Katakuri-ke no kôfuku
Tags: absurd, psychedelic, comedy, flashback

Plot synopsis:
The Katakuris are a four-generation family of failures: patriarch Masao Katakuri (Kenji Sawada), his wife Terue (Keiko Matsuzaka), his father Jinpei (Tetsurō Tamba), his formerly criminal son Masayuki (Shinji Takeda), his divorced daughter Shizue (Naomi Nishida), her child Yurie (Tamaki Miyazaki, who narrates the film), and their dog, Pochi. The family uses the father's redundancy pay to purchase a large old home situated on a former garbage dump near Mount Fuji that they have named the ‘White Lover's Inn'. They have the intention of converting it into a bed & breakfast, since the road running nearby is supposed to be expanded up to the house, which would bring many guests and tourists. However, the road hasn't been expanded yet and the Katakuris subsequently have no guests. When one finally shows up, a TV personality, sans clothes, he subsequently commits suicide during the night, and the Katakuris make the decision to save their business by burying the body and concealing the death. The second guest, a Sumo wrestler, also dies of a heart attack during a tryst with his underage girlfriend, who also dies.
Somehow, each of their guests ends up dead—by suicide, accident or murder—and pretty soon the bodies in the back yard begin to pile up. The Katakuris soon find themselves sucked into a nightmare of lies and fear (not helped by the arrival of the daughter's con-man boyfriend, an escaped murderer with police in hot pursuit, and an erupting volcano).
Meanwhile, the recently divorced daughter falls in love with Richard Sagawa (Kiyoshiro Imawano), a mysterious U.S. naval officer who looks suspiciously Japanese but claims to be the nephew of Queen Elizabeth II herself. Just when Richard bungles onto a clue that might lead him to uncover the string of disappearing guests, a nearby volcano begins rumbling to life.

Review: It's an absurdist mix of horror, surrealism, a musical, claymation, a black comedy, and one of those progressively "going to hell in a handbasket" films ala After Hours (1985), Very Bad Things (1998) or My Boss' Daughter (2003).
All of the individual elements are superb, but director Takashi Miike simply abandons too many interesting threads and the film ends up feeling more like a loose collection of skits.
If it were tied together better, this would easily be a 10.Happiness of the Katakuris, which is a "mutated" remake Ji-woon Kim's Choyonghan kajok (The Quiet Family, 1998), begins with a restaurant scene that ends up being unrelated to the rest of the film.
At this point I was completely loving the film.Oddly, Miike drops this material and we go back to a standard live-action mode as we learn about the Katakuris, initially from narration by toddler Yurie (Tamaki Miyazaki).
Miike treats us to a lot of interesting cinematography, the location/setting of the Katakuri home is wonderful, and the performances are good.Later, Miike shoots for more of a madcap Monty Pythonesque style, complete with "zombies" nodding their heads and toe-tapping to a song (ala the Camelot dungeon prisoner in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 1975, or the group of people being crucified in Life of Brian, 1979).
Soon more guests come, they all die, and the Katakuris have to bond together to figure out a solution to this problem.The movie starts off with a couple minutes of claymation that serves as an odd transition to the actual story.
Version: Japanese audio, English subtitles (by SBS).Oh my, I think I have a new favourite movie, and the only way I can describe this is as a death musical about happiness.
Wow, 'Happiness of the Katakuris' is possibly the most incredibly awesome movie I've ever seen.In an effort to keep the Katakuri family together and happy, Masao (Kenji Sawada) opens a guest house in a secluded mountain area.
Such a rising body count will test the Katakuri family's unity and their ability to break into impromptu song and dance numbers.I was under the impression that 'Happiness of the Katakuris' was a zombie musical (like 'Battlefield Baseball').
I'm sure NONE of this sounds funny or charming, but it is without a doubt both of these things as well as, believe it or not, a family values-affirming film.The bottom line is, if you are brave and want something that is TOTALLY unpredictable and engaging, watch this film ASAP!
