The Whole Family Works (はたらく一家) 85 years old

The Whole Family Works

The Whole Family Works, Mikio Naruse's adaptation of a Sunao Tokunaga novel, feels more of a piece with the writer/director's quietly observant and psychologically charged later work. For the Naruse-familiar, it is an anomaly only in its placement within his filmography—indeed, this could be a film made by the elder, stasis-minded Naruse momentarily inhabiting, through a metaphysical twist of fate, his stylistically exuberant younger self. Set in depression-era Japan around the time of the Sino-Japanese War (which the director evokes, during a brief dream sequence, by dissolving between children's war games and actual adult warfare), The Whole Family Works gently observes a family coming apart at the seams. Ishimura (Musei Tokugawa) is the jobless father of nine children.

Credits

The Whole Family Works Cast

Name Character
Kinji Fujiwa as Ishimura's fellow worker
Noriko Honma She was 27, 97 years old when she died as Ishimura's wife
Den Ohinata He was 31, now 117 years old as Ogawa - the teacher
Susumu Fujita He was 27, 78 years old when he died as Genji's fellow worker

The Whole Family Works Crew

Name Department
Mikio Naruse as Director. He was 33 (63) years old when He died Directing
Mikio Naruse as Screenplay. He was 33 (63) years old when He died Writing
Kôichi Iwashita as Editor. Editing
The Whole Family Works poster
The Whole Family Works (85 years)

  • Release day: Saturday, March 11, 1939
  • Runtime: 65 minutes