Showing posts with label Happiness of the Katakuris. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Happiness of the Katakuris. Show all posts

Friday, September 25, 2015

Fool's Views (6/1 – 6/30)




As we reached the halfway point of 2015, all the good things started coming in twos. Primarily in the form of Shout! Factory’s double dose of double features (already having graced fans with the “animals attack” quartet of The Food of the Gods, Empire of the Ants, Frogs, and Jaws of Satan, as well as the Carrie and Ghoulies two-fers). Not to be outdone, Arrow decided to lay the entire five-film Stray Cat Rock series on us, while a newly resuscitated Artsploitation served up Horsehead, House of 100 Eyes, and Der Samurai in one fell swoop.

In short, there was no rest for the wicked, and it was all we could do to keep up with things, considering we were then juggling Mockingbird performances and an ever-increasing class load in pursuit of my NASM personal training certification. Stamina was definitely the order of the day, with few opportunities to watch anything that wasn’t “assigned.”

The upside to this requisite reviewing is that I get to cut down on the apologizing for this particular installment (although we did finally make time to watch yet another double feature loaned to us back in November by Indy blood brother Craig J. Clark – the only two flicks that I didn’t review… because I didn’t have to).

As always, feel free to leave your two cents worth – we’ll make sure you get some change back.

Enjoy!


AC deals with laptop issues in his usual calm, discreet manner.


Sunday, July 5, 2015

THE HAPPINESS OF THE KATAKURIS (2001) Blu-ray Review



The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001) d. Takashi Miike (Japan)

Former shoe salesman Masao Katakuri (Kenji Sawada) purchases a bed & breakfast in a remote hiking area in the shadow of Mt. Fuji where a new road is planned to be built and moves his father (Tetsuro Tanba), wife Terue (Keiko Matsuzaka), son Masayuki (Shinji Takeda), daughter Shizue (Naomi Nishida), and granddaughter Yurie (Tamaki Miyazaki) to assist in the running of the vacation establishment. Guests rarely appear, and when they do, they tend to wind up expired in the morning. As they say, friends help you move, but real friends help you move bodies, and as the death toll rises, the dysfunctional family learns to put aside their petty differences and discover the true meaning of joy and unconditional love.