This documentary follows the lives of five Japanese individuals to explore how depression is perceived in Japan and how the marketing of anti-depressants since the late 1990s has shifted public awareness. Once a term used only by psychiatric professionals, "utsu" is now commonly used as anti-depressant use has surged.
Direction
Mills finds poetry in clinical spaces and medication commercials
Editing
Jarring cuts between intimate confession and Big Pharma ads
Director
Mike Mills
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Before 1999, 'utsu' was rarely spoken aloud; by 2007, sales of SSRIs had increased 500%. The film captures ground zero of this linguistic and pharmacological earthquake.
Director Mike Mills made this between his early experimental work and Beginners — it's his invisible bridge from art-house oddity to Oscar-bait sincerity.
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