The Happiness of the Katakuris (with Marta Djordjevic)

[00:00:00] Welcome to Movie Oubliette, the film review podcast for movies that most people have mercifully forgotten.

[00:00:10] I'm Dan and I'm Conrad and in each episode we drag a forsaken film out of the Oubliette,

[00:00:17] discuss it and judge it to decide whether it should be set free

[00:00:22] or whether it should be thrown back and consigned to oblivion forever.

[00:00:30] Movie Oubliette, we review the films others tend to forget. Come with us and open up the Movie Oubliette.

[00:00:40] Konnichiwa and welcome to episode 150 of Movie Oubliette, the multi-continental podcast for

[00:00:50] forgotten fantastical films with me, Conrad, going to the Millennium Dome in Cambridge UK.

[00:00:56] And me, Dan, surrounded by list boxes but in a new location down here in Melbourne, Australia.

[00:01:03] We focus on forgotten fantasy sci-fi and horror films because we love

[00:01:08] zombie dance numbers, suicide by Keyfob and claymation soup demons.

[00:01:15] Hello Dan.

[00:01:17] Conrad, you don't like dance numbers do you?

[00:01:21] Well, Michael Jackson's thriller was quite big in the 80s.

[00:01:25] I enjoyed that and that's what it reminded me of. More on that later.

[00:01:31] So what have you been up to, Conrad?

[00:01:33] So today I'm going to the Millennium Dome with my brother or as it's known now the O2.

[00:01:40] Okay.

[00:01:40] Big venue, entertainment venue in the centre of London.

[00:01:45] And it was originally built this massive dome for the turn of the Millennium.

[00:01:51] It was going to be this big exhibition space but it was a huge flop and very few people

[00:01:57] went to it so then they turned it into a massive arena and now it's a very popular venue.

[00:02:04] Right.

[00:02:04] For concerts and such. But I've never been there before so I'm looking forward to going.

[00:02:08] What are you going to see again? Sorry, I zoned out of it.

[00:02:12] That's fine. I'm going to see the band Keen.

[00:02:17] Oh, I love Keen. Well, I love their first two albums back in the early 2000s, late 2010s.

[00:02:25] Yeah, I'm going to make you feel old here. They're celebrating the 20th anniversary of

[00:02:29] their first album, Hopes and Fears. So that's what they're playing.

[00:02:34] Okay. Yeah, I used to love them.

[00:02:37] Tom Chaplin. I'm looking forward to seeing them. I think it'll be fun.

[00:02:40] Wow, that's cool. So yes, listeners, if you don't know, I have moved. I live in a

[00:02:45] new location now. We bought a house. I'm still unpacking in the studio

[00:02:50] and you might hear that I'm using a different microphone but yeah, it's a bit of a mess in

[00:02:55] here and it might sound a bit more echoey as well because I haven't put all the sound

[00:03:00] treatment up yet so yeah, it's a work of progress.

[00:03:04] Yeah. Well, it's fewer boxes than the last time I saw you.

[00:03:08] Yes, yes, yes. So the main part of this episode we recorded last week because we had

[00:03:14] a guest on so now we're recording all the other bits. Piece it all together.

[00:03:22] Bit of behind the scenes fun for the 150th episode.

[00:03:25] Yes, yes, that is quite a milestone isn't it Conrad?

[00:03:29] Yeah, I know. I'm impressed with this. So we didn't do anything special because 150,

[00:03:35] I don't know, doesn't feel like as big a milestone as 100.

[00:03:39] Yeah, yeah. Once you've gone past 100 it's just every century that we celebrate.

[00:03:47] Yeah, we'll do something at 200 if we get there. That'll be great.

[00:03:51] Yes, yes, yes. So Conrad, anything in the mailbag today for our 150th episode?

[00:03:58] We do so. We heard from Wicked Person on Time Rider who said,

[00:04:03] watched the film and quite enjoyed any part where he was riding his bike to the faux

[00:04:07] Joe Satriani music. The other parts were pretty boring though.

[00:04:12] Yeah, I kind of found the bike riding parts kind of boring too.

[00:04:20] Yeah, I did. I'd never heard of Joe Satriani Satriani and I'm probably pronouncing it

[00:04:25] totally wrong. He's pretty renowned. Very, very notable guitarist.

