May 19, 2017
What a Wonderful Family! 2 to be released nationwide on May 27, 2017
New movie What a Wonderful Family! 2 will be released nationwide on May 27, 2017. Sumitomo Corporation serves as a member of its production committee. The film is the sequel to the March 2016 release What a Wonderful Family! directed by Yoji Yamada. Featuring a comic yet warm depiction of a family going into meltdown over the parents' divorce after many years of marriage, the film became a huge hit. The sequel revisits the eight-member Hirata family as they are once again overtaken by crisis.
Sumitomo Corporation has been involved in the production of films directed by Yamada for many years, starting with the A Class to Remember series in the 1990s and continuing to more recent releases such as The Little House in 2014, Nagasaki: Memories of My Son in 2015, and What a Wonderful Family! in 2016.
As in the previous film, the already well-known Hirata family is once again faced with a crisis in the form of family breakdown.
The previous film, What a Wonderful Family! was the first comedy directed by Yamada in 20 years, following the last episode of his signature series, It's Tough Being a Man. While the theme of What a Wonderful Family! was the divorce of an older couple, the theme of the sequel is an indifferent society. "Although it's taboo to deal with death in comedy films, I went against convention and did it," says Yamada, "trying to depict the tumult following death in a comical and nonsensical way."
Making What a Wonderful Family! 2 was a new challenge for the director, who will turn 86 this year. We encourage everyone to go to the cinema to enjoy this outstanding comedy, which is sure to have you laughing, crying and empathizing with the characters.
