For my second film review I decided to stick with another Takashi Miike film (and will probably stick with a few of his films for the upcoming weeks). However I decided to go with something a little bit more lighthearted... but then I realised this is Takashi Miike we're talking about so my best bet was 'The Happiness of the Katakuris"
Director: Takashi Miike
Screenplay: Kikumi Yamagishi
Stars: Kenji Sawada as Masao Katakuri
Keiko Matsuzaka as Terue Katakuri
Shinji Takeda as Masayuki Katakuri
Naomi Nishida as Shizue Katakuri
Tamaki Miyazaki as Yurie Katakuri
Tetsuro Tanba as Ojîsan Jinpei Katakuri
Kiyoshiro Imawano as Richâdo Sagawa
Genre: Horror, Musical, Comedy, Foreign
Length: 112 mins approx
Country: Japan
Plot: The Katakuris are your normal, average family whose dreams involve running a successful Country Inn. Once guests finally start to arrive they all seem to drop dead in the most bizarre of circumstances. To make sure their business remains successful the family make a pact to keep these unusual deaths a secret and resort to burying the bodies themselves in the forest behind the house while trying to work their own individual problems. The film contains a mixture of musical numbers, weird animation and of course zombies.
Takashi Miike has managed to combine the opposite of elements (horror and musical, and romance, and comedy) and make a fun-filled film that would appeal to a vast audience. I guess you could consider this one of Miike's more lighthearted films (You'll probably watch it and say to yourself "Is she serious?! Lighthearted"?! Watch Ichi the Killer and Visitor Q and then attempt to disagree with me).
This film is pretty out there, even by my standards, and I must admit I do love my batshit crazy films. There is just so much going on; songs, zombies, creepy cartoon segments, I found there was too much to take in! At some points there is comedy which then turns into stop animation, then more comedy, then new characters which either commit suicide or killed then the family breaks into a musical number, then the customers become zombies, then it becomes a romance story, then someone else dies, then another musical number etc. It keeps changing from genre to genre with every other scene and yet Miike makes it work.
The best way for me to review this film is to break it down into segments;
• The music - The music is definitely my favourite genre element in the film, especially the second number when they enter the room of their first guest. So many over the top reaction shots, so dark yet so funny (Image above is taken from that scene). It's the type of reaction you would expect in a West End production. I would put a link to the scene on this post however no one has uploaded it online, but take my word for it when I say it's utterly brilliant. The singing isn't anything spectacular but the actors pull it off nonetheless. You can also tell that Takashi Miike is also poking fun at the musical genre, especially with the song 'I love you'. The scene after this number is absolutely hilarious too. Trust me. There is also a sing-a-long too, a bit of me hopes that audience members did sing-a-long when it was released in the cinemas.
• The animation - The film opens straight away with creepy animation, with a young girl pulling a naked angel(?!) out of her soup. She herself quickly turns into a animated character whose uvula is pulled out by this naked...angel...thing who believes it's a heart (n'awwh). In the next scene he eats the heart (it escalates quickly) and then he himself gets eaten by a crow...who then gets mauled by a teddy bear (I'm not making this up).
The animation scenes remind me of the claymation series 'Gogs' which really freaked me out as a child, so I found the animation in this film too creepy to enjoy, but there is no denying the fact that it's cleverly made. It's clear that hard work and extreme talent went into creating these scenes.
• Zombies - The Zombie scene has to be seen to be believed. Another musical number where our main protagonists have a dance number with their dead guests, who are decaying and have clearly turned into Zombies. Zombies tap dancing to an 80s style beat is something you have to see.
• The 'Sumo' scene - That scene is now burned into my retinas and it can never be undone. Thanks Miike.
All in all, it's a fun movie, sometimes it can be a bit too much but the story is easy enough to follow and I can guarantee the musical numbers will make you smile. The acting is superb, especially the great grandfather who I believe stole the show and it contains beautiful location shots of Japan. Wasn't particularly fussed with the animation though, I didn't feel it was needed and really could've done without the sumo wrestler sex scene, however it did add to the comedy element. Takashi did an excellent job directing a film that contained so many elements that had to be expressed in such little time. Kudos.
xx
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Plot: The Katakuris are your normal, average family whose dreams involve running a successful Country Inn. Once guests finally start to arrive they all seem to drop dead in the most bizarre of circumstances. To make sure their business remains successful the family make a pact to keep these unusual deaths a secret and resort to burying the bodies themselves in the forest behind the house while trying to work their own individual problems. The film contains a mixture of musical numbers, weird animation and of course zombies.
Takashi Miike has managed to combine the opposite of elements (horror and musical, and romance, and comedy) and make a fun-filled film that would appeal to a vast audience. I guess you could consider this one of Miike's more lighthearted films (You'll probably watch it and say to yourself "Is she serious?! Lighthearted"?! Watch Ichi the Killer and Visitor Q and then attempt to disagree with me).
This film is pretty out there, even by my standards, and I must admit I do love my batshit crazy films. There is just so much going on; songs, zombies, creepy cartoon segments, I found there was too much to take in! At some points there is comedy which then turns into stop animation, then more comedy, then new characters which either commit suicide or killed then the family breaks into a musical number, then the customers become zombies, then it becomes a romance story, then someone else dies, then another musical number etc. It keeps changing from genre to genre with every other scene and yet Miike makes it work.
The best way for me to review this film is to break it down into segments;
• The music - The music is definitely my favourite genre element in the film, especially the second number when they enter the room of their first guest. So many over the top reaction shots, so dark yet so funny (Image above is taken from that scene). It's the type of reaction you would expect in a West End production. I would put a link to the scene on this post however no one has uploaded it online, but take my word for it when I say it's utterly brilliant. The singing isn't anything spectacular but the actors pull it off nonetheless. You can also tell that Takashi Miike is also poking fun at the musical genre, especially with the song 'I love you'. The scene after this number is absolutely hilarious too. Trust me. There is also a sing-a-long too, a bit of me hopes that audience members did sing-a-long when it was released in the cinemas.
• The animation - The film opens straight away with creepy animation, with a young girl pulling a naked angel(?!) out of her soup. She herself quickly turns into a animated character whose uvula is pulled out by this naked...angel...thing who believes it's a heart (n'awwh). In the next scene he eats the heart (it escalates quickly) and then he himself gets eaten by a crow...who then gets mauled by a teddy bear (I'm not making this up).
The animation scenes remind me of the claymation series 'Gogs' which really freaked me out as a child, so I found the animation in this film too creepy to enjoy, but there is no denying the fact that it's cleverly made. It's clear that hard work and extreme talent went into creating these scenes.
• Zombies - The Zombie scene has to be seen to be believed. Another musical number where our main protagonists have a dance number with their dead guests, who are decaying and have clearly turned into Zombies. Zombies tap dancing to an 80s style beat is something you have to see.
• The 'Sumo' scene - That scene is now burned into my retinas and it can never be undone. Thanks Miike.
All in all, it's a fun movie, sometimes it can be a bit too much but the story is easy enough to follow and I can guarantee the musical numbers will make you smile. The acting is superb, especially the great grandfather who I believe stole the show and it contains beautiful location shots of Japan. Wasn't particularly fussed with the animation though, I didn't feel it was needed and really could've done without the sumo wrestler sex scene, however it did add to the comedy element. Takashi did an excellent job directing a film that contained so many elements that had to be expressed in such little time. Kudos.
xx
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Tumblr: fashionphotoandfilm.tumblr.com
