Katakuri-ke no kôfuku (2001)

Directed by Takashi Miike [Other horror films: Ôdishon (1999), Tennen shôjo Man next: Yokohama hyaku-ya hen (1999), Tajuu jinkaku tantei saiko – Amamiya Kazuhiko no kikan (2000), Bijitâ Q (2001), Koroshiya 1 (2001), Gokudô kyôfu dai-gekijô: Gozu (2003), Chakushin ari (2003), Sam gang 2 (2004, segment ‘Box’), Aku no kyôten (2012), Kuime (2014), Kamisama no iu tôri (2014), Gokudô daisensô (2015), Terra Formars (2016)]

Known as The Happiness of the Katakuris, Katakuri-ke no kôfuku is a movie I’ve long wanted to see. I’ve never been the biggest fan of Japanese cinema, but I thought this looked quite interesting from the first time I heard of it.

And certainly it is an interesting movie; a memorable one, too. Portions of the film were quite decent and occasionally innovate, but I can’t say I actually enjoy that film that much, truth be told.

I think the main reason for this is that the story is more steeped in comedy than I thought it would be. It’s not always over-the-top stuff, but there’s a lot more humor here than horror, and while there were some standout scenes and sequences, for the hour and 53 minute runtime, I don’t know if there were enough.

At times, it almost feels like an Indian movie, what with all the songs popping up. I liked the concept – there are plenty of Indian movies I enjoy – but here, a lot of the songs don’t strike me as that catchy. Some certainly are, such as the final song, but even that karaoke potion felt sort of weak, though again, I liked the idea.

So here’s a movie with many songs I don’t personally find catchy along with more comedy than I’d have liked, and the fact that it is as long as it is only stretched out my relative disinterest. It’s not fair to say I ever became disengaged – the story of the movie is interesting throughout – but past a certain point, I didn’t think the movie was able to truly capture my appreciation, and that happened something like halfway through once I got a better idea of what this film was.

The characters are all reasonably fun. My favorite performances are those of Tetsurô Tanba and Shinji Takeda, especially Takeda, who got some strong scenes near the end. I never really felt that Kenji Sawada’s character came into his own, but he still did fine, and the other central performances, from Keiko Matsuzaka to Naomi Nishida, were good. I can’t say Tamaki Miyazaki’s narration did that much for me – she barely had a role in the events of the film – but it was an interesting touch.

So too were the moderately hideous claymation portions. They were impressive, and I can imagine that it took a while to do, but boy, did they look ugly (I imagine partially by design). The opening claymation didn’t seem to mean too much, but the final use of the style was decent, and it had story relevance, so I can’t complain there.

I would imagine few people really know what they’re getting into when they start The Happiness of the Katakuris up. I was expecting the musical portions – in fact, looking forward to them – but the movie is so much more than that. It’s partially a drama, partially horror, largely comedic, occasionally tragic; it’s all over the map, and while a lot of people enjoy that, especially given Takashi Miike directed this, it wasn’t really my cup of tea.

By no means did I have a horrible time with the film, though. It kept me entertained, and I was consistently curious as to what would happen next. I just expected a little more from it, and while I appreciate some things about the film, it’s simply not as enjoyable as I wish it were.

5.5/10