The 56th Essay: Side Effects

Ryoden Kouki Engineering Co., Ltd.

Company Newsletter Series: “How about Taking a Short Break?”

Steven Soderbergh's Side Effects (2013) is a psychological thriller that explores medical ethics, psychiatry, the pharmaceutical industry, and human desire through a case involving the side effects of an antidepressant. After her husband is released from prison for insider trading, a woman with a history of depression begins taking a newly prescribed antidepressant. She is then alleged to have fatally stabbed her husband while in a sleepwalking state induced by the medication. However, as her psychiatrist investigates the case, he uncovers an elaborate conspiracy behind the apparent tragedy. The film examines not only the challenges of diagnosing mental illness and the risks associated with pharmacological treatment, but also develops a multilayered narrative involving malingering, medical malpractice, and stock market manipulation. By drawing on Aesop's fable The Quack Doctor, Side Effects offers thought-provoking reflections on the nature of medicine and the proper relationship between physicians, patients, and pharmaceutical treatment.

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Director, Kayukawa Clinic, Yuhei Kayukawa, M.D. >