Hausu (1977)

Director:

Nobuhiko Obayashi

Writers:

Chigumi Obayashi (original story)
Chiho Katsura (screenplay)

Release Date:

September 1977 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Fantasy | Horror

Plot:

Oshare is excited about spending summer vacation with her father, until she finds out that his beautiful...

Plot Keywords:

Well | Coming Of Age | Lipstick | Aunt | Japanese

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Kimiko Ikegami	...	Oshare / Gorgeous
Kumiko Ohba	...	Fanta / Fantasy
Yôko Minamida	...	Obâsan
Ai Matsubara	...	Gari / Prof
Miki Jinbo	...	Kunfû / Kung-Fu
Masayo Miyako	...	Sûitto / Sweet
Mieko Satoh	...	Matsuku
Eriko Tanaka	...	Merodî / Melody
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Takami Asano	...	Youth Around the Tokyo Station
Fumi Dan	...	Sensei
Steve Fox	...	youth around the Tokyo station
Ippei Hara
Shoichi Hirose
Kanta Ina
Mitsutoshi Ishigami	...	Photographer
Tatsuo Kanai
Chiho Katsura
Asei Kobayashi	...	Farmer selling watermelons
Tomokazu Miura	...	Fiancée
Midori Naitô
Chigumi Obayashi	...	Girl at a shoe store
Kyoko Obayashi	...	Lover #2
Nobuhiko Obayashi	...	Lover#1
Yasuo Onishi
Kiyohiko Ozaki	...	Keisuke Tôgô-sensei
Saho Sasazawa	...	Oshare no otôsan
Tommy Snyder	...	youth around the Tokyo station
Yukihide Takekawa	...	youth around the Tokyo station
Haruko Wanibuchi	...	Ryôko Ema
Micky Yoshino	...	youth around the Tokyo station

Also Known As:

House (International: English title) (informal title)

Runtime:

Japan:88 min | Japan:87 min (original version)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo

Certification:

Germany:16

Company:

P.S.C.

Quotes:

Oshare: Fanta, you're fantasizing!

Phantasmagorical + English Subtitled DVD

In the hands of experimental Japanese filmmaker Nobuhiko Obayashi, the tale of seven "unmarried" young high-school girls who, during a school break, travel to a spooky, remote hilltop house to visit the reclusive, mysterious Aunt of one of their fold only to be consumed one at a time by the Ghost-House/Aunt in increasingly novel ways, is escalated into a spastic, phantasmagorical confetti burst of avant-garde techniques and tonalities. Not a minute goes by without some kind of imaginative and spirited experimental visual manipulation or interjection; from kaleidoscopic color schemes, to frame and time altering collage montage, to wild, high-concept mixed media integration (animation, mattes, props, sets, etc), to mini-movie injections (lovingly parodying/mimicking everything from silent film stylistics, to romantic fantasies to obligatory action scenes). Any and all workings of the film form are here incorporatedly warped; from imagery and editing to music and sound to content and presentation. Even the sketches of characters and their respective performances by the actors are hemmed in time with the overall off-the-wall configuration. (Example: Each girl is intentionally drawn with their stock personalities (the musician, the over-weight eater, the athlete, etc) novelly paraded in gleeful iconic irreverence.) The moods and tones of the film are equally melodic in their own discordant tangential way; seamlessly walking the line between comedy, horror and the deadpan aloof. It all adds up to a whole lot of fun. Where else could you see a girl eaten by a piano, an upright Bear helping cook dinner at a roadside noodle-stand or a man turned into a pile of bananas because he doesn't like melons!? With all its packed in candy-colored confections and novel door prizes, "Hausu" is a cinematic surprise party all in one...just add you.

Get an English Subtitled DVD at: allcluesnosolutions.com