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October 10, 2004

Happiness of the Katakuri's

This movie gets the big raised eyebrow.

The plot concerns an extended Japanese family who run a small bed & breakfast on the unpopulous side of Mount Fuji. They apparently purchased it run-down, and fixed it up. As the movie opens, they still haven’t had any guests. Under strange circumstances, they have five sets of guests over the course of the movie, of which three sets perish—not killed by the Katakuri’s. To save the guest house, they decide each time to bury the bodies down by the lake, as it would be fiscal suicide for their first guest to die under strange circumstances.

The film uses a variety of techniques that seem cribbed more-or-less outright from Peter Jackson: claymation, disgusting food scenes, and strange musical interludes. Indeed, there were at least four moments when suddenly, the movie presents you with musical theatrics replete with singing, dancing, and (in one case) a sing-a-long.

If you like strange movies, you should check it out. I’m not sure what I think of it.

Posted by FusionGyro at October 10, 2004 10:21 PM

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Comments

picketh

Posted by: FireNize [TypeKey Profile Page] at October 11, 2004 12:27 AM

If you look at LJ in the RSS feed for here I talk a little bit about this movie. Just a little, but I fill in some major gaps on what the movie is and what it is about.

Posted by: Schlake at October 11, 2004 07:47 AM

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