Rent The Crazy Family (1984)

All Chaos, No Catharsis - The Crazy Family review by griggs

There’s a version of this that might’ve been a riot: leaner, meaner, and edited with the discipline it keeps refusing to practise. As it is, it has the logic of a stranger’s dream — intriguing for five minutes, then you start checking the time.

This is a Japanese family drama on film, but it’s about as far from Ozu as you can get. If Ozu finds tension in quiet rooms and small silences, this one kicks the walls down and then keeps kicking. The Crazy Family throws zany, absurdist antics at the wall with real commitment, and for a while that scattershot energy teases the idea of fun. But the novelty wears thin, and the chaos stops feeling anarchic and starts feeling… tiring. Like being trapped at a party where everyone’s doing a “bit” and nobody’s listening.

Worse, the incest/sexual-threat-and-sadistic-violence stretch doesn’t land as transgressive or daring — it just plays tasteless. It’s the kind of misjudgement that stains everything around it. By the end, you’re not so much stunned as slightly irritated, and that’s a grim trade for all that noise.