#noroi

The trashy 2000s tv show exploited him, mocked his catatonia, and encouraged his delusions (or what seemed to be delusions) for their own gain; Mitsuo would often give direct answers to the detective and the detective wouldn't listen and ask the same things over and over; they called the authorities on Mitsuo to kidnap him and put him in an institution and it so clearly and obviously made his mental health worse; Mitsuo would try to help give answers in his own way (trying to write down his scattered thoughts, drawing a map) and since he wasn't answering verbally, the detective grabbed at him and shouted. Even the way his neighbours talk about him.

It didn't ruin the experience for me, though. I still loved the movie. Even with the ableist undertones, the tv show was still depicted as trashy & in the wrong for exploiting Mitsuo and the detective was characterized to, despite being thorough and smart, push things too far with only the slightest concern on how it might affect others (getting his wife involved with the victims of the case is another one). So I never felt like the movie was saying "this is how you should treat mentally ill people", it is just the undertones. I also don't hate the detective either, he was well-rounded and I did want him to succeed even if he started making poor decisions. He was incredibly passionate about researching the mystery and that made me root for him.

Some might say Mitsuo was an ableist caricature due to some of the stereotypes written into his character (obsession with tinfoil), but it felt realistic to me. They never wrote him to be evil or malicious (until his posession at the end, though that was the demon), the dude is just a poor man who wants to be left alone. The entire time I was watching I was thinking "man, it must suck so fucking bad to be schizophrenic but also dealing with a real demon & real curse at the same time".