Schizophrenia, family and heartbreaking choices
What should we have done? How should we have done it? What would have been the best choice? These are unanswerable questions that anyone with a sick family member must have asked themselves at least once, silently suffering as a household struggles. The Japanese documentary "What Should We Have Done?" poses these very questions. By honestly depicting the conflict, silence and endurance of a family caring for someone suffering from an illness surrounded by social stigma, the film continuously prompts viewers to confront these dilemmas. Directed by Tomoaki Fujino, the documentary captures a painful 20-year record of a family quietly breaking down. The story begins in 1983, when the director’s older sister Masako, then a medical student, first showed signs of schizophrenia. Though both their parents were medical researchers, they refused to pursue proper psychiatric treatment. Instead, bound by pride, concern over the social stigma and the belief that they could handle it themselves, they kept the doors locked and cared for her inside the house for decades. Right from the start, the film ma
