moriarty@tc.fluke.com (Jeff Meyer) (11/16/89)
YEN FAMILY
A film review by Jeff Meyer
Copyright 1989 Jeff Meyer
[Seen at the Seattle International Film Festival]
YEN FAMILY (Japan, 1988)
Director: Yojiro Takita
(Screenwriter not supplied in program)
Cast: Takeshi Kaga, Kaori Momoi, Hiromi Iwasaki, Mitsunori Isaki
Yojiro Takita has been getting a reputation as a "full-blown satirist" of
Japanese culture (in the Western press, at least, which is a questionable
reference). His previous work, COMIC MAGAZINE, let Japanese TV and tabloid
journalism have both barrels, but in a scatter-shot manner -- it often reduced
its satire to the level of a typical MAD magazine parody, and seemed to loose
control of just where it was going. YEN FAMILY, which deals with an incredibly
mercantile, money-hustling family, has almost precisely the same problem; it's
one major improvement over COMIC MAGAZINE is that it tends to spoof both sides,
i.e., the "nouveau rich" and the "traditionalists." However, Takita still
seems to be unable to break his two-mode characters: they're usually acting
completely zany, but have interludes where the audience seems to be expected to
take them seriously. The youngest member of the family decides that the
spiritual life is being neglected in his home, and tries to pull his parents
and sister out of their full-bore capitalism; this brings about the funniest
parts of the film, but also tries to introduce some fairly maudlin sentiment at
the end.
Not recommended.
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
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