‘The Happiness of the Katakuris’
Shochiku Co., Ltd., 2001

starring: Kenji Sawada, Keiko Matsuzaka, Shinji Takeda and Naomi Nishida
directed by: Takashi Miike

the plot: The Katakuri family decides to start their lives anew by opening a quaint guest house in the mountains of Japan. Patriarch Masao (Sawada), a failed shoe salesman, hopes the inn will mark the start of a new future for his family—wife Terue (Matsuzaka), son Masayuki (Takeda), daughter Shizue (Nishida) and grandfather Jinpei (Tetsuro Tamba). It’s slow going at first. The new road project scheduled for construction next to their inn is postponed and customers are few and far between. But things look hopeful when a guest shows up—that is, until he commits suicide. Reluctant to attract negative publicity to their business, the family buries the body in the backyard and hopes for the best. Their next guests, a famous sumo wrestler and his teenage girlfriend, also turn up dead, and pretty soon the backyard is filled with bodies.

why it’s good: You’ll be hard pressed to find a film stranger than “Katakuris” (unless you watch another Miike film, of course). The film opens with a scene involving a tiny monster hiding in a bowl of soup, a woman’s uvula and a hungry crow—all done in claymation—and then it gets weirder. The plot itself, about an unlucky family of innkeepers whose guests keep dying, is odd enough, but it’s the fact the family responds to every crisis with elaborate song and dance numbers that totally puts “Katakuris” over the top. When Shizue first meets suave con man Richard, who claims to be related to the British royal family, in a café, it’s not long before the two are declaring their undying love for each other in a catchy pop song while the other café patrons dance behind them. And then there’re the random claymation scenes, thrown in whenever the action gets a little too crazy. By the time the zombie dance sequence wraps up and the film rockets toward its all-clay climax, you can’t tear your eyes away.

why you should own it: “Katakuris” may be too odd for the average film viewer, but those who fall in love with this delightful pop confection will find it difficult not to buy on DVD. Chimera’s DVD features an interview with Miike as well as commentary by the director.