This is terrible, certainly one of the worst films I have ever seen.The, animated, opening sequence is startling and weird in a dark and funny way and sets the scene for a great film but unfortunately what follows is rubbish.The acting is terrible, the first scene with the family is cringe worthy and is a good indication of what's to come.The song and dance numbers are deliberately over the top with the intention of being funny but they are just annoying and there are far too many of them, every few minutes has a stupid song and dance routine.The writing is awful with no decent dialogue or jokes or any intelligence.There are one or two funny bits but they are small visual jokes and that isn't enough for a film that is supposed to be a comedy..
The first time you watch it and see the happy dancing and singing mixed with what looks like a frightening acid trip some junkie would have- you think- this is going to be so stupid...but it isn't.
The somewhat unpolished song & dance routines (unlike K2C), along with episodic fits of overacting and self-depreciating man-on-a-wire work combine to create a totally off the wall mix of dark humour and Miike's trademark visual gross-outs.In synopsis, Katakuri Masao is a downsized urbanite who stakes his family's livelihood on restoring a run-down country inn.
Not to be discouraged however, the Katakuris do their best to persevere as a family, and find time for a number of offbeat musical numbers in between.The most irritating character was the second-rate con man Richard Sawada played by  actor/singer Iwamano Kiyoshiro, who also played a deadbeat suitor in the TBS dorama, "Boku no Shusshoku".
While the idea of a combination slapstick musical/black comedy filled with incongruent claymation sequences should, on the face of it, be enough to recommend any film, I could not help feeling let down by the genius behind "Audition" and "Ichi the Killer." "Little Shop of Horrors" and "Meet the Feebles": Yes!
"The Happiness of the Katakuries" tries so hard to be a cult movie, that it is disgusting.I advise everybody to concentrate on better Miike films, like "Audition" and "Ichi the Killer", to name but a few..
Let's focus in this film, great staging, well used resources (good option using stop-motion for most complex scenes), delirious characters (Sagawa, sumo and the schoolgirl are awesome), big hit moments (when the first body is found out, I laughed a lot with the family) and the plot well, the plot doesn't matter.
One of Seven films made in 2001 alone by the absurdly prolific Takashi Miike (best known in the west for his more intense horror works such as the magnificent "Audition" and "Ichi The Killer"), this loose remake of Korean film "The Quiet Family" has all the rough edges and scatter-shot structure you'd expect of a film presumably made over a quiet weekend between projects.
When I bought "The Happiness of the Katakuris" from Amazon it was under the impression that it was a musical with zombies, plus it is a Takashi Miike movie, two good things combined, or so it would appear.First of all, you had to wait 76 minutes into the movie before the zombies make their appearance, and then even so, you see them for less than 5 minutes.
And the make-up of the zombies was actually quite good, I enjoyed that quite a lot, even though it was less than 5 minutes of screen time.If you enjoy Asian musicals, then "The Happiness of the Katakuris" is perhaps a great choice for you, personally, I enjoyed the Korean musical "The Fox Family" a lot more than I did this movie.
The maverick like Takashi Miike, who sends up Japanese culture in many of his films, directed this film about a family who have a guest house in the middle of nowhere, where the (few) lodgers end up dead by morning.
"Happiness of the Katakuris" comes across as a heartfelt ode to the Japanese tradition of "New Years" movies - i.e. feel-good family entertainment.
You really can't describe this movie, which has crazy characters, claymation, and cheesy musical numbers, but it is absolutely amazing and something that should be seen by anyone who appreciates out-there humor..
THE HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS is one of his most lovable and least offensive films, filled with charming characters and tacky music and dance scenes.The movie focuses on a Japanese family, the Katakuris, that tries to run a guest house in the mountains, but with little success.
I hate when a director known for doing such things has his movie called shocking and controversial, like Quentin Tarantino with "Django Unchained", but "The Happiness of the Katakuris" is actually pretty light for a Miike film, even though there are a couple of bizarre events in it.A family decides to come together after being apart for so long for personal reasons (e.g. one of them is a gangster on the run) and open a little hotel for people passing by the lonely place they live in near a volcano.
The two memorable scenes for me were one hilarious musical scene involving a suicide and another musical scene satirizing rom-coms.Overall its a surreal musical comedy, its as family-friendly as Takashi gets, which isn't saying much since its rated R, but if you're looking for something weird I'd probably watch some other film of his.I'd recommend it to anyone who liked movies like "The Trouble with Harry", "Heathers", and/or Harold and Kumar movies..