[00:04:30] Apparently, bestselling instrumental rock guitarist of all time.

[00:04:35] Yeah, yeah, he's up there.

[00:04:37] Chazilla said, I've never really liked that dire rear sound dirt bikes make.

[00:04:45] That's strike one right there. The openings credits and first 15 minutes were almost

[00:04:50] impossible to get through. If you can get through that, it might be worth a late night

[00:04:55] watch. Yeah, yeah, I mean there is a lot of

[00:04:58] padding in the movie. It really could have been condensed down.

[00:05:01] Yeah, 90 minutes. Yeah. Hugo Rioja said, I just heard the podcast.

[00:05:07] Haven't seen the movie but my god, travelling in time without knowing.

[00:05:11] I wish I was in the creative meeting of the movie to say, what's the point then?

[00:05:15] Yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah, what is the point? He hadn't,

[00:05:19] he didn't even know he was getting saved at the end.

[00:05:22] No. It's ridiculous. Of course, we heard from Serge of Cold Crash Pictures.

[00:05:30] Hello, Serge. Hey, Serge.

[00:05:32] And he said, time riders bat shit premises only matched by its meandering pace.

[00:05:37] A rider gets transported to the Old West without his knowledge, so he sort of just

[00:05:41] rides around the desert for three quarters of this film until a last minute rescue that ends

[00:05:46] the conflict just as suddenly as it began. There are some interesting set pieces but usually,

[00:05:52] when a hero is this clueless, it's played for laughs whereas here, he's sort of just there,

[00:05:58] marking time until someone saves him from a problem he doesn't know he has.

[00:06:05] Yep. His great-great-grandmother also

[00:06:09] fucks him at gunpoint within minutes of meeting him so there's that too.

[00:06:14] Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's a lot of points that we covered.

[00:06:18] Yeah, it's a good summary. And finally, Film aficionado said,

[00:06:25] I'm glad that time travel doesn't exist if only because A Treatise on the Ethics of Nookie

[00:06:31] Across Space-Time Continuum by Lyle Swan is a book best left unwritten.

[00:06:37] Oh yes, yes, yes, yes. Very, very true. Yes. Thank you everyone

[00:06:42] for getting in touch. We always love hearing from you.

[00:06:45] Yeah, we do. So Dan, what are we doing this time?

[00:06:49] Well, let's find out. Oh, I'm in some sort of Japanese living room.

[00:06:58] Smells nice. Yeah, something's bubbling on the table, a stew of some sort. Oh, and there's a

[00:07:04] dead body over there in the corner. Oh.

[00:07:06] Alright, here's a movie just on the table. I'll come back.

[00:07:10] Oh, what's in my soup?

[00:07:13] Alright, I'm back. Welcome back Dan. What do we have for our 150th episode?

[00:07:18] Yes, so today we are going to be covering a horror comedy musical from 2001,

[00:07:25] The Happiness of the Katakuris, a Japanese film.

[00:07:30] Hmm. It's directed by Takashi Mike,

[00:07:35] written by Kikumi Yamagishi and it stars Kenji Sawada, Kiko Matsuzaka, Shinji Takeda,

[00:07:46] Naomi Nashida, Kiyoshiro Imawano and Tetsuro Tanba. Yeah, that was a mouthful.

[00:07:56] I'm sorry if I butchered those names. I've never heard of any of those people.

[00:08:02] Yeah, I think I've heard of a few, but yeah, anyway.

[00:08:06] So what happens in this movie? Yes, well, it's the Katakuri family

[00:08:11] are down on their luck, guest house owners suffering from divorce, job loss and for one,

[00:08:17] even jail time. One day a guest arrives and everything changes. Unfortunately, instead of

[00:08:24] a bustling business, they are gifted with a dead body. And as more guests arrive,

[00:08:32] more dead bodies pile up. But how long can they keep up their corpse cover-ups to maintain their

[00:08:40] accommodation and reputation? And will they ever stop singing? Oh yes, it's a horror

[00:08:47] musical with delusional lovesick daydreams, choreographed dancing, corpses getting their

[00:08:54] boogie on and big budget claymation special effects set pieces. You won't guess what each

[00:09:01] scene brings because every scene feels like a different movie. Let's talk about the happiness

[00:09:08] of the Katakuris. Oh, a musical. I can't wait.

