Getting the Japanese to talk about their emotions is said to be like pulling teeth, but getting depressed Japanese to bare their souls is like unlocking the mysteries of quantum physics. And yet in the documentary "Does Your Soul Have a Cold?," "Thumbsucker" director Mike Mills does just that. A cinematic equivalent of a sympathetic family doctor, the film certainly knows how to listen to its subjects. Really listen, without being intrusive or making hasty diagnoses.
And why would an American filmmaker be interested in making a documentary about depressed Japanese people? After all, aren't there more than enough samplings to pick and choose from in the U.S., a culture that thrives on over-the-counter antidepressants?
In the production notes Mills addresses that very subject, saying that happiness is a huge part of the American cultural fabric and that the nation has made a lucrative industry out of the notion that unhappiness should be remedied immediately, with medication. That notion, exported to Japan and the rest of the world, has certainly influenced the way manic-depressive patients are treated here. Apparently, Mills felt a certain degree of responsibility.