Similar things happen in this film, with parody, satire, sentiment and mayhem all mixed in a daft melange of sometimes zany offshoots.The essential plot is simple: the head of the Katakuri family wants to move his family into the country,and open a bed and breakfast, and find contentment.
Rather than calling the police or getting upset at the impact on future bookings, they decide to bury the bodies in the local forest while taking part in one song-and-dance number after another.The film is filled from beginning to end with verve and vitality and the music numbers really zing, proving real highlights.
And that luckily is the case with Takashi Miike's horror musical "Katakuri-ke no kôfuku".Basically the one thing that this movie has really got going for it is the fact that it's a real joyful movie to watch.
There will be still people that just can't get into this movie of course, since it's a movie that isn't simply for all tastes but I think that overall most people will truly enjoy this movie, even those that aren't familiar with Takashi Miike other work or style of film-making.You can also really take this movie as a spoof on the entire musical genre and scene.
Not that the movie becomes boring but it does start to drag toward its end and even though the movie is well below 2 hours, it feels like a much longer one.Other than that, a greatly cheerful and unique horror musical from Takashi Miike (who else?).8/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/.
Fans of previous Takashi Miike films should not be surprised to learn that The Happiness of the Katakuris is another surreal shock-fest of bizarre sexual imagery coupled with ultra violence.
Unfortunately, the business is threatened by the untimely spontaneous deaths of each and every guest whom stays at the Katakuri home in some odd and twisted "accident." In order to save the name of their business from negative publicity, the Katakuris begin a massive scheme to hide the death of all residents through burials and well-constructed lies eventually leading the family into an obvious "dead end" which is performed in a "to-die-for" manner by the eldest Katakuris, Masao (Kenji Sawada), and Terue (Keiko Matsuzaka), (don't expect to find better humor in the movie itself).
Anyone familiar with Takashi Miike (Audition, Ichi the Killer) would find this film to be so unlike his other efforts, but, still, only he could do this and make it work.It started with claymation and I really wasn't sure where it was going because it was so strange.Then it settled down to a normal film about a father who just wanted to bring his family together in the hills running a guest-house.Unfortunately, the guests kept dying and they had to bury them so that their guest-house would not get a bad reputation.Sounds like an interesting story by itself, but they would just break out in song at the strangest times.
From the strangely endearing opening claymation sequence to the epic finale, 'Happiness of the Katakuris' is a film well worth a watch.
The Happiness of the Katakuris is probably Takashi Miike's strangest film (or at least, stranger than any of the others that I've seen so far; which is quite an accomplishment when you consider that some of those films include the equally bizarre delights of Gozu, Dead or Alive, Ichi the Killer and Visitor Q).
Where The Happiness of the Katakuris exceeds the strangeness of those particular films is in the not so subtle blending of genres, styles and influences; making reference to and pastiche of everything from Japanese television and post-war family melodrama, to Hollywood musicals and zombie exploitation.The overall result is like a kind of giddy burst of merry, kaleidoscopic excess; as sounds, sights, colours and textures all blend amidst the barrage of stop-motion horror, live action character development and scenes of Technicolor, all-singing/all-dancing delirium!
Miike transports the action to rural Japan and spins a yarn of staggering imagination; adding broader strokes of slap-stick humour, campy musical numbers and a colourful zombie pastiche.Still, don't come to this expecting a horror film or something that continues the brutality of Ichi the Killer or Agitator (two other films that Miike directed alongside this in 2001); The Happiness of the Katakuris is a comedy at its most satirical and absurd; using the frame-work of the story to look at the backgrounds of three generations of Japanese men and the women that support them, and tying it all into a subtle reference about Japanese culture, from the post war to the present.
And even if you chose to ignore the more satirical angle presented in both the humour and the narrative design there's still so much left to enjoy; with the constant barrage of sight gags and colourful musical numbers erupting from the seemingly calm veneer of a "normal" family life.For me, Miike is a genius filmmaker, and The Happiness of the Katakuris is easily one of his must-see works!
