Japanese movies have fallen into pre-set genres since the medium got to Japan. Period movies (various periods); motherhood movies; wife movies; young-people-do-crazy-shit movies; middle-class life movies; yakuza movies; and something that the academics call "nonsense movies." These are a little like screwball comedies sometimes, but sometimes they are much, much weirder.
My favorite so far in the nonsense group is The Crazy Family. Boy, that one is a hoot. Somehow it got onto Los Angeles cable TV; there are clips on YouTube. Check it out if you can.
This movie falls into the Bermuda Triangle between youth movies, yakuza movies and nonsense movies, which sounds to me like cinema heaven. I love Japanese art, it is a really amazing culture. Musically they are the funky Asians, Japanese music is a thousand times better than the rest of Asian music, which is almost entirely saccharin and cloying and awful. Japanese music swings, which is not easy boys and girls, it takes talent. Japanese movies are the brass balled champions of no-holds-barred cinema. You want it? you got it! you're the director. That's their system!!! Directors make movies, and the producer just says, okay!
I hope that I get a chance to see this one, it looks all the way nuts. It's playing in L.A. in December, but I won't be there until February. I doubt if the Bangkok bootleggers will copy this one, and full price mail-order is over my head. Maybe someday!
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