This is just the last of a bunch of Japanese movies recently hitting the western audiences with a common denominator: trying to inherit the essence of the Yasujirô Ozu cult movie Tokio Story (1953). And in more than a sense (not only displaying a chunk of it in one of the final scenes), Yôji Yamada makes a wonderful tribute in his last works: A Tokio Family (2013), Nagasaki: Memories of my son (2015) and What a Wonderful Family (2016). In all them, he uses once and again the contrite power of Kazuko Yoshiyuki as an axis to move around all the other usual suspects. The beauty of Yû Aoi as the shy newcomer with the rare skill to smile so sadly that you feel her emotions grasping your throat, the always discreet wife Yui Natsukawa, the appeal of Tomoko Nakajima as the busy businesswoman, the charming simplicity of Shôzô Hayashiya as the dumb husband, Masahiko Nishimura as the serious older son, etc etc and above all, Isao Hashizume as the grumpy grandfather. With those bricks, Yamada essentially builds a micro cosmos of lashed emotions and humoresque situations in which we can see ourselves reflected. And that's, nothing else, the definition of a universal story.
Review of What a Wonderful Family!
