A remake of Ji-Woon Kim’s Chyonghan Kajok from 1998, the Happiness of the Katakuris is a Miike Takashi remake of that film, and has been more popular and widely known than the Korean counterpart. Of the two, it is rather ironic that Miike Takashi’s version turns out to be the lighter one.
The plot is the same for both films, but let’s focus on the film and then discuss the technicalities. A father is persuaded by the premise of earning a lot of money in a remote village. He decides to set up a guest house for visitors, in the hope of making money. At the same time, Masao (the father) moves his entire family to assist with the creation of the guest house: wife, daughter & her daughter (his grand daughter), son and his own father.
Having spent a long time in setting up the guest house, they wait anxiously, and eventually out of boredom for someone, anyone to visit their guest house to stay. When they do receive their first guest, it is one that they wish they never had. The morning following, they find the corpse of their first guest, in an apparent suicide.
The Quiet Family is the darker film, with a more “Addams Family” take on the horror genre. It has the dark humour and also the sadistic horror which is more suggestive with its undertones than graphically buoyant. The Happiness of the Katakuris is, well, a horror film with the same story, but done while taking a lot of acid. Probably.
Black humour, plot structure and the number of characters aside, there are some noticeable differences between the two films. Happiness is the musical horror from Miike Takashi. The family is down trodden and depressed, and yet they “laugh” in the face of failure. They try to keep a positive vibe and, interspersed with the musical interludes, keep the film “happy” instead of resorting the manic depressive “Addams” family darkness.
In the end, Happiness of the Katakuris doesn’t rank as the greatest film ever
It’s more Grease than Rocky Horror show for the simple fact that the story and the songs are grounded in “reality”, whereas Rocky Horror was a little more fantastical fantasy (or one person’s perversion). The songs themselves range from the absurd (the dancing with Zombies a la Thriller) to the even more ludicrous (the first death’s musical discussion), to absolute lunacy (the Karaoke bit). It’s all done in good humour, and it’s pretty funny as you watch and wonder, “They must have had such a laugh making this.” It shows as well, as they take their roles to level of campness expected in musicals. It’s amusing and entertaining.
As the death count goes up, the bodies are buried, and they become so accustomed to burying bodies that they preempt a family from possible death that may occur and create a grave big enough for them, just in case the worst happens. Again, it’s done with dark, suggestive undertones, but all in good humour.
The family itself is partially dysfunctional, and in reality not dysfunctional, but reflective of normal families. The drop out son, the daughter looking for a rich hubby, the over critical grandfather, and the supportive wife who follows the hubbies lead. They’re pretty typical within a nuclear family, or perhaps untypical and therefore their dysfunctional nature is really a Utopian ideal of structured family unit. Anyway, that’s perhaps looking at it too deeply. The family gets on most of the time, especially during times of crisis, but not always.
The family is down trodden and depressed, and yet they “laugh” in the face of failure
If you’re wondering how the musical pieces work within the film, well the majority of the film is exactly that: a film. The musical side of the picture is minor and happen in sporadic chunks rather than spread thinly through the film. of course, the musical parts don’t actually relate to the story in anyway, as they are part of someone’s imagination, or perhaps everyones. It’s an interesting idea, that actually works well. It does take away from the grisly nature of the death, but maybe this a is a good thing, as I found The Quiet Family sometimes too up its own arse with melancholy that it turned me off.
Another stand out point, which Takashi has introduced, is animation. The opening scene involves some sort of freakish angel with sharp teeth in a lady’s soup. The creature tears out uvula (the dangly bit that vibrates to create sound in your throat) and chases it like a helium balloon, only to be consumed by a crow, which is in turn eaten by a toy bear and well, it goes on, and it goes a bit mad.
None of it actually has any relation to the film itself, except for when the grandfather throws a log to knock a crow out of the skies and their dog Pochi tries to eat it. However, the stop motion animation is used through the film at certain points, particularly when the more elaborate scenes which would typically cost a lot of money (hanging off cliff edges, showing a disaster caused by nature) and within some dream-like sequences. It’s different, and it’s nice to see Takashi’s creatively flowing.
In the end, Happiness of the Katakuris doesn’t rank as the greatest film ever, and it cannot be watched too often like a typical musical (I’ve seen four times to date, including once for this review today) as it will start to gnaw. But, if watching for the first time, then it will entertain, make you laugh and fill your head with tunes of positive happiness and joy in about how and where to hide the dead bodies, and to avoid calling the police.
Verdict: Entertaining musical horror yarn which offers something wildly different.