Plain, very warm family film, several couples have their own contradictions but have their own ways of adjustment, the big family that contradictions and symbiotic feeling is really good.

This is just the last of a bunch of Japanese movies recently hitting the western audiences with a common denominator: trying to inherit the essence of the Yasujirô Ozu cult movie Tokio Story (1953). And in more than a sense (not only displaying a chunk of it in one of the final scenes),Yôji Yamada makes a wonderful tribute in his last works: A Tokio Family (2013),Nagasaki: Memories of my son (2015) and What a Wonderful Family (2016). In all them, he uses once and again the contrite power of Kazuko Yoshiyuki as an axis to move around all the other usual suspects. The beauty of Yû Aoi as the shy newcomer with the rare skill to smile so sadly that you feel her emotions grasping your throat, the always discreet wife Yui Natsukawa, the appeal of Tomoko Nakajima as the busy businesswoman, the charming simplicity of Shôzô Hayashiya as the dumb husband, Masahiko Nishimura as the serious older son, etc etc and above all, Isao Hashizume as the grumpy grandfather. With those bricks, Yamada essentially builds a micro cosmos of lashed emotions and humoresque situations in which we can see ourselves reflected. And that's, nothing else, the definition of a universal story.

Shuzo, a recent retiree, likes to spend his time smoking and drinking and hanging out at his favourite bar; Tomiko, his wife of 45 years, has been taking creative writing courses at the local cultural center. When Shuzo get home from his bar late one night, which happens to be Tomiko's birthday, he (having forgotten her birthday) promises to get her what she wants, as long as it's not too expensive. Tomiko reassures him that what she really wants only costs 450 yen - it's a divorce. Her proclamation throws the entire house into a tizzy - the household including their oldest son, his wife and two children, along with their youngest son; their daughter and his husband, constantly fighting and threatening divorce, are also frequent visitors. How this family will resolve their problems is a matter of time, fighting, family meetings and, well, hilarity too…. I enjoyed this light, witty and sometimes touching tale, with its characters who are quirky but not annoyingly (or overly) so. There is a constant stream of physical humour too, with various people falling over things, tripping down stairs and so on - again, done to a certain degree, but not so much that one starts rolling one's eyes at it. This is a fun glimpse into modern Japanese family life, particularly with respect to the differences between the generations, and it also serves as a comedy of manners, Japanese style!