The Happiness of the Katakuris

[classical gas]

WTF?  Has anyone else seen this?  It's one of the strangest films I've ever seen.  

[Ravi]

This is one crazy movie.  I enjoyed it when I saw it in a theater with other people, but I have a feeling that I wouldn't have liked it that much if I saw it alone at home.

[classical gas]

yeah, my friends and i happened across this in the middle of it during a night of partying, so you can imagine how surprised we were when the old man turned into a claymation.  still don't know what this movie is about, we were too busy laughing our asses off.

[Weak2ndAct]

I love this movie!  I'm a big Miike fan, and this is definitely one of my favorites (the dvd is pretty swell too).  It's truly bizarre and wonderful.  At first I was put off by the claymation stuff, but how could you not laugh when the dog was rescued (Miike says the claymation was done so they could show things that wouldn't fit in the budget)?  The big musical number w/ the 'officer' is also a highlight.  And I LOVE how they actually had a sort-of kareoke in the movie, encouraging the audience to sing.  Great stuff.

[AntiDumbFrogQuestion]

Watched this Last Week.

I believe Takashi Miike to be a mixed bag, but this blend of death, comedy, and musical numbers worked thru & thru.  It seems like everybody was in on the joke and it makes fun of many Japanese/Asian Karaoke motifs as well as the Rodgers & Hammerstein stuff  and "Footloose"-esque 80's flicks we're all familiar with.

The only weak parts come with having to know Miike's "weirdness", which is prevalent in many of his films, and very much so in the stop-motion introduction of this film.  I don't excuse it; it is cool to watch but then I suppose it is a move to see if a crow eating an angel and a teddy bear killing the crow will alienate audiences.

During musical numbers, watch the young child who is "Narrator" of the film.  It's hilarious.

It's a film that is too ridiculous to describe and I recommend it to anyone who's up for something that walks the line between weird and fun.  It's also somewhat deep for such a silly movie.