THE HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS. 2002. TARTAN CINEMA. DIRECTED BY TAKASHI MIIKE. STARRING KENJI SAWADA. REVIEW BY SANDRA HARRIS. ©
Wow. Boy oh boy oh boy. This is a Japanese horror-comedy film by the man who directed ultra-violent horror flick, AUDITION, but it's as different from AUDITION as chalk is from cheese. It's possibly the wackiest film I've seen all year, and I've seen, like, at least three or four wacky films this year. It has surreal elements to it, some excellent claymation sequences and, weirdest of all, it has singing in it. Lots and lots of singing. Yes, I know. I was gobsmacked too, haha.
The basic plot is as follows. The Katakuri family run a guest-house called White Lover's Inn near Mount Fuji. It's situated on a former rubbish dump and a new road that was meant to bring them tons of custom hasn't materialised yet. Paying guests therefore are non-existent and the family is growing desperate and they're bickering with each other like mad.
The Katakuris are thrilled, therefore, when a lone guest rocks up to their establishment in the middle of a rainstorm. They're less happy, however, to find him in his room the following morning dead by his own hand. Poor old Dad Katakuri, who's absolutely lovely and cuddly and Daddy-ish, is particularly gutted. He thinks no-one will come to stay in their guest-house if they hear that people have popped their clogs there. He convinces his family that the best thing to do is to bury the body and act like the whole thing simply never happened...
The shenanigans that ensue after Dad's decision are both funny and bizarre. The Katakuris (Lovely Dad, Mum, Grandpa, Divorced Daughter and Little Grand-daughter and Former Criminal Son) have no idea just what a tangled web they're weaving when they decide to conceal the death of their first ever guest. Still, that's what happen when you tell porkies, isn't it? Or when you bury someone illegally to preserve the reputation of your Bed And Breakfast...
Things go from bad to worse with the arrival of a gigantic sumo-wrestler and his underage girlfriend- she's so underage I actually thought she was his little girl at first- and the love affair between Divorced Daughter and Richard Sagawa, a compulsive liar. The family have no choice but to carry on the way they've started and soon things are hopelessly messed-up. Is there any light at the end of the tunnel? Time will tell, dear readers. Time will tell...
I hated the singing at first, but I grew used to it over the course of the film and I was actually quite into it by the end. My favourite song was the one the family sing while they're surrounded by zombies, namely, the reanimated corpses of the guests who've shuffled off their mortal coil at their Bed And Breakfast.
The claymation sequences are cool and quite creepy. Check out the fight between Grandpa and the mendacious Richard Sagawa, who bizarrely claims to be Queen Elizabeth's nephew. It's funny and brilliant. The last claymation bit is sooooo sad. I personally think that the film should have ended on it but, alas, film-makers almost never take my advice. Their loss, I suppose, haha. Hold on. I tell a lie. There was the time I persuaded George Lucas to... Well, never mind. Some things are probably best kept private, heh-heh-heh.
Grandpa is my favourite character, even ahead of Lovely Dad. He's old and wise and cranky and he's hilariously engaged in an ongoing feud with a local bird. Yes, a bird. The feathered kind. It's so funny the way he keeps calling the bird an 'a***h***.' And the way he keeps managing to hit it with a flying stick. Yes, I know that cruelty to animals isn't funny, but you can tell it's not a real bird. Honest...
If you like your horror genuinely scary, or to come without comedy or musical numbers or surreal scenes, you probably won't dig THE HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS. But if you don't mind a bit of general wackiness and people randomly bursting into song every five minutes, then you might get a kick out of this one.
On the DVD box it says: 'The hills are alive with the sound of screaming' and also 'Love. Music. Horror. Volcanos. Cinema was never meant to be like this!' This was certainly a new experience, anyway. Laugh and love and live and sing along with the Katakuris. Then, I don't know, take two
Valium and go and see your therapist. Just as a precaution, you understand. Just to make sure you're not really losing your mind...AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY OF SANDRA HARRIS.
Sandra Harris is a Dublin-based performance poet, novelist, film blogger, sex blogger and short story writer. She has given more than 200 performances of her comedy sex-and-relationship poems in different venues around Dublin, including The Irish Writers' Centre, The International Bar, Toners' Pub (Ireland's Most Literary Pub), the Ha'penny Inn, Le Dernier Paradis at the Trinity Inn and The Strokestown Poetry Festival.
Her articles, short stories and poems have appeared in The Metro-Herald newspaper, Ireland's Big Issues magazine, The Irish Daily Star, The Irish Daily Sun and The Boyne Berries literary journal. In August 2014, she won the ONE LOVELY BLOG award for her (lovely!) horror film review blog. She is addicted to buying books and has been known to bring home rain-washed tomes she finds on the street and give them a home. In 2003, she was invited to be a guest on Niall Boylan's 98FM late-night radio talk show purely on the basis of having a 'sexy voice.'
She is the proud possessor of a pair of unfeasibly large bosoms. They have given her- and the people around her- infinite pleasure over the years. She adores the horror genre in all its forms and will swap you anything you like for Hammer Horror or JAWS memorabilia. She would also be a great person to chat to about the differences between the Director's Cut and the Theatrical Cut of The Wicker Man. You can contact her at:
http://sandrafirstruleoffilmclubharris.wordpress.com
No comments:
Post a Comment