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An incredibly hilarious yet heart warming musical by the normally extreme and grotesque director Takashi Miike.
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After their father is fired from his job at the department store, the Katakuris move to the mountains and open their own guest house with promises that the main road that will be built will bring a lot of guests.
Unfortunately on one stormy night, their first guess, a lonely depressed man, decides to commit suicide in the guest house. Fearing this would only drive away guests, the Katakuris decide to bury the body in the woods behind the house.
Soon more guests come and die in mysterious ways, and the Katakuris bury more dead bodies.
Will the Katakuris ever find happiness together with the guest house? Or will Fate expose their fumbling, bumbling, and musical attempts to hide the unfortunate accidents?
Straight from the hilarious clay-mation introduction involving a strange imp-like creature appearing in a woman’s soup and ripping out her uvular, you can tell you’re in for a wacky ride.
HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS is certainly not a horror movie but a black comedy-musical (based off of the Korean film THE QUIET FAMILY, which is a must darker sombre film), even though it has zombies in it they only appear for one musical number.
Directed by Takashi Miike (AUDITION, ICHI THE KILLER, ONE MISSED CALL, BIRD PEOPLE OF CHINA), HAPPINESS is certainly his most unique and bizarre effort yet.
As far as cinematic musicals in Japan go, it’s about as rare as Christians there (2% of people in Japan are Christian), so HAPPINESS was like a gust of fresh air in Japan and makes it much more intriguing.
The acting is very good all-round and the actors achieve that “over-the-top” silliness while still portraying emotional depth.
Shizue Katakuri is particularly good, as well as grandpa Katakuri.
The singing on the other hand isn’t special, which kind of works in its favour. When the characters sing they sound like everyday people just singing from the heart, it’s not necessarily good but it sounds REAL and that’s what’s most important. Still, I do have to deduct a star because almost everyone goes off-key a little more than I would have likes, not ear piercingly off-key just off-key.
The pacing is also a bit of an issue.
The film drags quite a bit in places and is probably could have achieved more had they cut out and 10mins of unnecessary footage.
Other than that, it’s a very funny and very up-lifting film, just keep in mind that HAPPINESS is not everyone’s cup of tea and is an acquired taste.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
-Adam Kitano
Other Takashi Miike films: ONE MISSED CALL, BIRD PEOPLE OF CHINA, AUDITION, ICHI THE KILLER
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