The Happiness of the Katakuris Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

The Happiness of the Katakuris Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 18, 2020

A lot of fans of Takashi Miike tend to flock to his over the top horror or at least horror adjacent outings, liking the way this provoc-auteur (sorry) can tend to blend surreal stylistic flourishes with copious amounts of blood and guts. The Happiness of the Katakuris may not tick all the boxes for this particular subset of Miike’s fanbase, but it often has so much else going on that some may not even notice. While The Happiness of the Katakuris kind of (sings and) dances around a horror-esque ambience as it deals with a family of inn owners whose guests all end up dead for one reason or another, the film is one of Miike’s more extravagant from a stylistic perspective, and anyone who has seen even one of Miike’s films may understand what a statement that is. The fact that The Happiness of the Katakuris is a kinda sorta musical and also has “Claymation”-esque animated sequences may indicate, if only feebly, at how audacious this outing can be. Weird, wacky, hyperbolic and almost psychedelically colorful, The Happiness of the Katakuris may indeed not be everyone’s cup of tea (sake?), but it is one of those films you just have to see in order to believe, and even seeing it may not completely convince you you’ve actually just witnessed something this odd.

The film begins with one of the Claymation like sequences, a hilarious riff (intentionally or otherwise) on “The Circle of Life” from The Lion King, which includes some laugh out loud moments as a little gremlin like imp (among various other creatures) meets its fate — repeatedly. That more or less allows the film to segue “naturally” (as much as anything is “natural” in a Miike film) to the Katakuri family, a kind of hapless bunch of losers who have probably unwisely taken possession of a dilapidated structure they have attempted to turn into a hotel since they are convinced a new superhighway is due soon and will deliver customers virtually right to their front door.

As Tom Mes gets into in one of the two commentary tracks included on this release, the cast is filled with at least some members whose musical backgrounds make the song and dance angles of the film surprisingly well done. The Katakuri family includes Masao (Kenji Sawada), wife Terue (Keiko Matsuzaka), son Masayuki (Shinji Takeda), grandfather Jinpei (Tetsuro Tanba), daughter Shizue (Naomi Nishida) and Shizue’s daughter Yurie (Tamaki Miyazaki), who more or less narrates things. The film is already totally surreal even before the Katakuris are introduced, and in fact things, while still definitely outré, are nominally a bit more “normal” (again, a totally relative term, as is de rigeur in Miike films) as they’re introduced, even if the television shows they watch as they eat dinner are seemingly being broadcast from the nearest insane asylum.

Once the first customer arrives and quickly commits suicide, the film darts off onto what is ostensibly its "main" plot, with the family struggling to cover things up so as to not harm business (which is iffy to begin with). Suffice it to say that this first death is not the last, and there's an almost farcical ambience to things as the family becomes more and more panicked in trying to maintain a calm demeanor in the face of escalating trauma. A major subplot is also introduced involving a completely peculiar character named Richard Sagawa (Kiyoshiro Imawano), who, in "pick one from Column A, one from Column B" style, is supposedly both a U.S. and a British naval officer (despite being apparently Japanese), who is also supposedly directly related to Queen Elizabeth. Sagawa and Shizue embark on a furtive romance which includes one of the film's most gonzo production numbers.

What is so bracing about The Happiness of the Katakuris is how weirdly "integrated" it all is, something that's especially impressive given not just its basic plotline but also its flights of stylistic fancy involving the animated sequences. The song and dance elements are often hilarious, including the family's reaction to finding the first corpse, which erupts into choreography that kind of reminded me of "Cool" from West Side Story. Another classic Robert Wise musical film, The Sound of Music, is clearly referenced in the film's closing sequence (as well as the font used for titles in some key art, including on the inside cover, insert booklet and silkscreen art on the disc labels on this very release), though in this case it may be the "undead" rather than any hills that are alive.

The Happiness of the Katakuris Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Happiness of the Katakuris is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Arrow Video with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Arrow's insert booklet provides only the following pretty basic information on the transfer:

The Happiness of the Katakuris was remastered in High Definition by Shochiku Co. Ltd. and provided to Arrow Films as a digital file.

Tom Mes gets into Miike's early use of digital cameras for this shoot (I couldn't quite make out the model Mes mentions, though it was a Sony of some kind), and Mes also mentions in passing that Miike was having "problems" as a result of his camera choice. That may show up in occasional anomalies like pretty noticeably blooming whites and some iffy contrast at times, but while there's a pretty unabashed digital video look to this, detail levels are often quite inviting and the palette can explode with energy in some of the more hallucinogenic moments. There are so many tweaks and bells and whistles that Miike and cinematographer Hideo Yamamoto have added to the imagery that there's an unavoidably heterogeneous look at times.

The Happiness of the Katakuris Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Happiness of the Katakuris features a great sounding LPCM 2.0 track in the original Japanese. It looks like some of the previous DVD releases of this title have had repurposed surround tracks included, and the musical elements here may have undeniably benefited from such a treatment, but this stereo track is really boisterous sounding, with a surprisingly wide sound stage and fine fidelity throughout in both sung and spoken moments. Optional English subtitles are available.

The Happiness of the Katakuris Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Making of the Katukuris (1080i; 30:42) is a fun featurette with a lot of interviews with cast and crew. In Japanese with English subtitles.


• Interviews are in Japanese with English subtitles:

  Takashi Miike (2015) (1080p; 38:59)

  
  

  Takashi Miike (Archive) (1080i; 5:03)

  
  

  Kenji Sawada (1080i; 5:00)

  
  

  Keiko Matsuzaka (1080i; 2:48)

  
  

  Kiyoshiro Imawano & Shinji Takeda (1080i; 4:28)

  
  

  Naomi Nishida (1080i; 2:19)

  
  

  Tetsuro Tanba (1080i; 4:04)

• Animating the Katukuris (1080i; 5:30) shows things like puppet construction.


• Dogs, Pimps and Agitators (1080p; 23:51) features the always interesting Tom Mes with a visual essay on Takashi Miike's career.


• Trailer (1080p; 1:44)


• TV Spot (1080p; 00:20)


• Commentary by Takashi Miike also features actor Tokitoshi Shiota and can be listened to in two versions, the original Japanese with English subtitles, or a translated English "re-creation".


• Commentary by Tom Mes

Additionally, Arrow's typically well appointed insert booklet contains essays, stills, cast and crew information, and some technical data.

The Happiness of the Katakuris Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

A brief tour through the screenshots I've included with this review may give at least a bit of an idea of how completely sui generis this film is. As such, it's perfectly understandable, and perhaps even predictable, that some people are going to have a genuine "WTF" reaction to it. For those used to Miike's almost patented brand of lunacy, this is "just another" example of how febrile his imagination seems to be. That may lead to the same kind of ADHD disconnect that is often evident in Miike's approach, but at least here you get singing and dancing, not to mention Claymation. Technical merits are solid, and the supplementary package really well done. With caveats noted and warnings for the faint of heart and/or aversion to the cinematically unusual duly offered, Recommended.