Yôji Yamada’s “What a Wonderful Family!”

What a Wonderful Family! (家族はつらいよ) (2016)

Rabidly conservative family “comedy” that is at best bland and predictable and at worst offensive and patronising

Realising that Yamada would have been 85 when this film was released explains a lot about its weirdly retrograde view of contemporary Japanese family life with its servile women and regressive views on duty and tradition. At one point, the film has the audacity to make use of scenes from Yasujirō Ozu’s Tokyo Story which only serves to highlight how little the world has changed (at least in the world of this film) since 1953.

In addition, the acting is pantomime and often only played for laughs and the script is so predictable; a third of the way through I placed my bets on how I thought the film would progress and as each came to pass, another part of me died. Utterly devoid of any wisdom, it has a moral vacuum that isn’t about bettering humanity as much as improving the lives of Japanese men. There is no nuance. The cast are caricatures; the loyal son, grumpy father, the serious son, the goofy son-in-law, the hysterical daughter…

One positive, the film does feature a soundtrack from Joe Hisaishi which is charming but only adds to the cartoon feel of proceedings. Incredibly, there are two sequels which I’m not planning on seeing. I’m already sorry to have seen the first.