[00:09:12] Yeah, yes, yes, yes, yes. And as I mentioned before, we will be joined by a guest.

[00:09:18] Well, let's see who they are after the break.

[00:09:31] All right, we are back today. We are thrilled to have with us a film journalist and online

[00:09:37] content creator, currently a member of the Cascadia Film and Television Critics Association

[00:09:42] and an endless wealth of knowledge for obscure film from any decade. Not to mention,

[00:09:48] she has her own podcast, McFly's Movie House. We have with us Mada Georgievich, aka Mada McFly.

[00:09:58] Hello. Welcome.

[00:10:00] Hello. What a lovely, lovely intro. Thank you so much. That was so kind of you. I'm

[00:10:06] so happy to be here. I'm so honored to be here. Thanks for having me on.

[00:10:09] Yeah. I mean, I've discovered you on TikTok and you talk about movies

[00:10:13] I've never heard of, like never, ever heard of from every decade of cinema, which is incredible.

[00:10:21] So maybe tell our listeners where you're from and a little bit about what you talk about

[00:10:28] in terms of movies. For sure. Yeah. So I'm based

[00:10:30] in Vancouver, Canada. And as you said, I'm a film journalist. I'm currently over at Slash

[00:10:37] Film, but I've taken a bit of a pause with my writing just to work on the podcast,

[00:10:41] of course, because that eats up a lot of time. But yeah, no, I've been interested in movie

[00:10:46] discovery since I was a kid. I think what got me into it was watching Pulp Fiction for the first

[00:10:53] time and my parents coming into the room and they're like, well, did you know this was

[00:10:56] inspired by this, this and this? And it blew my mind, right? I was 14. What do I know?

[00:11:02] And then I just started digging into movies. It's so interesting to me to learn the

[00:11:07] building blocks of cinema because it influences so much that we watch today.

[00:11:11] Yeah, yeah, it really does. Like I'm always so surprised at the range of movies you cover

[00:11:17] on your platforms. Just so many foreign films, a lot of art house, like movies I've never heard

[00:11:22] of. I mean, I see it as film preservation, right? It's oral film preservation. So

[00:11:28] especially nowadays with all these streaming services that will get rid of some of their

[00:11:32] library each month, people forget about these movies, right? And it's such a shame. And I

[00:11:38] think discussion just keeps it alive. Yeah, yeah, for sure. So I mean, today we are going

[00:11:43] to be covering a movie that it's been on my watch list for years and years because I am

[00:11:49] quite a big Takeshi Mikkei fan. I've watched a bunch of his movies and they're all so

[00:11:55] different. But today it's going to be the happiness of the categories. So let's start off

[00:12:02] with how did you come across this movie and what's your sort of history with this movie and

[00:12:06] Takeshi Mikkei as well? Oh my gosh. I mean, that's a great question. I couldn't tell you.

[00:12:12] I think, trying to think, I mean, Takeshi Mikkei, he's like you said, his entire

[00:12:18] filmography is so different. Everything is so different. And if you look at his

[00:12:22] filmography as well, it's over 100 movies. I think he's done 115 between the early 90s

[00:12:28] to today. Yeah, his output is insane. How do you do that much? I know. So I think what

[00:12:37] happened with me was I watched obviously Audition and Ichi the Killer. And then it was just one of

[00:12:42] those where I looked at his filmography on Letterboxd and I saw this cover that looked

[00:12:47] like the sound of music. And that's what hooked me. And I'm like, I need to watch this. I need

[00:12:52] to know what this is. And I guess that's it. Yeah. How about you Conrad? Had you seen this

[00:12:57] movie before? No, I'd never seen it before. And yeah, I'm sort of entry level Mikkei. So

[00:13:04] I've seen Audition and Ichi the Killer and that's it. So I haven't seen any of his

[00:13:11] incredibly prolific output. And let's just say I wouldn't have been drawn to the musical

[00:13:17] first. Yeah. Yeah. Conrad is famously not a fan of musicals. I'm picky too. I'm very

[00:13:25] selective. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this movie is a horror musical comedy, I guess. Yeah,

[00:13:31] I've seen quite a few Mikkei movies, like mainly his kind of crime thrillers or like

[00:13:38] the Mafia Yakuza movies. So yeah, Ichi the Killer is kind of, it falls into that category

[00:13:44] kind of and Dead or Alive, his Dead or Alive trilogy, especially the first one,

[00:13:49] the second and third one are just like go off the rails. It's just, it's almost

[00:13:53] like they're not sequels as well. It's just really weird. And then Fudo, the new generation

[00:13:59] is just an incredible revenge movie. And then I've also seen The Great Yo-Kai War,

[00:14:06] which is almost like a fantasy family kids movie, which is, yeah, his range is insane.

