Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8734 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-09-29
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: Japanese
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 113 minutes

Special Features

• Star and director filmographies
  
• Scene selection
  
• Jamie Russell film notes
  
• Mike Takashi trailer reel
  
• Mike Takashi audio commentary
  
• Mike Takashi interview (33 mins)
  
• Making of … documentary (61 mins)
  
• Original theatrical trailer
  
• TV spots

DVD Technical Information:

• Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1 Anamorphic
  
• Language: Japanese
  
• Subtitles: English
  
• Disc Format: DVD-5
  
• PAL
  
• Colour
  
• Region Code: All
  
• Running time: 110 mins approx.

Synopsis
Best known for his dark splatterfests (AUDITION, ICHI THE KILLER), director Takeshi Miike takes a detour from his usual style with HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS. After losing his job at a department store, patriarch Masao (Kenji Sawada) has opened a country inn at which the whole family can work. The trouble is, whenever someone checks in, they seem to die before checking out! The inn spells a different adventure for each member of the family, and Miike somehow finds the ability to work in some surreal clay animation along with several elaborate karaoke-style musical numbers.

From the Back Cover
One of the most original and innovative films of recent years, The Happiness of the Katakuris combines the most unlikely of genre elements to create the most highly unpredictable and truly unforgettable film of all time! The Katakuris are an average family whose dream is to own a successful country inn. But soon things begin to go wrong and all of their guests begin to drop dead in the most bizarre of circumstances. Desperate to ensure the success of their business, they agree to keep the deaths quiet and resort to burying the bodies in the forest behind the house …

Filmed with surreal musical numbers, disturbed animated characters, killer zombies and an array of gruesome deaths, this delirious black comedy has to be seen to be believed.

Customer Reviews

About as ridiculous and brilliant as any one film could be
I'm prepared to belive that all Japanese films are a little crazy. I don't know enough about it to say otherwise. And if that's true, then maybe this one isn't quite as odd as it appears to my untutored eye. But I think, whatever the prevailing style of modern Japanese cinema, The Happiness of the Katakuris is most likely about as nuts anything you'll ever see.

But it is fantastic. Part animation, part musical, part horror, part comedy, and all of it played exquisitely by the actors. Their faces are calm, despite the increasingly ludicrous events that unfold around them, despite the mounting number of dead bodies. The actors, every one of them, are a charm.

It is also a wonderful celebration of family. In fact, the only thing that ties the film together is the way the eponymous relations stick by each other. Their story - that of opening a remote hotel and struggling to find guests, then having guests gradually arrive only to die one by one in bizarre circumstances - is filtered through the importance of family ties. It is a nice message, though one that could have become leaden with good intentions. But when told like this, no subject could ever be boring. You cannot help but laugh with delight watching this film. It is that much fun.

one of the most insanely original films of all time!
From Japan's hottest director, Takashi Miike, comes a film that merges together a handful of incompatible genres and ends up creating a genre of its own. The plotline concerns a Japanese family who have shunned the pressures of city life to open a hotel by the mountainside. When the guests begin to come, they all die in unusual ways, leaving the family of having the option of bad publicity or a series of burials. Sounds like Shallow Grave? Well, this film is a MUSICAL! Where the chracters randomly burst into joyous song. An unpredictable film, it also has moments of Jan Svenmajer style animation. Bizarre, imaginative, beautifully directed and unlike ANYTHING you have ever seen!

This film is so awesome!!
This film has singing, dancing, horror, romance AND comedy which makes it everything you could ever want on a saturday evening. Watch it with an open mind and you'll love every second.

The first time i watched this i was thinking 'hmmmm, strange' but then it started to really grow on me and now it's definately one of my top ten favourite films.

The first 10 minutes are insane and a bit gross, but after the start you really come to love the characters and the crazy plot the film Takashi Miike has to offer.

I totally LOVE all the songs, i find myself singing along even though they're in Japanese!! They are a bit cheesy, but you have to understand that they're supposed to be, and some of the songs are also really sweet!

The characters are all different and awesome and the storyline is totally insane, but, of course for comical effect. Don't watch this if your comfortable diet of film only consists of normal Mainstream Hollywood films, because you won't be comfortable with how cheesy the songs seem, or with how bold the narrative is. (it dosen't follow the normal beginning, middle and end pattern)

Unpredictable deaths, zombies and playful songs dott the entire story. Beneath all the funky dressing however there also lies a really very sweet message, and you come to understand that the strong underlying moral is of how important love and family is, and how with these things, one has the strength to overcome anything. And on watching this film you'll understand that the Katakuris definately need this family strength!!