cityonfire.com | Happiness of the Katakuris

	Happiness of the Katakuris, The "...if you don't own this, you're a fuckin' fag, dude." - Woody Happiness of the Katakuris, The (2001) Director: Takashi Miike Writer: Kikumi Yamagishi Cast: Kenji Sawada, Keiko Matsuzaka, Shinji Takeda, Naomi Nishida, Tetsuro Tanba, Naoto Takenaka Running Time: 113 min. Plot: After a family opens a lodge in a remote mountain town, they find that all their guests keep dying--and they take on the responsibility of hiding all the bodies, not wanting any bad publicity. However, their determination might just make things work... Availability: This title is available at HKflix.com Reviews WOODY'S REVIEW: I'll keep this one short and sweet: if you don't own this, you're a fuckin' fag, dude. Sorry, I'm a sixteen year old Californian...surfing has kind fried my brain of any vocabulary or, uh, uhm... Seriously though, if this isn't in your DVD collection, it should be, because it is kicks major ass and defies any attempts I could give in order to describe the onscreen events. Basically, this is comedy-horror-family-musical directed by Takashi Miike. If that isn't enough to get you dragging your arrow over to the HK Flix icon (where you should buy all of your DVD's because the proceeds go to orphaned kittens with cancer), then I'll give you a sampling of some of the strange wonders that lie within: A supposedly Eurasian con artist who pretends to be the Queen of England's son. Random bursts of bizarre claymation. Zombie musical sequence. A cranky old Japanese dude who doesn't care much for crows, so he hits them with rocks. Narration by a cute little girl who looks right out of a Japanese Disney movie. A little claymation creature that pulls out a chick's tonsils and flies away until he's eaten by a bird. Or something. And the guy who plays the dad used to be like Japan's David Bowie and was the guy in the kinky S&M affair with the ugly chick in Paul Schrader's "Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters". That guy is pretty cool. Oh yeah, and there is a volcanic explosion and the ending song could fit quite cozily in a Nippon version of "Sound of Music" and you can watch this one with the whole family...no, on second thought, to let little kids watch this is to ensure that they will someday be the kind of person who listens to Fischerspooner and The Boredoms and has Andy Warhol prints all over their rooms and stands around in artsy poses with their hip scenester friends trying to outcool them and...basically, be like me. And that is something no parent wants to deal with. But back to the movie, yet another winner from Takashi Miike...I don't know how long he can keep this streak up. Then again, they only release his good flicks here, and I don't really buy the imports all that much and he does make, like, twenty movies a year, so perhaps some of those are lame, but for the most part, any domestically released Miike flick is a must have. Man, this guy does it all. Musicals, family dramas, horror, and crime. Have you ever eaten some Mexican fish tacos and gotten really sick and then had this huge build up of shit in your stomach and as it slowly comes out in spurts, you feel kind of sad having to bid it farewell, and as it circles down the toilet into the ocean (again, I live in California), you give that big pile of shit a name? Well, if not, you should try it sometime. It's like being pregnant and giving the baby away for adoption, only you don't really want to kiss it, and wiping it off won't really do much, because, well, it's shit, and you can't hold it...but still, you get attached... Anyways, the next time I take a monster shit and sob, have to flush it into the Pacific cesspool that I surf in...yuck...I will name it "Miike" in honor of the great director whose films I love more than some members of my immediate family. After watching his movies, I think Miike would kind of appreciate having something that came out of a fan's ass named after him. So, I think it goes without saying: if you don't own this, you're a fuckin' fag. But if you don't wanna be a fuckin' fag, just buy the movie at HK Flix, because whenever you buy a DVD from HK Flix, an angel gets it's wings. Or Paul McCartney will get together the remaining members of Wings for a song on the soundtrack to the next Charlie's Angels movie. Or something along those lines. Flush WOODY'S RATING: 9.5/10

Happiness of the Katakuris, The

"...if you don't own this, you're a fuckin' fag, dude."

- Woody

Happiness of the Katakuris, The (2001)

Director: Takashi Miike

Writer: Kikumi Yamagishi

Cast: Kenji Sawada, Keiko Matsuzaka, Shinji Takeda, Naomi Nishida, Tetsuro Tanba, Naoto Takenaka

Running Time: 113 min.

Plot: After a family opens a lodge in a remote mountain town, they find that all their guests keep dying--and they take on the responsibility of hiding all the bodies, not wanting any bad publicity. However, their determination might just make things work...

Availability: This title is available at HKflix.com

Reviews

WOODY'S REVIEW: I'll keep this one short and sweet: if you don't own this, you're a fuckin' fag, dude. Sorry, I'm a sixteen year old Californian...surfing has kind fried my brain of any vocabulary or, uh, uhm... Seriously though, if this isn't in your DVD collection, it should be, because it is kicks major ass and defies any attempts I could give in order to describe the onscreen events.

Basically, this is comedy-horror-family-musical directed by Takashi Miike. If that isn't enough to get you dragging your arrow over to the HK Flix icon (where you should buy all of your DVD's because the proceeds go to orphaned kittens with cancer), then I'll give you a sampling of some of the strange wonders that lie within: A supposedly Eurasian con artist who pretends to be the Queen of England's son. Random bursts of bizarre claymation. Zombie musical sequence. A cranky old Japanese dude who doesn't care much for crows, so he hits them with rocks. Narration by a cute little girl who looks right out of a Japanese Disney movie. A little claymation creature that pulls out a chick's tonsils and flies away until he's eaten by a bird. Or something. And the guy who plays the dad used to be like Japan's David Bowie and was the guy in the kinky S&M affair with the ugly chick in Paul Schrader's "Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters". That guy is pretty cool. Oh yeah, and there is a volcanic explosion and the ending song could fit quite cozily in a Nippon version of "Sound of Music" and you can watch this one with the whole family...no, on second thought, to let little kids watch this is to ensure that they will someday be the kind of person who listens to Fischerspooner and The Boredoms and has Andy Warhol prints all over their rooms and stands around in artsy poses with their hip scenester friends trying to outcool them and...basically, be like me. And that is something no parent wants to deal with.

But back to the movie, yet another winner from Takashi Miike...I don't know how long he can keep this streak up. Then again, they only release his good flicks here, and I don't really buy the imports all that much and he does make, like, twenty movies a year, so perhaps some of those are lame, but for the most part, any domestically released Miike flick is a must have. Man, this guy does it all. Musicals, family dramas, horror, and crime. Have you ever eaten some Mexican fish tacos and gotten really sick and then had this huge build up of shit in your stomach and as it slowly comes out in spurts, you feel kind of sad having to bid it farewell, and as it circles down the toilet into the ocean (again, I live in California), you give that big pile of shit a name? Well, if not, you should try it sometime. It's like being pregnant and giving the baby away for adoption, only you don't really want to kiss it, and wiping it off won't really do much, because, well, it's shit, and you can't hold it...but still, you get attached... Anyways, the next time I take a monster shit and *sob*, have to flush it into the Pacific cesspool that I surf in...yuck...I will name it "Miike" in honor of the great director whose films I love more than some members of my immediate family. After watching his movies, I think Miike would kind of appreciate having something that came out of a fan's ass named after him.

So, I think it goes without saying: if you don't own this, you're a fuckin' fag. But if you don't wanna be a fuckin' fag, just buy the movie at HK Flix, because whenever you buy a DVD from HK Flix, an angel gets it's wings. Or Paul McCartney will get together the remaining members of Wings for a song on the soundtrack to the next Charlie's Angels movie. Or something along those lines.

*Flush*

WOODY'S RATING: 9.5/10