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The Yamazakis are pretty much a family shattered beyond repair:
Daughter Miki (Fujiko) is a prostitute who doesn't even shy away from
having sex with her dad (Ken'ichi Endo), son Takuya (Jun Muto) is the
victim of all the bullies in his school, to a degree that he lets out his
frustrations on his mum (Shungiku Uchida) whom he heavily beats up every
day, mum can only stand this because she's hooked on heroin, a habit she
finances by being a whore for men with acquired tastes herself. And dad?
Dad thinks it's a good idea to turn his family life into a TV documentary.
Enter the mysterious visitor (Kazushi Watanabe), who invites himself to
the family home by hitting dad over the head with a stone twice, then
doesn't do much more than observing the over-the-top goings-on in the
Yamazaki family home, which eventually culminate in dad killing his
girlfriend/production assistant, then trying to shag her dead body. When
he gets stuck inside the corpse, mum actually helps him get out of his
predicament rather than leave him on the spot - and for the first time in
many years, they bond, so much so that they decide to extend their love to
their son, and they brutally slaughter those who bully him.
A happy family?
Well, almost, there's still Miki the prostitute - whom the visitor hits
over the head with a stone, to have the same effect on her he had on her
dad ...
Judging from my synopsis alone, this probably sounds like a gross-out
over-the-top comedy, and I'm sure it was intended that way. Problem is
that director Takashi Miike might know how to gross out his audience,
which he has proven repeatedly (and occasionally quite impressively), but
his talents for comedy are atbesg limited - to an extent that the film
isn't very funny and what could have been a biting satire on modern
Japanese family life and alienation within the family lacks any and all
satirical aspects.
That said, the film is definitely not the worst you have ever seen, not
even close, and it actually has its moments, but it's also not really good
either.
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