[00:14:15] So yeah, this movie, Happiness of the Kodakoris, it's a musical,

[00:14:19] but it's also every other genre at the same time. Absolutely. What's interesting as well is this

[00:14:25] was done by Shochiko Studios, which I don't know if you guys know too much about, do you?

[00:14:30] No, I don't. So Shochiko Studios, that's one of the oldest studios in Japan. Not the oldest,

[00:14:36] I think it's been around since 1920, but they're really famous for their familial dramas

[00:14:41] and comedies. And notably Yasujiro Ozu worked with them his entire life. Oh wow. So to me,

[00:14:48] it's just so interesting for Shochiko Studios who has, you know, Yasujiro Ozu, Mikio Naruse,

[00:14:55] all these other prolific filmmakers for decades later for them to do this.

[00:15:01] It's just what's going on. Yeah, that's amazing.

[00:15:05] And I mean the movie that came to mind when I first watched this was the 1977 movie,

[00:15:10] Housou, which yeah, again, just like really bash it crazy. Just you don't know what to

[00:15:16] expect with every scene. It seems like this movie specifically, in particular, is a changes

[00:15:25] movie every scene. I mean even every musical number, it's like a different style of music.

[00:15:32] Sometimes it's like a cabaret samba and sometimes it feels like a karaoke. You're

[00:15:37] watching karaoke and it's just like quite unpredictable. And then you've got claymation

[00:15:45] at the same time. It's just thrown in there. Like what was his sort of approach to this?

[00:15:51] Yeah, it's crazy to think about. I mean, and at the same time, I find that those musical

[00:15:56] segments were also very catchy. Like as I was getting ready for this episode right now,

[00:16:00] I was humming in the bathroom. One of the segments, I think the last one. So they're

[00:16:05] great. And yeah, the karaoke segment, that's also fantastic. It's a literal karaoke segment.

[00:16:10] Yeah, it's got the words and the lights that light up the words as well.

[00:16:15] It's bonkers. I did find kind of the, it's almost like absurdist cinema. It's really

[00:16:22] pushing you as an audience member, like because it goes quite dark, but then it's

[00:16:29] incredibly funny at the same time. How did you find it, Conrad?

[00:16:34] Utterly baffling. But I think the key to it for me, I think was certainly you need two watches.

[00:16:42] The first time I watched it, I was just being assaulted. I had no idea what was happening.

[00:16:47] And it was only through the second watch that I could start to piece together. First of all,

[00:16:51] the visual language of what it was trying to do and also some of the themes that are running

[00:16:55] throughout the film. But I think the key to unlocking it for me was suddenly realizing that

[00:17:00] it's being narrated by the little girl, Yuri. As an adult, so she is reflecting back on her

[00:17:07] childhood, I think, because it's an adult's voice you can hear on the soundtrack, but it is actually

[00:17:14] from the perspective of a child. So if you imagine this as this is the way that Yuri

[00:17:20] remembers her childhood with this weird funky family that she loves because she says that she

[00:17:26] knows she's going to grow up to be cool because her family's cool. So she thinks these guys are

[00:17:31] all great. So all of the animation and the song and dance numbers and the different styles from

[00:17:37] one scene to the next, and also the aesthetic of the film, because the thing that struck me

[00:17:42] about it is it kind of looks like first wave YouTuber aesthetics. It definitely looks

[00:17:49] like video, not film. And it's got all of these compositing shots that are like, they

[00:17:54] almost look like they're just deliberately bad because this is 2001. And it just has this sort

[00:18:00] of deliberately shonky aesthetic that it's just leaning into because it doesn't care. So I even

[00:18:07] think he's incorporating different visual media that were popular at the time.

