Abnormal Family

Director: Masayuki Suo

1984 / 63min / DCP

Before going on to international success with 1996 romantic comedy Shall We Dance? Suo began his career in Roman porno, his first feature a barbed spoof of the family dramas of Yasujiro Ozu—replete with “pillow shots,” tatami mat-level camera placements, and Ren Osugi doing a spot-on impression of Chishu Ryu—in which Ozu’s frequent theme of almost symbiotic closeness between parents and children is pushed towards intimations of incestuous desire. A perverse mash note to Golden Age Japanese cinema from the twilight of the Roman porno, which by the mid-’80s was facing stiff competition from home video.