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IMDb > Katakuri-ke no kôfuku (2001)

Katakuri-ke no kôfuku (2001) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
7.3/10   3,537 votes
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Director:
Takashi Miike
Writers:
Ai Kennedy (translation)
Kikumi Yamagishi (screenplay)
Contact:
View company contact information for Katakuri-ke no kôfuku on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
23 February 2002 (Japan) more
Tagline:
Love, Music, Horror, Volcanos. Cinema was never meant to be like this! (UK Release) more
Plot:
The Katakuri family has just opened their guest house in the mountains. Unfortunately their first guest... more | full synopsis
Awards:
1 win more
User Comments:
A goofy, creepy tale with a touch of Sharisharism more

Cast

  (Credited cast)
Kenji Sawada ... Masao Katakuri
Keiko Matsuzaka ... Terue Katakuri
Shinji Takeda ... Masayuki Katakuri
Naomi Nishida ... Shizue Katakuri
Kiyoshiro Imawano ... Richâdo Sagawa
Tetsuro Tamba ... Ojîsan Jinpei Katakuri
Naoto Takenaka ... TV Reporter / Singer
Tamaki Miyazaki ... Yurie Katakuri
Takashi Matsuzaki ... Utanômi
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Yoshiki Arizono ... Father of the poor family
Chihiro Asakawa ... Utanômi's girlfriend
Masahiro Asakawa
Kenichi Endo ... Kudou
Moeko Ezawa
Akiko Hatakeyama
Yumeki Kanazawa ... Byôki otoko no ko
Maro
Aya Meguro
Yoshiyuki Morishita ... Policeman Miyaki
Yuka Nakatani
Miho Sawada
Tokitoshi Shiota ... First guest
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
The Happiness of the Katakuris (Japan: English title) (UK)
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MPAA:
Rated R for violent images and some sexual content.
Runtime:
113 min
Country:
Japan
Language:
Japanese
Color:
Color
Sound Mix:
Stereo
Filming Locations:
Kameoka, Kyoto, Japan more

Fun Stuff

Movie Connections:
References The Big Lebowski (1998) more

FAQ

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8 out of 12 people found the following comment useful:-
A goofy, creepy tale with a touch of Sharisharism, 17 September 2002
Author: regi0n2fan from Hastings & Main, Vancouver BC

Miike Takashi's `Katakuri-ke no Koufuku' is a wonderfully bizarre black comedy musical highly reminiscent of the music videos and live concert performances staged by the now-defunct 80s & 90's J-pop powerhouse Kome Kome Club. Miike's choice of Sawada Kenji as Katakuri Masao further accentuates this similarity, since he strongly resembles K2C co-front man `Carl Smoky' Ishii Tatsuya. The somewhat unpolished song & dance routines (unlike K2C), along with episodic fits of overacting and self-depreciating man-on-a-wire work combine to create a totally off the wall mix of dark humour and Miike's trademark visual gross-outs.

In synopsis, Katakuri Masao is a downsized urbanite who stakes his family's livelihood on restoring a run-down country inn. Masao, along with wife Terue (Matsuzaka Keiko) and father Jinpei (Tamba Tetsuro) reel in their troubled son Masayuki (Takeda Shinji) and divorced daughter Shizue (Nishida Naomi) to create their family dream. But alas, location is everything, and without a major road nearby, the `White Lover's Inn' waits patiently sans customers. When guests finally do begin to arrive, the Katakuris find (through no fault of their own) that their guests have an annoying habit of dying. Not to be discouraged however, the Katakuris do their best to persevere as a family, and find time for a number of offbeat musical numbers in between.

The most irritating character was the second-rate con man Richard Sawada played by actor/singer Iwamano Kiyoshiro, who also played a deadbeat suitor in the TBS dorama, "Boku no Shusshoku". He actually does a fair job at speaking bad gaijin-sounding Japanese, and he's one of the only actors in the movie (to my knowledge) with a musical background. Oh, and the shot with him wearing the Oakley `OverTheTops' is pretty funny. One of the strangest elements to me (besides the opening claymation sequence) was the fact that the prologue & epilogue narratives were voiced in retrospect by the young grand daughter, for no apparent reason. Some reviewers point out the moralistic undertones of family values and such, but I suspect that even this was thrown in by Miike as part of a cold-cocked slap in the face with regards to anything being morally relevant in the film, or making sense for that matter.

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Message Boards

Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Katakuri-ke no kôfuku (2001)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
Satire of American Cinema? Toiletmanners
Can anyone suggest more titles as close as possible to THIS!!!?? purerollers
Has Anyone Seen Both this + 'Quiet Family'? justa_bunny
Opening Su-Yeons_Closet
Different DVDs? CyberGhostface-1
The best Miike film. Period. je_suis_le_fromage
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