Third Window Films is continuing its Directors Company series of releases by lining up a Blu-ray release of a film by Gakuryu (formerly Sogo) Ishii that has been a fan favourite for a long time. That film is called The Crazy Family and it features a madcap satire an aspirational family unit, circa the economic boom times of 80s Japan. The film was lensed by Masaki Tamura (Lady Snowblood.2/Duo, Evil Dead Trap, Suzaku) and features the likes of Mitsuko Baisho and Yuki Kudo on screen.
Here is the information:
The Crazy Family 
逆噴射家族 「Gyakufunsha kazoku」
Release Date: June 23rd, 1984
Running Time: 106 mins.
Director: Sogo Ishii
Cinematographer: Masaki Tamura
Writer: Sogo Ishii, Fumio Konami, Yoshinori Kobayashi, (Screenplay),
Starring: Katsuya Kobayashi, Mitsuko Baisho, Yoshiki Arizono, Yuki Kudo, Hitoshi Ueki, Kazuhiko Kishino, Akira Ogata, Toyoko Koumi,
The Crazy Family comes from Gakuryu Ishii, a filmmaker whose films contained a punk ethos and helped define some of the cyber punk 80s aesthetic. He is responsible for Crazy Thunder Road, but branched out into a variety of genres like serial killer thrillers (Angel Dust) and existential apocalypses (Isn’t Anyone Alive, another Third Window Films release from years gone by) and mainstream drama Bitter Honey. He’s a film professor now and has earned his stripes. This was one of the films produced by the Directors Company (1982-1992) and distributed by the Art Theatre Guild (ATG), a production company that operated between 1961 and 1984 which made films by New Wave directors like Shohei Imamura and Koji Wakamatsu.
The fact that Gakuryu (formerly Sogo) Ishii was one of the last directors to have a release handled by ATG is fitting since he represented a new generation, that included Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Shinji Somai, who emerged with the Directors Company. Many of that new generations films were on tour around the world over the last couple of years and this year, too.
Here’s a famous clip from the film:
Synopsis: The Kobayashi family consists of hard-working Katsuhiko, his loving wife Saeko and their two kids, Erika and Masaki and their pet dog. They have hit a patch of good fortune. Erika has got a record company audition while Katsushiko has finally got them a nice house in the suburbs far away from their tiny, cramped Tokyo apartment. Alas, things start to fall apart (almost literally) since the suburban house of their dreams is infested by termites and their unwanted grandfather Yasukuni moves in and starts getting World War II flashbacks. The family begin to fall to pieces as well as Masaki studies obsessively for an exam and Erika is equally obsessed with her audition. Katsuhiko becomes so worried about his family’s “sickness” that he thinks can only be cured by boarding up the doors and windows and getting everybody to perform group suicide… This is the start of a fight in which everyday objects become weapons in a battle for survival…
This is a REGION FREE release and the package looks like this:
• Director approved remaster from the original negatives
• Feature audio commentary by Tom Mes
• Director Gakuryu (exSogo) Ishii interview
• The Crazy Family: Sogo Ishii’s Wild Child” Video essay by James Balmont
• Slipcase with artwork from Gokaiju
• ‘Directors Company’ edition featuring insert by Jasper Sharp – limited to 2000 copies
This release follows on from The Guard From Underground and DOOR and DOOR II, Typhoon Club, and Luminous Woman. as Third Window Films continues with its series known as Director’s Company Collection. Through these works, viewers will be able to get into lesser-known (in the West) but influential Japanese films of the 1980s and 90s that were made outside of the studio system.