One of an amazing seven features directed in 2001 by Japan's prolific shock auteur Takashi Miike, The Happiness of the Katakuris is a gleefully morbid musical comedy about a family of oddballs who open an inn in the mountains. Unfortunately, through no fault of their own, none of their guests leave their rooms alive. In order to protect their business, the family resorts to burying the corpses in the backyard, but this only leads to a zombie problem. Meanwhile, the daughter falls in love with
Richard, a mysterious British navy officer, who looks suspiciously Japanese but claims to be the nephew of Queen Elizabeth 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. Propelled by musical numbers rife with movie and pop culture references, The Happiness of the Katakuris is a departure from Miike's famously gruesome thrillers. ~ Tom Vick, Rovi
It's a ball when it works, which is why fans of Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark, Francois Ozon's 8 Women, and other darkly inspired, genre-bending musical fusions must introduce themselves to the Katakuris.
The Katakuris may not be your typical innkeepers, but the family that sings together and buries dead bodies together, stays together...this is hilarious, macabre, and entertaining.
Happiness of the Katakuris is probably the film best equipped to fill that black-camp-karaoke-musical-horror-claymé-domestic-dramedy void in your DVD library.
...for all the black humor of this deliriously bizarre fantasy Happiness is a warmhearted film about sacrifice, support and four generations of family togetherness in face of mounting corpses.
I admit I haven't seen many musicals & I don't intend to but this one is right up there along with Hedwing and the Angry Inch as my favourite musicals of all time, My first Takashi Miike (Audition) was really disappointing so it took me so long to see this & Gozu but these two made me want to see his other movies
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