[00:18:12] Absolutely. It is digital, right? It's digital video that it's been shot on.

[00:18:17] It's almost like he's, yeah, like you said, Conrad, deliberately making it look

[00:18:22] terrible as well. Like it looks really flat and ugly and like almost not calibrated at all.

[00:18:28] The lighting on most of the scenes is quite bad, but intentional. So you can't sort of fault

[00:18:36] that. Like it's not like birdemic where that's just terrible filmmaking, whereas this is like

[00:18:42] deliberate. And so like, yeah, all of those kind of the green screen flying scenes are like

[00:18:49] awful looking, but that's the point. That's kind of what he was going for. And the fact that it is

[00:18:57] definitely a comedy. Absolutely. It's interesting that this came out the same year as Ichi the

[00:19:02] Killer, which if you think about it even visually what Ichi the Killer looks like,

[00:19:07] if you set aside all the gore and the blood and the carnage, the way that Ichi the Killer

[00:19:11] is shot could not be more different to this. So it's not even a matter of budget restraints

[00:19:17] or anything like that. As you guys were saying, I think it is 1000% deliberate.

[00:19:21] Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's another film that he did, Visitor Q, which has a similar look to

[00:19:29] it. It has a very similar digital kind of flatness. I haven't watched it, but I've seen

[00:19:34] clips of it and yeah. So I do think maybe, maybe it is a budget thing. Maybe he just wanted

[00:19:40] to do this like quirky, wacky musical horror. And he was just like, well, I could be cheap on

[00:19:47] digital. You know, it's like a silly movie. No one's going to watch it anyway. I mean,

[00:19:53] he outputs like two, three movies a year. It's insane. I don't know how he has any time at all.

[00:19:59] Yeah. Well in this year he did six. So 2001 he did Family, Family 2, Visitor Q, Ichi the

[00:20:05] Killer, Agitator and The Happiness of Catechurri's, which he just finished before Christmas.

[00:20:12] Casually. I heard, I read that he, it was like a production member spoke to a journalist and

[00:20:18] they said that they shot the movie itself in two weeks. Wow. Yeah. Which is bananas.

[00:20:25] That gives you some appreciation as to why it's so clumsy sometimes because some of it is

[00:20:30] pretty clunky. There are bits where like the character Richard Sagawa takes flight, he's on,

[00:20:37] he's on wires obviously. And because the setting is basically a toxic dump, I think it's a rubbish

[00:20:44] dump. A piece of rubbish that's being blown by the fans to create a sort of swirling atmospheric

[00:20:50] effect. A bit of it gets stuck on his wires. They don't go for a second take. They just

[00:20:54] leave it in. It's fine. You know, scenes like the scene where the family's arguing about what

[00:21:00] to do with the body of the sumo wrestler that's died in their guest house. It's so badly shot.

[00:21:06] Yes. Half the time, the camera is not even on the person who's speaking and it's clearly

[00:21:11] shot in a very confined space. Some of it is just so shonky, but then hearing that it was

[00:21:17] done in two weeks, you just think, well, they just went for it. And considering the

[00:21:22] complexity of what they came up with, it's quite admirable. I mean, it's a musical,

[00:21:28] so they're having to do like, you know, singing as well. I mean, obviously recorded. Yeah. And

[00:21:34] choreographed dancing. I mean, yeah. Again, some of it is not exactly tight.

[00:21:39] No. Well, some of them had experience in music or musicals. I know the wife,

[00:21:47] Terue, I think is her name. But she, that actress was trained in classical dance.

[00:21:52] So she knew what she was doing. And then the dad played by Kenji Sawada, he was a Japanese pop

[00:21:59] star for decades. So that's his background. So I feel like those two could dance. The rest of them,

[00:22:06] I don't know. Well, I was most impressed with the son. Shinji Takeda? Yeah. He's,

[00:22:12] I think, a by trader saxophonist. So he is a musician. I thought his dance moves were great.

[00:22:19] Yeah. He's also great. He was in Pulse. I don't know if you guys have seen Pulse.

[00:22:25] Yeah, Pulse is devastating. Yeah. Yeah. It's great.

