The Crazy Family (1984)
aka Gyakufunsha kazoku
Genre: Comedy | Drama
Country: Japan | Director: Sogo Ishii
Language: Japanese | Subtitles: English (Optional, embedded in Mkv file)
Aspect ratio: Widescreen 1.85:1 | Length: 106mn
Bdrip H264 Mkv – 1920×1036 – 23.976fps – 3.99gb
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087377/
The Kobayashi family finally get the chance to move out of their tiny, cramped Tokyo apartment in favour of the suburban house of their dreams. But all is not well: the house is infested by termites and the family starts cracking up: Son Masaki is studying so obsessively for his exams that he’s losing his mind; daughter Erika is oblivious of all but her forthcoming record company audition, grandfather Yasukuni starts getting World War II flashbacks and father Katsuhiko is so worried about his family’s “sickness” that he thinks can only be cured by group suicide…
A lot of the humor is absolutely hilarious, albeit in a very dark and even surreal manner. The jokes include, but are not limited to, Nazism, incest, and a lot of insanity. Past the humor, the film is remarkably well made. Considering the fact its a low budget production (and very much a predecessor to the Japanese New Wave cinema of Takashi Miike and Shinya Tsukamoto), its editing is amazing. The rapid and quick cuts achieve a hypnotic style, not so much quickly paced and being able to capture the frenzy of the situation. The pacing is very good as well, as the situations just continue to become worse as the film continues. This is the classic “things just get worse” style of sitcom humor taken to its most surreal extreme. “The Crazy Family” is an absolutely unique film which needs a much larger audience. Its easily the closest Sogo Ishii has came to creating a masterpiece.
A masterpiece, and still one of my favourite movies of all time. Thanks for reposting NLZ!