Fans of slow-burn horror films that reward meticulous viewing, like the recent Longlegs, will find a kindred spirit in Toshikazu Nagae’s 2009 mockumentary, Saiko! The Large Family. Part of the Banned from Broadcast series, this Japanese film excels at weaving a tapestry of subtle scares and disturbing details, cleverly hidden within seemingly mundane shots. Just as Longlegs encourages audiences to scrutinize every frame for lurking dread, Saiko! The Large Family demands your full attention to unravel its unsettling narrative.
Ringo is on the left, closest to the camera, and Rie and Gouki are on the right. With mother in the middle.
The premise of Saiko! The Large Family is simple: a Canadian filmmaker, Veronica Addison, documents the Ura family. This unconventional household consists of a mother, stepfather, and seven out of eight children, all living under one roof. As the documentary progresses, a series of misfortunes befall the family, hinting at a darkness lurking beneath the surface of their seemingly normal lives.
Credit must be given to online film analysis, particularly ReignBot’s insightful video, which serves as an excellent introduction to the film’s complexities. ReignBot expertly dissects the main storyline and unearths many of the hidden clues meticulously placed throughout Saiko! The Large Family. These subtle details include the mother’s (Junko Takai) ever-present background appearances, seemingly ensuring the children remain silent about family secrets. Other chilling visual cues pointed out are knives ominously stabbed into fruit – their number mirroring the children in the house – and the unsettling translations of calligraphy penned by Gouki (Junpei Utsu), the eldest son. The film is rich with these details, urging viewers to delve deeper and uncover the secrets for themselves, and is readily accessible on platforms like YouTube.
The youngest children draw the family’s departed cat, who may have eaten the same food as the stepfather.
One of the central mysteries of Saiko! The Large Family revolves around the ambiguous fate of the mother. A family vacation takes a dark turn when she inexplicably falls from a cliff, leaving her in a critical condition. This dramatic event, delivered with almost comical nonchalance by the documentary’s presenter, becomes a crucial lens through which to re-examine the preceding events. Throughout the film, subtle clues suggest the mother’s manipulative nature. It’s implied she coerced her eldest children – Gouki, Ringo (Sayaka Fukita), and Rie (Rimi Fukunaga) – into poisoning their father and may be plotting a similar fate for her new husband (Hideaki Kawashima). Ringo’s departure from the household and her reluctant return only at the stepfather’s insistence, coupled with Gouki’s descent into isolation, strongly indicates a deep-seated fear of their mother’s actions.
The mother appears in the backdrop of several interviews; apart from Ringo’s.
Rie’s aggressive behavior towards the stepfather throughout Saiko! The Large Family offers another piece of the puzzle. While often dismissed by Addison, Rie’s assaults can be interpreted as desperate attempts to protect him, or perhaps a manifestation of deeper family tensions. The film cleverly avoids overt explanations for the mother’s potential motives – financial gain seems unlikely given the delayed payout of insurance policies. Instead, it focuses on building an atmosphere of suspicion and dread, suggesting numerous reasons why someone might want to harm the matriarch.
The question of who pushed the mother off the cliff remains unanswered within the main narrative of Saiko! The Large Family. However, Nagae masterfully conceals the solution in the film’s subtle background details. Gouki, who has been withdrawn and isolated for much of the film, surprisingly joins the family vacation. He is prominently featured in the vacation footage, always wearing a white t-shirt and carrying a baseball bat – a detail established earlier when the mother mentions his aspirations to be a professional baseball player.
The film’s brilliance culminates in its post-credit sequence. Just as audiences are trained by contemporary cinema to expect post-credit scenes, Saiko! The Large Family, released before the post-credit scene trope became fully mainstream, utilizes a series of polaroid photos during the credits to reveal a crucial piece of information. For viewers not attuned to the film’s background clues, the film might seem to conclude abruptly with Addison’s final narration. However, these polaroids unveil a figure in a white t-shirt lurking in the background – notably, only in images where the mother is absent. This visual cue strongly implicates Gouki as the one who attacked his mother. His quiet rebellion against the forced family harmony, initially expressed through isolation, culminates in a violent act.
Rie and the stepfather have their final fight before Rie breaks down and apologises to him.
Ringo’s role is also complex. While she initially escaped the toxic family dynamic, her return sees her quickly revert to her mother’s influence, participating in suspicious activities like spying on the stepfather and adding the “special spice mix” to his food. Her whispered conversations with Gouki hint at potential complicity in the attack plan. In contrast, Rie’s outward aggression towards the stepfather could stem from her inability to directly confront her mother. Her eventual apology and integration into the family unit might signify a shift in her understanding and acceptance of the family’s dark realities, possibly influenced by her age and limited awareness of the past events, such as the father’s death seven years prior.
Saiko! The Large Family deliberately avoids explicit confirmations, choosing instead to hint and suggest. The subtle glimpses of Gouki in the post-credit polaroids serve as a satisfying, albeit understated, resolution for attentive viewers. This mockumentary is a masterclass in subtle horror, rewarding those who engage with its intricate details and patiently piece together the disturbing truth of the Ura family.
Writer/director: Toshikazu Nagae
Starring: Veronica Addison, Chiharu Ariga, Sayaka Fukita, Rimi Fukunaga, Hideaki Kawashima, Ayato Kosugi, Junko Takai, Junpei Utsu
