Japanese documentary filmmaker Tomoaki Fujino’s 2023 documentary film “What Should We Have Done?” is often difficult to watch for good reasons. Mainly consisting of old video clips showing a number of personal moments from Fujino’s deeply troubled older sister and their parents, the documentary looks back on how things got worse and worse for not only her but also her family for many years, and it does not flinch at all from some of the most despairing moments in her very unhappy life.

At the beginning, we get some background information on Fujino’s family. Both of his parents were well-educated academics, and his older sister Masako was certainly expected to follow her parents’ footsteps as showing more potential and intelligence under her parent’s care and attention. In fact, she could have been a promising young researcher if she had not suddenly developed symptoms of schizophrenia at the age of 24 in 1983.

As someone who had been quite close to her since his childhood, Fujino was certainly concerned a lot about his older sister, but there was nothing he could do as her mental illness got worse during next several years. While simply hoping for any sign of recovery, her parents eventually confined her to their house, and she became more distant to Fujino as he subsequently left their family house for his college study.

Nevertheless, he still cared about his older sister, so, not long after starting his filmmaking education, he began to record his private moments with his family in 2001. Around that time, Masako’s mental condition got much worsened than before, and she did not respond much to her younger brother or her parents even when they were together in the living room of their family house.

And we see more of her miserable life condition during that time. She usually looks distant and disheveled, and her room is filled with a lot of various things including some rather expensive research equipments for whatever she is studying on. In addition, she is quite fascinated with fortunetelling and astrology, and that often created another headache for her parents besides her many other eccentric behaviors. For example, she suddenly went to New York City by airplane without telling anything to her parents, who instantly took her back to their home after she called them from New York City.

Still wishing to understand his older sister more, Fujino tried for more communication with her, but all he could get was a series of babblings which did not make sense at all. Both saddened and frustrated with her worsening mental illness, he certainly reminds his mother at one point that she and her husband really have to do more than merely confining her to their house, but they remain adamant about their decision on her.

It must be pointed out that Fujino and Masako’s parents are not bad people at all, though it is undeniable that their decision on their daughter was misguided at best and abusive at worst. Like many other old Japanese people of their generation, they regarded mental illness as a stigma which they must cover up from others around them as much as possible, and that is the main reason why they chose to believe that their daughter’s mental illness was just a mere personal issue to overcome sooner or later. In their rather conservative viewpoint, all she will have to do is pulling herself together with more focus and will, and this surely made her feel much worse about herself without helping her at all. 

And her parents went further when things continued to get out of control for both them and her. After Masako tried to go outside for no apparent reason on one day, they decided to put a heavy lock on the front door of their house just for preventing another transgression of hers. Fujino was certainly alarmed by this extreme measure, but, again, his parents firmly believed that this was really the best they could do for their daughter – even when they had to endure another painful moment due to another disturbing emotional outburst from her.  

There is a bitter irony in how Masako was eventually allowed to have some peace and freedom several years later, but it is also poignant to observe the considerable change in her appearance. Although still looking quite awkward and introverted as before, her face is far less sullen and distant than before, and she also responds to her younger brother much more than before. Yes, she irreversibly lost a lot as struggling with her mental illness during all those years, and we cannot help but notice some deep melancholy from her aged face. Nevertheless, we are also quite touched by how she tried to live more than before despite all those pains and sufferings of hers.  

In conclusion, “What Should We Have Done?” is an earnest documentary which holds our attention with a number of deeply personal moments tinged with raw emotions to observe and then feel, and Fujino, who also served as the co-editor and co-cinematographer of his documentary, did a commendable job of handling his family story with enough sincerity and honesty. According to his respectful personal wish, it is shown only in movie theaters without any subsequent streaming service release here in South Korea just like it was in Japan, and I think you should check it out as soon as possible before it leaves movie theaters.