Films about funerals are about as common here as films about weddings ¡ª meaning common indeed ¡ª and both are subsets of the family drama, a key genre in Japanese cinema since forever.
Why center a film on a ceremony that in Hollywood is usually relegated to one brief scene?
As seen in Masahide Ichii¡¯s ¡°Stormy Family,¡± an apt title for a drama about a dysfunctional family, Japanese funerals not only draw together family members who rarely meet, but also last long enough ¡ª if the wake and cremation are included, as they generally are ¡ª for ancient resentments and antagonisms to surface. This is often a recipe for comedy, and Ichii, who also wrote the original script, cooks up a clever opening that promises just that.
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