The Happiness of the Katakuris
Encyclopedia
is a 2001
film
directed by Takashi Miike
, with screenplay by Kikumi Yamagishi. It is loosely based on the South Korea
n film The Quiet Family
. The film is a surreal horror-comedy in the farce
tradition, which includes claymation sequences, musical and dance numbers, a karaoke
-style sing-along scene, and dream sequences.
The film won a Special Jury Prize for its director at the 2004 Gérardmer Film Festival.
to purchase a large old home situated on a former garbage dump near Mount Fuji
that they have named the ‘White Lover's Inn'. They have the intention of converting it into a bed & breakfast, since the road running nearby is supposed to be expanded up to the house, which would bring many guests and tourists. However, the road hasn't been expanded yet and the Katakuris subsequently have no guests. When one finally shows up, a TV personality, sans clothes, he subsequently commits suicide
during the night, and the Katakuris make the decision to save their business by burying the body and concealing the death. The second guest, a Sumo wrestler, also dies of a heart attack during a tryst with his underage girlfriend, who also dies.
Somehow, each of their guests ends up dead— by suicide, accident or murder— and pretty soon the bodies in the back yard begin to pile up, resulting in a zombie problem. The Katakuris soon find themselves sucked into a nightmare of lies and fear (not helped by the arrival of the daughter's con-man boyfriend, an escaped murderer with police in hot pursuit, and an erupting volcano).
Meanwhile, the recently divorced daughter falls in love with Richard Sagawa (Kiyoshiro Imawano), a mysterious British navy officer who looks suspiciously Japanese but claims to be the nephew of Queen Elizabeth II herself. Just when Richard bungles onto a clue that might lead him to uncover the string of disappearing guests, a nearby volcano begins rumbling to life.
2001 in film
The year 2001 in film involved some significant events, including the first of the Harry Potter series and also the first of The Lord of the Rings trilogy...
film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
directed by Takashi Miike
Takashi Miike
is a highly prolific and controversial Japanese filmmaker. He has directed over seventy theatrical, video, and television productions since his debut in 1991. In the years 2001 and 2002 alone, Miike is credited with directing fifteen productions...
, with screenplay by Kikumi Yamagishi. It is loosely based on the South Korea
South Korea
The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
n film The Quiet Family
The Quiet Family
The Quiet Family is a 1998 South Korean comedy horror film. It was director Kim Ji-woon's feature film debut. The story centers around a family who owns a hunting lodge in a remote area, whose customers always happen to end up dying...
. The film is a surreal horror-comedy in the farce
Farce
In theatre, a farce is a comedy which aims at entertaining the audience by means of unlikely, extravagant, and improbable situations, disguise and mistaken identity, verbal humour of varying degrees of sophistication, which may include word play, and a fast-paced plot whose speed usually increases,...
tradition, which includes claymation sequences, musical and dance numbers, a karaoke
Karaoke
is a form of interactive entertainment or video game in which amateur singers sing along with recorded music using a microphone and public address system. The music is typically a well-known pop song minus the lead vocal. Lyrics are usually displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol,...
-style sing-along scene, and dream sequences.
The film won a Special Jury Prize for its director at the 2004 Gérardmer Film Festival.
Plot
The Katakuris are a four-generation family of failures: patriarch Masao Katakuri (Kenji Sawada), his wife Terue (Keiko Matsuzaka), his father Jinpei (Tetsuro Tamba), his formerly criminal son Masayuki (Shinji Takeda), his divorced daughter Shizue (Naomi Nishida), her child Yurie (Tamaki Miyazaki, who narrates the film), and their dog, Pochi. The family uses the father's redundancy payLayoff
Layoff , also called redundancy in the UK, is the temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment of an employee or a group of employees for business reasons, such as when certain positions are no longer necessary or when a business slow-down occurs...
to purchase a large old home situated on a former garbage dump near Mount Fuji
Mount Fuji
is the highest mountain in Japan at . An active stratovolcano that last erupted in 1707–08, Mount Fuji lies about south-west of Tokyo, and can be seen from there on a clear day. Mount Fuji's exceptionally symmetrical cone is a well-known symbol of Japan and it is frequently depicted in art and...
that they have named the ‘White Lover's Inn'. They have the intention of converting it into a bed & breakfast, since the road running nearby is supposed to be expanded up to the house, which would bring many guests and tourists. However, the road hasn't been expanded yet and the Katakuris subsequently have no guests. When one finally shows up, a TV personality, sans clothes, he subsequently commits suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
during the night, and the Katakuris make the decision to save their business by burying the body and concealing the death. The second guest, a Sumo wrestler, also dies of a heart attack during a tryst with his underage girlfriend, who also dies.
Somehow, each of their guests ends up dead— by suicide, accident or murder— and pretty soon the bodies in the back yard begin to pile up, resulting in a zombie problem. The Katakuris soon find themselves sucked into a nightmare of lies and fear (not helped by the arrival of the daughter's con-man boyfriend, an escaped murderer with police in hot pursuit, and an erupting volcano).
Meanwhile, the recently divorced daughter falls in love with Richard Sagawa (Kiyoshiro Imawano), a mysterious British navy officer who looks suspiciously Japanese but claims to be the nephew of Queen Elizabeth II herself. Just when Richard bungles onto a clue that might lead him to uncover the string of disappearing guests, a nearby volcano begins rumbling to life.
Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Kenji Sawada Kenji Sawada , nicknamed "Julie" , also-known as vocalist for the Japanese rock band The Tigers, is a Japanese singer, composer, lyricist and actor. He was born in Tsunoi, Iwami , Tottori Prefecture, Japan, and raised in Sakyo-ku, Kyoto at age 3... |
Masao Katakuri |
| Keiko Matsuzaka Keiko Matsuzaka is an actress.Born in Ōta, Tokyo, her father was a naturalized South Korean while her mother was Japanese. Active as a child actress in the 1960s, she came into her own as an adult with Daiei, then in 1972 with Shochiku.... |
Terue Katakuri |
| Shinji Takeda | Masayuki Katakuri |
| Naomi Nishida Naomi Nishida is an actress. She won the Best Supporting Actress award at the 2001 Yokohama Film Festival and at the 25th Hochi Film Award for her performance in Nabbie's Love.She married a Japanese shoe designer in 2005, and gave birth a girl on April 7, 2008... |
Shizue Katakuri |
| Kiyoshiro Imawano Kiyoshiro Imawano , born , was a Japanese rock musician, lyricist, composer, musical producer, and actor from Tokyo, Japan. He was dubbed "Japan's King of Rock". He formed and led an influential rock band RC Succession.... |
Richâdo Sagawa |
| Tetsuro Tamba Tetsuro Tamba was a Japanese actor.-Biography:Tamba is perhaps best known by Western audiences for his role as Tiger Tanaka in the 1967 James Bond film You Only Live Twice . By then, he had among other roles appeared in two films by director Masaki Kobayashi: Harakiri and Kwaidan... |
Ojiisan Jinpei Katakuri |
| Naoto Takenaka | Television Reporter |
| Tamaki Miyazaki | Yurie Katakuri |
| Takashi Matsuzaki | Utanômi |
External links
- The Happiness of the Katakuris at MetacriticMetacriticMetacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...