The Happiness of the Katakuris (2002)

An extended family move out to the country to run a B&B, only to find that each rare and sorely-needed guest winds up dead on their property. Naturally this prompts a series of frantic musical sing-along productions before the shovels come out. 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. But for all that, it's frequently very funny, admirably off-kilter, and features quite the finest claymation soup- sprite that I've seen this year.Should you find that "Les Miserables" simply doesn't have the epic scope and emotional punch you want in a musical, then this combination of "The Sound Of Music", "Saturday Night Fever", "Shallow Grave" and "Shaun Of The Dead" is absolutely what you've been looking for.

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. And, its a musical! The film is all over the map and even includes some claymation. It is not bad, but it is somewhat uneven. I wish I cared more for the characters, they are somewhat one dimensional. However, Takashi is always interesting as a film maker, so I do recommend it, but he has done better. Its strange in its approach, a black comedy if you will. Once you understand it, you can watch it. Be warned, though, its a little out there.

I am always a fan of Takashi Miike. This film really showed the strange and crazy mind of his. With him and his writers, they made one interesting film. Imagine a horror, comedy, musical, slapstick, claymation, love story. Sounds kind of hard to take all in; and it is at first. But you really come to enjoy the craziness of this film. The cast is pretty good. The father is Kenji Sawada who seems to always have things happen. The mother is Keiko Matsuzaka who seems to take charge in the worst situations. Then you have the brother Shinji Takeda who is an ex con. The sister is Naomi Nishida who only wants to find a husband. Her daughter is played by Tamaki Miyazaki who is a cute little girl who is also the narrator. Then you have the grandpa played by Tetsuro Tanba who is just kind of out of his mind. The whole cast had different personalities and throughout the film you see more interesting characters. Also in the film you will see zombies and death followed by happy musical numbers. Then you will see reality burst into the abnormal with claymation scenes; creative and interesting. This film will pretty much make you go through every emotion. Combining the goofy with a normal reality. The story line is really hard to explain. Instead of explaining it, it is better to watch it and experience it. This film is truly not in the norm at all and that is what makes it so great to watch. There is always something going on. The only really thing I had against it is that it can get a little too confusing and some of the characters moments can get a little too goofy. But no matter what happens, you still want to watch it. I actually caught myself not paying attention to the story at parts and just being interested in the moment going on. Another crazy film by Takashi Miike.

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. A musical about happiness and death, with claymation and dancing zombies? There is absolutely no way to categorize this film. You just have to sit back and enjoy it, and enjoy it you will for the singing, the philosophy, and the constant humor.Miike hit another home run.