Koichi (Shiro Shimomoto) has just married Yuriko (Kaoru Kaze), and they
move into his family's rather small house, where everybody can hear their
lovemaking. But while he seems to be a sex machine, she doesn't share his
predeliction for sex and feels rather turned off by her husband. While
Koichi and Yuriko get more and more estranged though, his family soon
takes to his wife. Koichi's sister Akiko (Miki Yamachi) doesn't want to
lead a traditional life, which would mean to become an office lady and
wait until she gets married and have children to never again work - so she
decides to become a prostitute, without the knowledge of her family though
... but her first costumer happens to be her brother Koichi. Akiko and
Koichi's father happens to like a young barwoman (Usagi Aso) who works in
the neighbourhood and he visits her at her bar everyday. One day, Akiko
and Koichi sneak after him, and after he leaves the bar, they pay a visit
to the bar ... and find nothing suspicious or improper. However, Koichi
somehow takes to the barwoman, and he soon starts having S/M sex with her.
Soon, he leaves his wife to live with the barwoman. Koichi's brother
Kazuo (Kei Shuto) is a teenager on the verge of becoming a man, and he
asks Yuriko to help him lose his virginity - to which she agrees, but she
insists they are going to have sex just this once. Koichi won't come
back, as much is clear, but still, Yuriko stays with his family, and she
sees Akiko move out, who ironically marries one of her customers. Yuriko
only realizes how much she still loves her husband when she finds a piece
of rope he tied her up with during a sex game, and she immediately starts
masturbating. An erotic comedy in parts based on Yasujiro Ozu's
Tokyo Story, this film isn't without its moments, is at times
hilarious, at times offensive, and at times pretty sexy - but somehow all
of this doesn't quite come together as a whole, so even at barely an hour
of running time, the film feels somehow incoherent and lacks any real
stringency. That's not necessarily to say Abnormal Family is a bad
movie, there are many great ideas involved, and its short running time
makes sure it doesn't outstay its welcome, but a few small rewrites and
more attention to pacing could have worked wonders here.
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