The Crazy Family (1984)

After moving into a new house, a family starts acting crazier and crazier.

Director:

Gakuryû Ishii (as Sogo Ishii)

Writers:

Gakuryû Ishii (screenplay) (as Sogo Ishii), Norio Kaminami (screenplay)

Stars:

Katsuya Kobayashi, Mitsuko Baishô, Yoshiki Arizono

1 win.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Katsuya Kobayashi	...	Katsuhiko Kobayashi
Mitsuko Baishô	...	Saeko Kobayashi
Yoshiki Arizono	...	Masaki Kobayashi
Yûki Kudô	...	Erika Kobayashi (as Kudou Yuuki)
Hitoshi Ueki	...	Yasukune Kobayashi
Kazuhiko Kishino
Toyoko Koumi
Akira Ogata
Iwao Hayashizaki
Nobuhiro Gomori
Yoshinori Inoue
Hirona Takahashi
Kunihiro Ide
Alex Ablamov

Storyline

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...

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Plot Keywords:

suicide | termite | suburb | family problems | dysfunctional family | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Did You Know?

Trivia

The grandfather is named Yasukuni and has World War II flashbacks. The Yasukuni Jinja, or Yasukuni Shrine, in Japan, is dedicated to those who died in WWII.

User Reviews

Brilliant film which pushes its initial set-up just as far as it can go

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.

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

11 February 1986 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Crazy Family

Filming Locations:

Urawa, Saitama, Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Art Theatre Guild (ATG), Directors Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color