Rendan is a contemporary domestic drama...comedy...no, musical... It's all of these, as we meet the Sasakis, an atypical nuclear family headed for a meltdown. Shotaro (actor-director Takenaka) is a full-time househusband who loves his work a little too much, while his gorgeous headstrong wife Minako (Yuki Amami) loves her coworker, also too much. Now their children, Toru and his teenage sister Mari, must face the fact that their mother is moving out. But there are the three pianos in the house to contend with, and the upcoming recital in which Mari and Minako will play a duet. As the day approaches, the recital takes on increasing importance: somehow Brahms will show the way. This breath-of-fresh-air film keeps surprising with weirdly endearing bits of business-people suddenly breaking into song; the haiku man on daytime TV; Mari in her "skyscraper" shoes, and angry little Toru brought back into the fold of his mother's love by the smell of her dress lying on the bed. (JB)