Kon Ichikawa-Inugamike no ichizoku (’The Inugami Family’) (1976)

Published by Ice Zero | Filed under Video

Legendary Japanese director Ichikawa Kon’s 1976 film The Inugami Family, holds a very special place in Japan’s long tradition of supernatural suspense. Based on Yokomizo Seishi’s epic work, the slow-burning family murder mystery is a highly influential title in the director’s celebrated filmography and just about required viewing for Japanese cinema fans. When tycoon Inugami Sahei passes away, he unexpectedly leaves the family fortune to outsider Tamayo on the condition that she marry one of the Inugami grandsons - Sukekiyo, Suketake, or Suketomo - pitting blood against blood. Soon afterwards, members of the family begin to show up dead, one by one. Detective Kindaichi Kosuke is called in to investigate the murders, and the truth is slowly revealed as he happens upon years of hidden skeletons and a shocking family secret. Yesasia







“The Inugami Family” is an effective mystery tale that overstays its welcome. Directed by Ichikawa Kon, the film has all of the elements of a classic murder mystery, including a vast family fortune, squabbles over the inheritance, a swiftly rising body count, severed heads, two masked men, an idiosyncratic detective, an incompetent police chief, and a host of characters each with his or her own motive for committing the homicides. Indeed, before the film ends, the viewer comes to suspect just about everyone except the actual killer. Yesasia







Based on Yokomizo Seishi’s epic work, this family murder mystery unweaves an odd and ominous tangle of deceptions that go back for generations. A slow, burning drama full of murderous twist and turns, the film is chillingly beautiful, and keeps the audience guessing uneasily to the very end. The Inugami Family was both a critical and commercial success, picking up many accolades including the Hochi Best Film award and a Blue Ribbon Best Supporting Actress Award for Takamine Mieko. Yesasia







The mystery opens with the death of the Inugami patriarch, who strangely decided to leave the Inugami fortune to someone outside the family, the beautiful young Tamayo (Shimada Yoko). Soon after, the male heirs begin to die one by one, and the family slowly derails as the deaths continue, revealing twisted relationships and three generations of grudges and secrets. Yesasia