[00:22:34] I do feel like every time they wanted a, you know, what would normally be a high budget

[00:22:39] scene, they just switched the claymation. And then suddenly everyone's claymation for no reason.

[00:22:47] But then obviously comedy as well, because every so often the live action faces will pop up on

[00:22:55] the claymation. I guess because they didn't have time to do like lip sync claymation.

[00:23:02] Oh, he's got time for that. Yeah. A lot of these kind of action scenes are just suddenly

[00:23:09] claymation. The volcanic eruption at the end. I mean like what?

[00:23:13] What? The house getting thrown down the hill. It's insane. But I did want to ask what was

[00:23:20] the significance of that sort of little demon creature thing? What was the point of that?

[00:23:25] I have no idea. I've thought about this for so long this morning and I have no idea.

[00:23:32] Yeah. I've heard those of you that want a mental picture of like what we're talking

[00:23:36] about. We've got a character at the start just eating soup and then she puts a fork into

[00:23:42] some sort of weird winged claymation creature who then rips her tonsils out and then she dies.

[00:23:54] And then it flies away and gets eaten by a crow and then the crow gets eaten by a

[00:24:01] like a Wolverine teddy bear. Yes. It's just like what is going on?

[00:24:06] And then the great grandfather of the Katakuri's knocks the crow out of the sky after it's been

[00:24:12] reborn again. Yeah. And then begins all of their misfortune and then at the end of the movie he

[00:24:18] knocks another crow out of the sky and then everything goes fine for them after that. So

[00:24:24] supposedly on the commentary, the director Taka Hashimike says that you only need to watch

[00:24:31] the opening claymation sequence to understand the whole movie. Right, okay. He talks about

[00:24:38] birth and death and rebirth and the circle of life and the food chain.

[00:24:42] And I think that relates to the film in a couple of ways. One is that the family is

[00:24:47] in this situation there. The father lost his job. They've moved out to this guesthouse which

[00:24:51] they're hoping sort of Bates Motel like the road will come by and their business will

[00:24:56] flourish. Yeah. And he's lost his job because of the, there was this massive economic stagnation

[00:25:02] in Japan from the early 90s until the 2000s. In fact I think it's still going on.

[00:25:08] And the father believes that with this guesthouse they'll achieve economic success and they'll be

[00:25:13] happy. But what he actually learns during the course of the film, what they all learn,

[00:25:18] is that through bonding together over having to dispose of the bodies of all of the guests

[00:25:24] that keep dying in the guesthouse, not because of them. There was no Bates mother involved.

[00:25:30] They discover that the happiness of the Katakuri's was just them being together

[00:25:35] and being a family. And there's this whole sort of death, rebirth, the deaths in the house,

[00:25:41] the house being blown up and moved down a hill because of a volcano exploding

[00:25:47] and a death of a significant character right at the end of the movie when you've just had your

[00:25:51] we're all happy number and then they kill the end of the movie with you. By the way this person

[00:25:57] just died. Roll credits, hurrah. So just this sense that life, death and rebirth and just

[00:26:05] being happy being together is kind of the theme of the movie I think. And the other thing that

[00:26:11] makes it a bit meta is that the film itself I think is a remake of a South Korean movie

[00:26:17] called The Quiet Family directed by none other than Kim Ji-Woon, the guy who did The Tale of

[00:26:23] Two Sisters. I would love to watch the original. I haven't seen the South Korean one so I'm curious

[00:26:29] how different they are. I mean I know they are different but how different. Yeah.

[00:26:34] Miki did ask the director of the original what he thought of his remake. He didn't say.

[00:26:39] Okay. I think that was probably the wisest move. Yeah. That movie is nothing like this.

[00:26:48] That's a really serious sort of dark comedy drama and Takeshi Miki reimagines it into

[00:26:54] this musical fever dream with claymation sequences and it's just rebirth, reimagining

[00:27:02] Yeah. A circle of life I guess. Yeah. It's the best I could do in terms of rationalizing it.

[00:27:09] I tried very hard. I think you did a good job. It's such an endearing movie weirdly enough.

