The Yen Family
1988 [JAPANESE]
Action / Comedy / Drama

Plot summary
Set in Japan during the bubble era, this unique home comedy cheerfully and humorously depicts the daily life of a strange family that works together to accumulate a small amount of money, while mixing irony and satire.
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.WEB 1080p.WEBMovie Reviews
Fall in Love with Cinema All Over Again
Quite silly, also hard to read subtitles
I thought this film was quite silly yet rather sad. I hope that the "Yen" family does not exist too often in real life. I thought it was sad that the obsession with small change was more important to the family than the happiness of the son. And then to allow their 9 year old daughter to talk dirty to some pervert with a "lolita complex" was too much. But I suppose it was only a comedy.
I was also quite annoyed with the subtitles. Having fuzzy white text on a light background makes it very hard to read. I was watching the film on video, so I had the opportunity to rewind and freeze frame, but I should not have to do this. A good example of what subtitles should look like are those created by SBS in Australia on their foreign language programs which are a strongly contrasting yellow. They are much easier to read.
Overall I was not all that impressed by the film and gave it 4/10. I was hoping for more. I watched "Sada Abe" just before "Yen Family" so perhaps too high a standard had been set with which Yen could not compete.