Hausu (1977)

A schoolgirl and six of her classmates travel to her aunt's country home, which turns out to be haunted.

Director:

Nobuhiko Ôbayashi

Writers:

Chiho Katsura (screenplay), Chigumi Ôbayashi (original story)

Stars:

Kimiko Ikegami, Miki Jinbo, Kumiko Ohba

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Kimiko Ikegami	...	Oshare (Miyuki Koga) / Gorgeous / Oshare's Mother
Miki Jinbo	...	Kung Fu
Kumiko Ohba	...	Fantasy
Ai Matsubara	...	Gari / Prof
Mieko Satô	...	Mac
Eriko Tanaka	...	Melody
Masayo Miyako	...	Sweet
Kiyohiko Ozaki	...	Keisuke Tôgô
Saho Sasazawa	...	Daddy Kogarashi
Asei Kobayashi	...	Watermelon Farmer
Mitsutoshi Ishigami	...	Photographer
Ippei Hara	...	Tora-san Lookalike
Tetsuo Kanai
Shôichi Hirose	...	Ramen Trucker
Yasumasa Ônishi	...	Old Villager

Storyline

Oshare (Gorgeous) is excited about spending summer vacation with her father, until she finds out that his beautiful, freakishly serene girlfriend Ryouko would be going as well. Oshare decides she will be going to her aunt's house in the country instead. She brings with her her friends from school - Fanta (who likes to take pictures, and daydreams a lot), KunFuu (who has very good reflexes), Gari/Prof (who is a major nerd), Sweet (who likes to clean), Mac (who eats a lot), and Melody (a musician). However, the girls are unaware that the house is actually haunted. When they arrive at the house, crazy events take place and the girls disappear one by one while slowly discovering the secret behind all the madness.

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Plot Keywords:

cult film | absurd violence | possession | stylized violence | bloody spray | 

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Taglines:

House is Calling to You Come Back Home and Marry Me

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Genres:

Comedy | Horror

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Did You Know?

Trivia

Shortly after this film's release, Obayashi proposed a story for what would have been the 16th Godzilla film. Had that film been made it would have used the same crew as this film with Godiego once again provided the music. This story told of a little girl named Momo who discovers the dead body of Godzilla. After being dissected, Godzilla is revealed to be a pregnant female alien named Rozan who died of diabetes. The brain of the dead Rozan instructs the humans that she must return with her unborn son to the planet of Godzilla and so her body is converted into a spaceship. The newborn child would be reunited with its father and they would have fought a female monster that shot fire from her breasts. Ultimately, this project was discarded by Toho and was instead released as a short story in the Japanese edition of Starlog magazine; the artwork being done by future Akira director Katsuhiro Ôtomo. The story lists the credits as if it was a feature film, with Obayashi as director.

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Quotes

Farmer selling watermelons: Do you like watermelons?
Keisuke Tougou-sensei: No! I like bananas!
Farmer selling watermelons: Bananas?

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Crazy Credits

The first half of the ending credits runs over candid footage of the actresses. During the second half, the credits appear over the poster illustration (similar to the Masters of Cinema cover, but with more color), scrolling up the ''tongue'' of the house. The main characters also show up on the sides of the screen.

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Connections

Referenced in Adjust Your Tracking (2013)

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Soundtracks

Love Theme

User Reviews

Pee Wee's Playhouse on Acid ... with Gore!

This must be one of the weirdest films I've ever seen ... and I absolutely loved it!

"House" is primarily the story of teenage schoolgirl Gorgeous. Summer break is approaching, and she and her six girlfriends are excited about their vacations. Gorgeous is supposed to spend time with her widowed dad on a trip out of town, while her friends are excited about a summer camp.

Well, Gorgeous' dad surprises her by introducing her to his fiancé / her new mother, Ryoko. Gorgeous is not happy and decides to visit an aunt (her mother's sister) who lives in the family homestead way out in the middle of nowhere. When her friends' plan to go to summer camp falls through she invites them to join her.

The rest of the film is about Gorgeous and her friends, Fantasy, Kung-Fu, Mac, Prof, Melody, and Sweet, as they are terrorized by the House.

Random Notes:

As you may have guessed, the girls all go by nicknames that describe how they stand out in their group. Melody plays music, Kung-Fu knows how to fight, Prof is bookish, etc ...

The house in question struck me a bit like Pee Wee's Playhouse on acid ... with gore!

Surreal doesn't even begin to describe most of what happens, but the high-point for me was when the piano eats one of the girls (guess who).

The visual style of the film is all over the place. It seems that the director was determined to use every visual option available to him. Zoom in and out! Cross-fade! Color overlay! Stock backdrops for the sky and landscape! Sloppy green screen special effects! Twinkles! Speed up! Slow down! Random audio overlays! Stop-motion! These effects seem to come out of nowhere for no reason and that's part of the charm of the movie.

The Criterion Blu-ray release also included the director's short art-film, "Emotion". The story (if you can call it that) involves a girl that was raised by The Sea who had a longing to go Far Away. The director was influenced by the French filmmaking of the time, so you'll encounter the French language as well as Japanese and English.

There's an animated sequence involving a heterosexual S&M relationship with a female submissive that gets out of hand, the mention of an intergenerational and incestuous lesbian relationship, a vampire-ish man stalking around in a cape that drinks blood through a straw, and much more of the director's trademark let's-use-every-visual-option-at-our-disposal style. It's trippy and well worth watching.

Recommended!

Details

Official Sites:

Janus Films [United States] Rapid Eye Movies (REM) [Germany]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

30 July 1977 (Japan)

Also Known As:

House

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$12,032, 17 January 2010

Gross USA:

$209,765

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$209,765

Company Credits

Production Co:

PSC, Toho Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Sound Mix:

4-Track Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1