A R C H I V E1 9 8 7  
6th
  Mako Idemitsu
Yoji, what's Wrong with You?
  Japan 1987
Videotape, 17:50, colour
Human relationships, with all the daily tensions that result from our secret longings and expectations, are again the subject of this production by Mako Idemitsu. When Yoji's father fails to provide his wife with the love and interest she needs, she projects her oppressive affection together with her hopes and expectations onto Yoji, her teenage son. Yoji accepts this situation without much resistance, but later notices that whenever he brings a girl-friend home, his mother sees this as a personal failure on her part. His father tries to stand up for Yoji, but is quickly silenced by his wife and escapes again into the safety of his newspaper. In the course of the story, Yoji's mother-fixation is manipulated to such a degree that he ends up caring practically full-time for his sick mother, his father turns to a new girl-friend for domestic companionship, and Yoji's girl-friend, like his mother, is obliged to make a life for herself alone with her child. The integration of a monitor in the sets gives the viewer playful insights into the various levels of this domestic drama.

Sonja van der Burg

Scenario, editing: Mako Idemitsu, Camera: Michael Goldberg, Light: Tetsu Furudate, Sound: Hisaki Yasuda, Production: Mako Idemitsu, With: Chieko Yamagani, Mari Ohyama