Skipping any attempt to outline the story; (which for Takashi Miike, is remarkably blithe), The Happiness of The Katakuris is an often hilarious journey through cross genre pastiches, dealing with familiar themes of family breakdown, violence, murder, sexual perversion and criminality, only with a delightfully lighthearted twist.The whole film is dripping with a camp amateurishness which makes it all the more marvellous to watch; from the farcical musical numbers, to the occasionally outrageous acting and unlikely dialogue.
The Happiness of The Katakuris isn't afraid to go anywhere, and succeeds in shocking only because no genre is left unexploited; (comedy, horror, slapstick, family drama, musical, animation, crime drama etc etc etc).
Like other Takashi Miike films, The Happiness is definitely an assault on the senses, with semi-naive but non-the-less complex claymation, hammy song and dance numbers accompanied by over the top lighting and visual effects you might be forgiven for thinking that the movie is simply a mish-mash of cross-genre parodies, however, the whole is certainly better than the sum of its parts and The Happiness stands as a unique and totally watchable - nay - immensely enjoyable movie..
The Happiness of the Katakuris, directed with the full vigor and passion for film-making and fantastical-realism by Takashi Miike, has a simple premise that gets the best kind of imaginative treatment that could never really be expected, even as a fan of Miike's.
But then things start to get stranger still, leading up to a certain development with the volcano, among other things...MANY other things.But once that simple tact of the story is laid out, the question comes up for one who's seen films like Ichi the Killer and Visitor Q and Imprint- how in heaven's name will Miike take on this material?
What I loved about the picture as well is that the jokes, both aural and occasionally with the dialog, are not too constant, making it overbearingly campy or dumb.It's very smart actually about what it is, and Miike directs with confidence that his melding of standardly shot scenes, wildly filmed and choreographed musical numbers (one of which, the courting of Richard and Shizue, is maybe one of my top favorite musical numbers ever), animation, and real horrific or dramatic moments, will work.
Now the Katakuris just expect the worse when their next guest/s appear and things do get incredibly weird.Man, I didn't know what I was getting myself into, but in all this Takashi Miike flick is high camp and I mean HIGH, it was hard not to enjoy.
Takashi Miike is one of cinema's true mavericks, a bold auteur who flirts with disaster every time he settles into the director's chair, and yet somehow, more often than not, he still manages to pull something out of the bag to surprise and delight fans of the bizarre.Take The Happiness of the Katakuri's for example: on paper it sounds positively dreadful, a horror/comedy/musical remake of Jee-woon Kim's The Quiet Family, with random claymation sequences thrown in for good measure; once again, though, Miike's unique, off-beat approach to his work, which eschews virtually every convention of mainstream cinema, makes for a visually innovative, one-of-a-kind viewing experience.It takes less than a minute for the madness to begin, when a woman eating soup pulls a small animated imp-like creature out of her bowl, after which the film becomes progressively more bonkers—a wild ride through a world where mid-movie karaoke singalongs and dancing zombies are routine occurrences.
Does not go too far down the road in poor taste, but rather prefers to spoof various genres, including musical horror slasher and even comedy, in order to give the audience a varied mixture of a movie that is completely no-brainer but still hits the spot.Basically, about a dysfunctional but likable family running a hotel in the middle of nowhere who end up with the unwanted conundrum of getting weird guests who all seem to die on them.....
There's an extended song and dance sequence in which the dead guests of the inn rise zombie-style and break it down with the inn owner and his family.Ultimately, the film truly cannot be described with words.
It's a hybrid musical/ dark comedy/ crime story/ love tale/ claymation/ horror/ kitchen sink movie.
Takashi Miike has done it again with his film that mixes "The Sound of Music" with "Night of the Living Dead", and makes a hilarious comedy.
Most uniquely funny horror, foreign, comedy, partially claymation, musical movie seen anytime.
The major difference is that Miike's film is a musical, and the original is a straight black comedy.
One of the best things to play in New York in awhile, this movie combines all the wierdness of modern musicals, horror movies, and family films into a happy story where almost everyone dies.
Another great film form Takashi Miike, if you take the time to explore his movies, he deserves your praise.
A random mix of claymation, musical and live action, the movie concerns a family trying to build up their guest house our in the middle of nowhere.