Viernes 9 | 20:30 | Filmoteca
Tickets
V.9 | 20:30 | Filmoteca
Tickets
Official Section 2023

Psychology Counselor

Zenzo Sakai | 2021 | 42′
Psychology Counselor Zenzo Sakai filmadrid sección oficial 2023
Six months pregnant, psychotherapist Mami Kurata is finishing up her last day of clinical sessions before beginning maternity leave. But after she has seen off her final client, a troubled woman, Akemi, arrives at the clinic without an appointment, complaining of strange visions. Reluctantly, Kurata agrees to listen as Akemi begins her tale with the words, “I see a ghost…” As the mysterious woman’s dark story unfolds, Kurata starts to question her own grip on reality while being plunged deep into anxieties of her own.
Spanish Premiere

Projected together with Pátio do Carrasco

program information

Día: Viernes 9 Junio
Hora: 20:30
Sede: Filmoteca
Psychology Counselor Zenzo Sakai filmadrid sección oficial 2023
Ficha técnica

Director:
Zenzo Sakai

Script:
Zenzo Sakai

Cinematography:
Ryotaro Kawaguchi

Lighting:
Tatsuhiro Nishiyama

Sound:
Mari Suzuki, Yasuyuki Dodo

Editor:
Zenzo Sakai

Produce:
Yasuyuki Dodo

Cast:
Mutsumi Suzuki/Maki Nishiyama/Riku Tanaka/Risa Kameda/Takanori Kamachi/Takashi Matsumoto/Jin Taira»

Critical text

The weird and the eerie meet in Psychology Counselor. When Mami's office is visited by a woman who claims to see a ghost, what is usually an everyday space slowly begins to become a haven for the ominous. "I can distinguish reality from fantasy" says the patient at one point. And it is precisely on the blurred border between the two worlds that Zenzo Sakai's film is set: a mystery story that dialogues with the conventions of genre cinema, especially the genre tradition in the Japanese context. This woman's story, fragmented and ambiguous, is translated into images of the same nature that, achieved through the use of ellipses and time jumps, contrast with the subtle camera movements and constantly burst in as intrusive thoughts. Images that create a confusion between what is narrated and what is seen, obscuring the ability of both the characters and the spectator to discern what is or is not real. Orality, in this way, challenges our gaze by leaving us with only a few clues to try to solve an enigma that never pretends to be deciphered. Because what Psychology Counselor seeks is not to provide answers to the questions it poses but to generate sensations that accompany us throughout the film and that last even after it ends. And it is there, perhaps, where the mark of true horror is to be found. In the incomplete, in the ungraspable, in what enters through the eyes and never comes out again. DANIELA URZOLA

Psychology Counselor Zenzo Sakai filmadrid sección oficial 2023

BIOGRAPHY

Zenzo Sakai was born in Tokyo in 1985.
He graduated from the Film School of Tokyo in 2011.
While earning a living as a freelance director for television and other media, he also produces independent films with a team of friends.

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