Leo Tolstoy wrote in Anna Karenina: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” Of course he had never seen Funuke or the Wago family, with the lack of DVD players being a particular problem to the Russian writer in the 1800’s.

In Daihachi Yoshida’s debut movie, we are introduced to the Wago family and their own brand of unhappiness. To say this family is dysfunctional is a massive understatement, a more apt description for family members would be maniacs.

They are a working class family who live in the beautiful Japanese countryside. The film begins with a bang, Kiyomi Wago (Aimi Satsukawa) has just witnessed the death of both her parents in a car accident, who tried to avoid running over a cat. The teenager is a shy, asthmatic kid who is obviously thoroughly devastated by this turn of events. This prompts her older sister Sumika (Eriko Sato) to return for her parents’ funerals.

This is where the pace of the film picks up greatly. It turns out the Wagos have so many disturbing secrets that even Jerry Springer would have problems keeping up. Sumika is obsessed with becoming an actress and refuses to accept or listen to anyone who thinks otherwise. Years ago, when her father refused to fund her dreams, she decided to attack him with a knife to change his mind. In the process of this attack, she scarred her brother Shinji (Masatoshi Nagase). Not the most obvious route for a successful argument to get some money from your parents. Instead, she turns to prostitution to raise the Yen needed to make it to Tokyo.

In the process, of her actions, she becomes the newest manga star. Young Kiyomi, decides to base her manga book on a girl of unparalleled evil, who will kill, maim, destroy and screw all the way to the top, to become a famous actress. Sound familiar? The youngest Wago even wins a manga contest with the Sumika-inspired work. The work is thus published and the locals have a gossiping-feeding-frenzy with it, so much so that, Sumika is quickly dispatched to Tokyo. Not exactly a loving family in most people’s books.

The star of the movie is Sumika. She is a hateful character who is so vain and arrogant that nothing seems to redeem her in the viewer’s eyes. Yoshida’s movie is performance driven and in this regard Eriko Sato is excellent. The director varies the film’s style throughout and this leaves it a bit uneven and it is not particularly needed.

VERDICT:

Funuke is a melodramatic movie built around strong characters and a good direction. The movie is entertaining, bleakly funny and makes this writer thankful he is not part of the Wago clan!

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