Customer Reviews

All About Our House (Foreign Film Favorites)

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***This is a review I wrote in 2006***

In recent years more and more Japanese films are being released to a Western Audience. Classic films by the masters Ozu and Kurosawa, violently artistic films by Kitano, and blood and gore films by Miike have flooded the market. However, with a few exceptions of course, one genre of film that has had a pretty light release in the west are comedies, especially those that fall into the realm of daily life or domestic comedy. There are of course many films like this such as Yaguchi Shinobu's Swing Girls and Waterboys and Sai Yoichi's bittersweet Quill, but for a mass market Western release these films are left behind while those that are considered more artsy or trendy, and probably more markedly viable, are released to wider audiences. Minna no ie, Everybody's House is a good example of what is being missed.

Having done well for himself as a television scriptwriter, although he seems to struggle with new ideas for his gag sow, Iijima Naosuke and his wife Tamiko have decided to buy their first home. However, instead of purchasing a prefabricated home, they desire to have a home built from scratch. Willing to do almost anything to keep harmony amongst his family and loved ones, Naosuke willingly agrees with his wife to have her old college classmate Yanagisawa design them a home because she admires his modern vision. However, there is a small snag. Yanagisawa is an interior designer with a specialty in furniture. He does not have the license to design a building that would be constructed legally. However, if he drew up the original plans and had someone else draw the final blueprints all would be fine. Being that her father is a contractor and an architect, Tamiko asks him not only to draw up the final blueprints but to construct the house himself. It is here where some problems begin.

Yanagisawa is not only absorbed with the modernist architecture of the 50s and 60s, but he is also quite dismissive of Japanese architectural traditions such as an outward swinging door, outside doors tend to swing inward in America, and such things as having one room reserved in the house for a Japanese styled room, while Tamiko's father a carpenter of traditional Japanese style carpentry is set in stone with his methods on how to build a house. With his band of elderly workers firmly, or not so firmly, behind him, Tamiko's father is determined to have his way and, of course, Yanagisawa is deadest against compromise. What will Naosuke, with a looming deadline, do?

On its surface Minna no ie is a light, comedic film about the modern vs. the traditional clashing, however, if one peels back the surface a bit one can see a bit of social criticism within the film. At one point, Yanagisawa desires a specific kind of tike known as bamboo tile, but because he does not know the name he has to draw a diagram of the tile. Familiar with the design, Tamiko's father is able to acquire some of it and Yanagisawa speaks on the problem in today's world of everyone wanting compromise and convenience. A world in which certain things such as bamboo tile and um prefabricated paints fall to the wayside.

Minna no ie is definitely a fun film and it should be perfect for those looking for a film a bit lighter than those of Kurosawa and Kitano.

This charming, lightweight story follows the adventures of a young Japanese professional couple as they set out to build a new home. Naosuke is a television script writer. He and Tamiko, his wife, have purchased a plot of land where they intend to have a house built.

They decide to hire Eiji Yanagisawa, a college friend of Tamiko's and now an interior designer specializing in furniture, to design the structure. Though he has no experience as an architect, Yanagisawa has strong aesthetic opinions. His taste runs to modernism and western influences.

To oversee the actual construction, they call on Tamiko's father, who is a retired building contractor from the older generation, a man with conservative traditional tastes.

Conflict begins when the couple want to leave out the washitsu (Japanese style tatami room). "When you get older you'll wish you had it," Tamiko's father insists. It is soon evident that this is a generation gap with a Japanese twist.

Much of the film is devoted to the power struggle that develops between Yanagisawa and Tamiko's father. The clash of egos is resolved when a crisis involving damage to an antique piece of furniture belonging to one of Yanagisawa's clients requires both men to contribute their skills and knowledge to repair the damage, working under deadline pressure.

Beneath the story, then, lies a parable about cooperation, and the need to put aside our differences and work together to achieve a higher goal.

Don't look for profound lessons here, but those for whom the subject matter has some appeal are likely to find this light, amusing fare entertaining.