Happiness of the Katakuris
(Katakuri-ke no Kôfuku)
Written June 7, 2004
Picture a family film that combines a talented cast and director, singing, dancing,
claymation, death, and flying people and this is what you get.
After the father of the Katakuri family loses his job as a shoe salesman, he
convinces his entire family to work together on creating a guest-house in the
mountains of Japan. They have a hard time attracting guests and to make things
worse the guests they get always seem to die in strange ways. Not wanting word
to get out about guests dying, the family doesn't call the police and buries the
bodies instead. They discover that a major road is going to a be built near the lake where
they are burying bodies. Soon they must deal with moving the bodies, the police,
a nearby volcano that threatens to erupt, a con-man, and much more.
A key element of this film is the spontaneous musicals. Surprisingly, they
turned out quite professional sounding and looking, with catchy songs. The characters
even dance, fly, and move in sporadic, yet funny ways while they sing. There is even a musical
that involves dancing and singing corpses.
After seeing one of Takashi Miike's other films, Audition, I didn't really know
what to expect from this film except for hearing from a friend that it's insane. To my
surprise, this film turned out to be hilarious and even felt family-wholesome at times. So
if you've been disturbed by one of Miike's other films don't be afraid to check out this one,
even after seeing the first five minutes of it (which is a very odd part). I would recommend
this movie to anyone with an open sense of humor and who is able to stand a little violence and
sexual content. I've seen this movie twice and it was even funnier the second time.
Moments of Greatness: The entire ending (about 15-20 minutes). The "I Love You" musical.
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