The Happiness of the Katakuris
The Happiness of the Katakuris is a comedy musical that highlights the trials and tribulations of everyday life, as well as the importance of family values. It is also the product of directorial talent Takeshi Miike, who gave us Ichi the Killer and Audition and has a penchant for the absurd. This should be enough to tell you that while it IS a comedy, normal it most certainly isn’t.
If that does not provide sufficient warning consider the opening credit sequence, which makes use of Svankmajer-inspired claymation techniques to depict the circular nature of life. It defines categorisation but is a fitting introduction to the film as a whole: that is to say, it is funny, shocking and makes sense in its own, very roundabout way. After the off-the-wall opening we introduced to the Katakuris themselves: four generations of a family who have moved to the country to set up a guest house. Unfortunately the highway that was planned to run near their new home and drum up custom has yet to be constructed and as a result they have yet to host any guests. when would-be customers do arrive however, they meet untimely (and unlikely!) ends so the hapless Katakuris hatch a plan to save their business: dispose of the bodies by burying them in the back yard.
The film is loosely based on a little-known Korean film The Quiet Family but that is where the similarities with, well, pretty much everything, end. The Happiness of the Katakuris is an eclectic hotchpotch of horror, black comedy, kitchen sink drama, intentionally bad song and dance numbers and much else besides - the triumph here is that it somehow hangs together and is one heck of a lot of fun to watch. Miike is a daring director and in the hands of others the result would probably have been a baffling mess; as it is, there is much in the film that is head-scratchingly random at first glance but it all ultimately boils down to the aforementioned importance of family and overcoming adversity.
Every member of the Katakuri family has his or her foibles, failings, hopes and dreams; be it the cranky grandfather who can take out birds by a throw of a stick, or the young child whose older self does the narration. The strong moral message of the film makes its more outrageous aspects excusable and even justified, and believe me, there are a lot of them. Dancing zombies, domestic feuds and moments of improbable bad luck threaten to shatter the family’s dreams of an idyllic rural life but highlight the things that really matter. Without giving too much away, the ending is quite heartwarming and thoughtful after the hour and a half or so of lunacy that precedes it.
Of course, the film is intended to be a comedy as well and as long as you have a slightly twisted sense of humour and are open-minded about such things it is an absolute gem. The comedy is not just shocking but clever and imaginative too: chances are you will not look at sumo wrestlers in the same light again!
In Summary
Fans of off-the-wall comedy should really appreciate The Happiness of the Katakuris; bear in mind though that it is a product of Tartan’s Asia Extreme line for a reason in that some will find the humour too dark to stomach. On the plus side it becomes greater than the sum of its parts and has its own gleeful charm; I suspect it would be hard to find a film quite like this one. Utterly bonkers in the best possible way.
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