I've put off writing this review for a while. I didn't want to think about the movie too much because, well, yuck. Visitor Q revels in debauchery in a way I haven't seen before. It's sort of like an early John Waters movie remade as a Japanese embarrassment comedy.
It opens with a scene of a journalist having sex with his own daughter in a love hotel, all the while filming it for the tv show he works on. The movie is about their family. It never really gets any easier to take than that. To begin with it appalled me. As it continued I started to see its sense of humour, and by the end I was roaring with laughter (but still appalled).
It seems to be a satire on Japanese family life. Every member of the family (father, mother, teenage son & teenage daughter) is an exaggerated and grotesque caricature, yet somehow they remain sympathetic. The cast is actually very good. It has some thematic similarities with the much lighter Happiness of the Katakuris, so maybe you could double feature them.
Expect a big-budget remake from Brett Ratner any time now.
Next up: Dead Or Alive 2: Birds.
Posted by pearce at November 8, 2005 9:27 PM