Visitor Q
You've probably all at one time or another seen a particular sort of sappy, sentimental, and usually cynical, US family drama. It might be a TV movie of the week, or it might be an Oscar-begging vehicle for Julia Roberts or Sandra Bullock. Whatever the cause for its existence this movie will be exactly the same as any other movie of that particular genre. To whit:-
There will be a dysfunctional family - not a divorced or separated family, but one where, in spite of the risk to their own sanity or each other's physical safety, the mother and father are still together.
There will almost always be two kids (if the film revolves around one of the kids becoming fatally ill then there might just be the one kid to save time, but usually there's two, and often one of each, i.e. a boy kid and a girl kid).
At least one of the kids, if not both, will be a moody teenager because when you're a teenager you're moody and you want to rebel against the world and the world is represented by your parents and this is the law in scriptwriting world. It is perfectly acceptable for one of these kids to have run away from home, in fact it is preferable.
One or all of the following will or may occur: a parent will have lost or be in the process of losing his or her job; one of the parents will be having or contemplating an affair of some sort; one of the parents will be indulging in some manner of substance abuse (usually alcohol, unless this is a message movie).
Finally the entire family will be bonded together once again following some sort of cathartic event, or events, during the course of the movie.
You all know this sort of movie, you've all seen them, even if it's just because your grandmother forced you to rent Terms of Endearment for her. Hopefully you'll never have to sit through one of these again, but if you know what I'm talking about then you'll have an idea of where Visitor Q is coming from (at least in my interpretation).
Generally billed as one of the most outrageous/disgusting/disturbing films you'll see, Visitor Q is another example of extreme Asian cinema. As western cinema gets more and more conformist in pursuit of wide audience and big box office dollars, we should be grateful that eastern cinema is taking things to the polar opposite and really stretching the boundaries of what people can handle.
The story starts with the family already, arguably, at their lowest point - I won't give too much away, but the dad has lost his job, the mother is addicted to crack and is regularly beaten by her son, who in turn is routinely humiliated and attacked by his classmates, and the daughter has run away from home to become a prostitute.
What begins as a fairly disturbing piece quickly turns into bizarre comedy in which ever increasing extremes of behaviour ultimately bring the family back together. There's also a mysterious visitor to the family house who acts both as a catalyst and a passive observer. Although one particular taboo is disposed of in the film's opening scene, it is seemingly the process of breaking taboos (again, no spoilers here) that also breaks down the barriers between the father and son, and the husband and wife.
All this is really overanalyzing a film which in its heart is saying: what if it's not conforming to social norms that finally reunites the family, but breaking them?
Not for the squeamish or the reactionary, but hilarious viewing for those with an open mind.
Rach January 29, 2006 - 11:49
Think of it as Mary Poppins - fucked-up Japanese style.