed film allows us to sense how inconclusive grief is encountered and perceived...

Language: en

Keywords

Humans; *Motion Pictures