Reviews & Ratings for
Gyakufunsha kazoku More at IMDbPro »

6 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Absolutely crazed satire from Japan, 18 August 2008

Author: TimothyFarrell from Worcester, MA

I've wanted to see "The Crazy Family" ever since reading about it in Shock Cinema. After finally being able to track it down, I can honestly say it didn't disappoint me. "The Crazy Family" has to be one of the most berserk screen satires I've ever seen. I think I missed a lot of the deeper social implications and attacks on Japanese family life, as its a culture I am largely unfamiliar with. Fortunately, a lot of the humor is absolutely hilarious anyways, 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. (9/10)

6 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Outrageous, in a good way., 1 January 2000

Author: Ross-c from Leicester, England

I first saw this movie before I had ever set foot in Japan, and found it freaky and outrageous. A tour de force of punk values in celluloid. I assumed that much of this impression was due to my unfamiliarity with Japan. Now, after living in Japan from 1987 until 1991, it's still just as outrageous. One of the rare movies that combines freak out visual images with a serious concept. Ishii takes the 'typical' Japanese family by each stereotype in turn, and stretches each to cartoon extremes. Lock all these characters in a house with all the windows and doors nailed shut, and let the climax to this movie slowly build. Recommended for viewers who are decidedly not faint hearted.

3 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
They're not that crazy..., 23 December 2007
Author: Scott from Modesto from the Berkeley Marina

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Several years after Ishii's film school finishing project Crazy Thunder Road hit the big screen, he unleashed this bad boy--his most critically acclaimed film at its release--on a semi-unsuspecting public. It's a slight step to the left from the hyper-kinetic Burst City, Crazy Thunder Road, or his short Shuffle, but Crazy Family doesn't eschew any the punk ethos of Ishii's earlier work. Maybe the violence is a bit wackier, but it's still there.

Dad moves the family into a nice house in the suburbs. When Gramp gets kicked out by Dad's brother, Dad takes him in and the rest of the family is ecstatic/ But Mom starts letting her inhibitions loose and stripping for the house guests. Meanwhile Little Sis is obsessed with being an actress, pop star, and wrestler and Bro is an eccentric genius who studies all the time while stabbing himself in the leg to stay awake and trying to harness the power of pyramids. Dad has long thought the family to be declining into sickness and sees this condition as being exacerbated by Grandpa's presence. So Dad decides to trash the family room to build a basement for Gramps's new bedroom, becomes obsessed with the house's termite infestation, and ultimately when all seems hopeless he decides that the family should commit suicide together by drinking insecticide. Well, no one wants to drink the poison so an all-out scrape between all family members ensue.

Wacky and intriguing? Yes, very much so. But this family, while extremely dysfunctional, didn't seem THAT dysfunctional compared to most families I know, let alone the Simpsons, the Bundys, or the Connors from the glut of late 80s/early 90s US sitcoms about messed-up family units.

3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
wow. edge of my seat., 10 August 2006

Author: secrective from detroit

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

imagine if you will, a normal family with 2 kids that moves into a new house. now imagine the stress of this new house has driven one or more of them insane. after watching this movie i still do not know how many of them were actually crazy.

a black comedy from japan circa 1984, A Crazy Family is one heck of a good movie to catch. the pacing, camera work, plot, characters, location, and soundtrack are all top notch.

a real mind f#$% of a movie. showing the audience just how close anyone can come to going crazy. each character is well written and has a great personality. one scene with grandpa and the daughter was great, i cant believe the director said such things about world war 2. frightening and exciting at the same time.

after watching this and sogo ishii's other movie 'electric dragon 80000v', i really must watch the rest of his films.

4 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Brilliant film which pushes its initial set-up just as far as it can go, 3 December 2002
Author: crisis-46 from USA

This is a brilliant film which pushes its initial set-up -- middle-class Japanese family moves into new house and finds out there is not enough space -- just as far as it can possibly go. Along the way, every dark fear one might ever have harbored about family life is thoroughly confirmed. "The Crazy Family" had a successful 1984 theatrical run in the US (at least, it played in New York City for several months) but for some reason has never been released to any form of video in America. Some enterprising company should remedy this situation ASAP.

5 out of 19 people found the following review useful:
An interesting black-comedy spoofing western (American) sitcoms!, 30 May 2002
Author: Poona Kan Ng from Hong Kong

You know that "syrupy" sitcom fad of the 1980's? With stuff like "Full House", "Family Ties" and "Facts of Life"? Didn't they just wanna make ya puke? You always wondered why they were popular in the US, as well as Asia. I gotta a cure for you"

Gyakufunsha kazoku!!! The Back-fire family!!!

Like in many US sitcoms, it starts off with the stereotypical working dad, the stereotypical house-wife mom, the stereotypical teeny-bopper and the stereotypical brain-child student. Everything seems to be fine..... ......Until they move in with their crazy grandpa who still thinks it's World War 2 and plenty of termites and roaches in the house. Oh boy, do things take the twisted root! HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!

Now why can't Sitcoms in West DO THAT? That would be cool!

Add another review

Related Links