The first thing you wonder when you sit down to watch a film called The Crazy Family – now released on Blu-Ray by Third Window – is how crazy are they going to be, exactly? “Crazy”, as a descriptor, can be pretty relatable: we were definitely meant to feel for Beyonce when she was crazy in love. But the protagonists of Joseph H Lewis’s Gun Crazy had more serious problems than lovesickness, and Gakuryû Ishii’s 1984 film swings from one meaning of the word to the other. At first, the Kobayashi family seem no crazier than you or I, which is to say, crazy – but driven crazy by the pressures of a consumerist society. As the film moves into its explosive third act, you start to wonder how far away this everyday madness is from wild, screaming psychosis.
We’re introduced to the Kobayashis as they move into a plush new home. To quote Homer Simpson, as far as anybody knows, they’re a nice normal family. The parents (played by Mitsuko Baishô and Katsuya Kobayashi) are hard-working but still deeply in love with each other, the son (Yoshiki Arizono) is studying hard for his exams, and the daughter (Yûki Kudô) is convinced she’s on the verge of being Japan’s next pop idol. There are definitely hints of the discord to come, such as the vertigo-inducing opening shot, the hectic scenes of the father commuting to and from work and the terrific post-punk and new wave soundtrack. For the most part, though, this seems to be a fairly straightforward familial comedy-drama.
If that’s all it was, it would still be impressive, not least for being a Japanese film about a middle-class family which doesn’t bear a trace of the influence of Ozu. But odder, more disquieting flavours keep creeping in. The fifth member of the Kobayashi household is grandfather Yasukune, played with unflappable, square-jawed authority by Hitoshi Ueki just one year before he appeared as the rival king in Kurosawa’s Ran. Those with a knowledge of Japanese history will note the similarity between his name and the Yasukuni Shrine, a Japanese war memorial controversial for including the names of 1,066 convicted war criminals. Sure enough, upright old gramps has a disturbing past – but even that isn’t as disruptive as his son’s disturbing present. The appearance of voracious white ants has him fearing for the survival of his house, and if fixing it means threatening the survival of his family, well, so be it. They may be his loved ones, but the house is an investment.
Fires are started, chainsaws are brandished, Masaki’s studying turns him into an unhinged hermit and grandfather’s wartime flashbacks remind you that, in the context of 1980s Japan, even an antic bad-taste comedy like this can be processing some heavy memories.
The first picture we see in the rapid montage of family photos that the opening credits consist of shows father Katsuhiko dressed as a samurai. It’s a heavily ironic visual – this highly-strung salaryman couldn’t be further from Mifune – but it does suggest Ishii wants you to read his film as a commentary on Japanese national self-image and history. Ishii’s early career, which also included cult classics Crazy Thunder Road and Burnt City, now seems like a bridge between the Japanese New Wave of Oshima and Terayama and the coming cyberpunk cinema of Tsukamoto. He attacks the same political themes as the former group with the punk energy and irreverence of the later directors, veering stylistically from long handheld takes to frantic street scenes (usually shot without a permit), epilepsy-trigger montages and one terrific reverse tracking zoom (the famous ‘trombone shot’ of Vertigo and Jaws). The Crazy Family is a perfect demonstration of how invigorating that mixture can be.
So the answer to that opening question – how crazy is this crazy family? – is pretty damn crazy. Going into the film, I remember thinking to myself that it would probably go pretty hard, but at least it wouldn’t be anything like Takashi Miike’s infamously taboo-busting family satire Visitor Q. Well, it isn’t as graphic – but thematically it isn’t a million miles away. Fires are started, chainsaws are brandished, Masaki’s studying turns him into an unhinged hermit and grandfather’s wartime flashbacks remind you that, in the context of 1980s Japan, even an antic bad-taste comedy like this can be processing some heavy memories. It’s bracingly nasty stuff, but it holds out the hope that its protagonists can be redeemed by stepping very, very far outside the manic treadmill of modern city life. A happier ending awaited Kudô, who made her acting debut here. She really did go on to have the idol career Erika dreams of, as well as appearing in international films like Jim Jarmusch’s Mystery Train.
That international career might have been for the best, because for all its manic invention The Crazy Family wasn’t a hit in Japan on its initial release. Its failure forced Ishii to retreat for the best part of a decade, re-emerging in the 1990s as a director of contemplative, mystical dramas such as August in the Water. It’s a unique career, contextualised well by this disc’s extras. There are some fans of Japanese cinema who’ll already have pre-ordered this based on its Tom Mes commentary, and he’s on fine form as usual. There’s also a visual essay by James Balmont which draws useful comparisons to Ishii’s other films, both pre- and post-hiatus, and an interview with the director himself. The limited edition features additional written material by Jasper Sharp.
The Crazy Family is out now on Third Windows Films Blu-Ray as part of their Director’s Company Series
