MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: INUGAMI-KE NO ICHIZOKU / THE INUGAMI FAMILY (1976)

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Thursday, February 20, 2025

INUGAMI-KE NO ICHIZOKU / THE INUGAMI FAMILY (1976)

Master of All Genres Kon Ichikawa* went out on a limb on this one: murder mystery, family inheritance/mother-love saga, comic-horror pic. A big hit in Japan (sequels; remake), yet never distributed Stateside. Perhaps if Ichikawa hadn’t been tagged as a big-issue, serious subject kind of guy after acclaimed WWII films (FIRES ON THE PLAIN/’59; THE BURMESE HARP/’56). After that, with few exceptions, he was under-served in the West in spite of a life that was long & productive to the end. (1915 - 2008; 95 films.) OR: Was the film simply considered too inscrutably Japanese, too plotty?; as indeed it is over the first two acts. But you pick up enough of the pieces to catch up, and then some, in a phenomenally propulsive, lucid Act Three. Anyway, Ichikawa’s compositional mastery carries you along at the densest of narrative moments. It starts with the Inugami family gathered at the deathbed of their aged patriarch, a rich Pharmaceutical Mogul with three daughters from three different women. (He never married.) Even more complicated bloodlines among the relatives & in-laws along with a gaggle of next generation hopefuls standing by for the will to be read. Turns out, Inugami Senior is giving his entire fortune to a girl outside the family line. But only if she marries one of his three grandsons. (From those three half-sisters, got it?) No wonder murder & mystery follow. Will any of the three grandsons survive to marry into a fortune? Inevitably, death brings in the police as well as loose cannon private detective Kôji Ishizaka, shuffling off with the movie. Don’t despair if some details pass you by, all will click into place by the third act. And in thrilling, audience pleasing, character driven fashion. Immensely satisfying pop entertainment. Ichikawa’s mise-en-scène, color grading & pallette, and unannounced segues into highly stylized vignettes, all second-to-none; worth every polished pixel in the 2021 restoration you should look for.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: Probably the best introduction to Ichikawa is, from 1983, his women’s period drama, set in the clothing biz of the 1940s and as stunningly beautiful a film as you will ever see, THE MAKIOKA SISTERS. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2012/07/sasame-yuki-makioka-sisters-11983.html

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *Really? Every genre? Did Ichikawa ever do a musical?

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Thursday, February 20, 2025

INUGAMI-KE NO ICHIZOKU / THE INUGAMI FAMILY (1976)

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