the audience applauded

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

I had no idea what to expect from this movie. From ads I'd seen it looked like an Asian version of THE SOUND OF MUSIC with a family cavorting and singing through the tall grass on a hillside. Coming from director Takashi Miike I knew that this wasn't likely. But I've always enjoyed the few films of his I've had the chance to watch including ICHI THE KILLER and 13 ASSASSINS. He has a great visual style in everything he makes as well as an off kilter look at the world. No, I knew this was no Von Trapp family outing here. What I didn't expect was to absolutely enjoy and love this movie when it finished.A word of warning here. Know that I occasionally love movies that are extremely off the wall and this film fits that category. I'm not talking offensive movies but movies that are quite unlike anything else made. Some of those types of films stink but this isn't one of them. This one made me smile even when bad things were happening. It was all played for laughs and not to be taken seriously.The Katakuri family has seen better days. Dad was a top shoe salesman looking forward to retiring with a pension one day but who was laid off. Mom worked at the same store and that's where the two of them met. Sister falls in love to easily and as a result has a youngster to take care of, the narrator of the story. Brother had a few run ins with the law and is laying low. And Grandpa, well he lives with them all. When word reaches father that a new highway will be going through a location nearby, he purchases a cottage to rent out rooms to travelers along that route. Unfortunately as the film opens that hasn't come to pass and things are rough.They get worse when their first guest to take a room ends up killing himself during the night using the room key to cut his throat. Fearful that the police will let everyone know that their first guest committed suicide will make them lose business, the family decides to just bury the man out in the back end of the property. But this won't be the first guest that they lose nor the last person buried on their lot.Sister has fallen hard for a young man dressed in Navy whites who claims to be working for the Queen of England. In truth he's a con man on the lam and using sister to get whatever he can. When the local constable drops off a wanted poster she doesn't notice him their but grandpa does.As I sit and type I realize that it's difficult to explain all that happens in this movie without giving too much away. So rather than a start to finish description I'll move on to the things that make it worthwhile. It's funny. Yes it's in another language but that doesn't matter. It's still hilarious in parts. It's filled with music, nothing that you'll find yourself singing for days after but this movie is a musical of sorts. The first major number is laughter inspiring as 4 family members enter the room of their first guest in what appears to be styled like a music video from the 80s, with smoke pots, mood lighting and posing actors singing out.Before the end of the film you'll witness zombies dancing (not Michael Jackson zombies but bluer zombies that have begun decomposing in weird ways), clay animated sequences usually involving black birds, an erupting volcano and a mudslide that nearly destroys everyone in the film. Even through all of that by the final moments on screen you'll still be smiling and laughing. With all that happens in the movie I still felt lighthearted and joyous at what I'd just seen. And I was left wondering why, since this movie is 14 years old, has no one turned this into a major Broadway production? It's ripe for something that would play there. If it doesn't happen in the next ten years I will be stunned.So know ahead of time that this movie isn't for everyone but it is a hoot and one that you might just enjoy if you give it a chance. Yes, there are subtitles but for myself I get tired of people saying that makes it too difficult to watch. It doesn't. Get over it. English is not the only language in this world.This Arrow Video release is like all of their releases, filled with extras that actually add something to the movie rather than just being press packages for already famous stars. Included are interviews with the cast, a piece on the Claymation animation, a making of documentary, trailers and a commentary track by Miike himself. All of it makes the movie more enjoyable. If you like something a little different then I can't recommend this one enough. If you're willing to take a chance you just might wonder about the whole Broadway thing like I did. This is one I will more than likely pull up again to watch from time to time.

An extended family move out to the country to run a B&B, only to find that each rare and sorely-needed guest winds up dead on their property. Naturally this prompts a series of frantic musical sing-along productions before the shovels come out. One of Seven films made in 2001 alone by the absurdly prolific Takashi Miike (best known in the west for his more intense horror works such as the magnificent "Audition" and "Ichi The Killer"), this loose remake of Korean film "The Quiet Family" has all the rough edges and scatter-shot structure you'd expect of a film presumably made over a quiet weekend between projects. But for all that, it's frequently very funny, admirably off-kilter, and features quite the finest claymation soup- sprite that I've seen this year.Should you find that "Les Miserables" simply doesn't have the epic scope and emotional punch you want in a musical, then this combination of "The Sound Of Music", "Saturday Night Fever", "Shallow Grave" and "Shaun Of The Dead" is absolutely what you've been looking for.

Takashi Miike is one of cinema's true mavericks, a bold auteur who flirts with disaster every time he settles into the director's chair, and yet somehow, more often than not, he still manages to pull something out of the bag to surprise and delight fans of the bizarre.Take The Happiness of the Katakuri's for example: on paper it sounds positively dreadful, a horror/comedy/musical remake of Jee-woon Kim's The Quiet Family, with random claymation sequences thrown in for good measure; once again, though, Miike's unique, off-beat approach to his work, which eschews virtually every convention of mainstream cinema, makes for a visually innovative, one-of-a-kind viewing experience.It takes less than a minute for the madness to begin, when a woman eating soup pulls a small animated imp-like creature out of her bowl, after which the film becomes progressively more bonkers—a wild ride through a world where mid-movie karaoke singalongs and dancing zombies are routine occurrences. This might not be the most coherent thing Miike has ever made, and there's a good chance viewers unaccustomed to Miike's style will be left scratching their head by the time the end credits roll, but there's definitely never a dull moment.

“In life anything can happen” -Grandfather Katakuri And to the Katakuri family it does. Repeatedly.Initially I had decided not to see this movie because it seemed too odd, but eventually my curiosity got the better of me - and I'm glad it did. Shifting tone liberally and playfully a number of times during the film Miike combines half a dozen genres (including of course genre clichés!) into a film that above all is a comedy – a surprisingly successful and enjoyable comedy for the openminded viewer.The likable family are the focus of the movie and fortunately the actors portray them convincingly. The numerous musical numbers with dancing and sometimes special sets are diverse and great fun, and do have relevant messages about life and family. In the course of the film events get increasingly weird culminating in a truly hilarious finale.