Average Rating: 6.3/10
Reviews Counted: 27
Fresh: 18 | Rotten: 9
If nothing else, Happiness of the Katakuris scores points for its delirious, over-the-top originality.
Average Rating: 4.5/10
Critic Reviews: 6
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 4
If nothing else, Happiness of the Katakuris scores points for its delirious, over-the-top originality.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 8,113
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
R, 1 hr. 53 min.
Drama, Horror, Musical & Performing Arts, Art House & International, Comedy
Jan 1, 2001 Wide
Feb 25, 2003
All Critics (34) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (19) | Rotten (9) | DVD (7)
By the second hour, Miike's story fails to punctuate its powerful setup, and the work, much like the family itself, ends up a tangled mess.
There are so many moments in Happiness of the Katakuris that beg us to walk out on the movie, it's hard to pick just one.
A kind of strange, existentialist comedy.
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.
None of this is nearly as hilarious as surely it was meant to be.
A sour camp musical that trots out most of the standard signifiers of 'outrageousness.'
Love it or hate it, such a feat of highly demented cinematic imagination simply must be seen.
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.
It's shot and acted in a way that's hastily, amateurishly theatrical, through digital photography that tries to look beautiful but just plain can't.
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.
It's weirdly -- and often wonderfully -- entertaining.
...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.
It's freakishly interesting and even outright hilarious at times, but, then again, so are most funerals.
It?s like the Sound of Music with Zombies, murders, a volcano and general madness. It?s fantastic, Takeshi Miike is a genius!
September 25, 2009Super Reviewer
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
April 10, 2009Super Reviewer
| 35% | The Hangover Part II |
| 25% | Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Par... |
| 81% | Kung Fu Panda 2 |
| 44% | Cowboys & Aliens |
| 83% | Rise of the Planet of the Apes |
| 25% | Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Par... |
| 88% | Lady and the Tramp |
| 69% | A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas |
| 21% | Fireflies in the Garden |
| 45% | The Rebound |
Journey 2 Not Worth the Trip
What are his 10 best movies ever?
See the all-new action-packed trailer!
Five new Marvelous pictures