[00:27:16] That's what I find so bizarre about this is it's heartfelt. Yeah. I think it's because

[00:27:21] the characters, because they're so sort of down on their luck and it's also like

[00:27:26] four generations of a family. You've got your great grandfather, the grandparents who are not

[00:27:32] old whatsoever. They look like they're in their thirties and then you've got the daughter

[00:27:38] who doesn't look that much younger than they are and she's been divorced and then she's

[00:27:43] also got a daughter so it's all this yeah all these generations of this family and their

[00:27:49] misfortune in life. So you do really connect with them and how they're trying so hard to sort

[00:27:56] of do better but they keep kind of making these mistakes but actually their bodies is not anything

[00:28:03] to do with them. It's just like a coincidence I guess. Yeah it makes me wonder because there

[00:28:08] are some, I mean that first scene with the first guest, I don't want to spoil anything,

[00:28:13] but you have all that fog that comes up in the room. It almost starts feeling like an

[00:28:16] 80s horror movie for a little bit, to me at least. Yeah it does yeah. Yeah and then you

[00:28:22] start wondering at that point you're like oh is there something supernatural going on?

[00:28:27] Is it just bad luck? What is it exactly? I mean a lot of people do mention this movie

[00:28:32] as being the most disturbing movie that you could ever watch because it is so disturbing

[00:28:38] because you have these horrific scenes with like horror elements like we'll just go into

[00:28:43] spoilers but the bigger guy that ends up dying and they're trying to figure out where the school

[00:28:48] girl that he's with which is, oh yeah, Stable is, is and they can't find her but then they realize

[00:28:56] she's been crushed under the sky and it's a horrifying scene. It's almost like the ring

[00:29:01] level horror but then they sort of deal with these traumatic scenes with musical numbers in

[00:29:08] completely polar opposite tone and that's so disturbing for me. Yeah I noticed that,

[00:29:15] I think I wrote that in my notes as well, that for the majority of the musical segments,

[00:29:19] not all of them, but for the majority of them they seem to happen in the most

[00:29:23] macabre moments of the film. Yeah I mean when they find the first body it goes into like

[00:29:29] rocky horror picture show sort of like theatrics. That is the most bizarre montage,

[00:29:37] it's just like one after the other coming into the room and screaming their heads off

[00:29:42] in this really stylized, bizarrely lit shot where they're holding a tableau pose,

[00:29:48] each of them as they come in. It's so odd, so odd and then the flip side to that is that

[00:29:54] you have other musical numbers that come out of nowhere like the karaoke scene where the

[00:30:00] husband and wife just like bring the movie to a complete stand still so that they can profess

[00:30:05] their love for each other through the art of 80s karaoke and then at the end of that they stop

[00:30:12] and then they're sat sort of wistfully together and then one says we've got to dig the bodies

[00:30:17] back up and rebury them haven't we? Yes. Where the hell did that come from? Yeah so it goes

[00:30:24] from wistful to macabre again. Just also in the musical numbers they all seem to be inspired

[00:30:30] by something else. Like you also have the sound of music at the end, you have you know with the

[00:30:35] zombies dancing that kind of reminded me of thriller. Like it seems like he pulls from

[00:30:40] so many different things that have come before the movie. Yeah I also noticed that this movie

[00:30:46] came in 2001 and another movie that I feel treats like a sort of misfortune or dramatic

[00:30:53] events with musical numbers is Dancer in the Dark which came out in 2000 which is very serious

[00:31:01] but the musical parts are kind of they're not quirk and whimsical well a little bit because

[00:31:07] it's Björk but um they've kind of heard dealing with her life which is just going

[00:31:14] downhill with these kind of happy songs and it does have a similar sort of approach. Yeah it

[00:31:20] does and and Mikke on the commentary track does reference it but he's being very snarky

[00:31:26] so I think he has a fairly low opinion of Lars Von Trier's musical. Oh right. I think

[00:31:34] this movie might be directly taking the piss out of him in a few places. Wow interesting.

[00:31:41] I wouldn't be surprised he's such a character. Yeah he's a bit of a provocateur

[00:31:46] and certainly his commentary is just like two hours of sass. You can't take anything seriously

[00:31:54] at all. Wow. All of it you have to take with a massive pinch of salt because I don't think

[00:31:59] there's a sincere word spoken in the whole thing. Oh wow okay.

[00:32:10] This is maybe a hot take but I did find this movie's approach to filmmaking kind of similar

[00:32:17] to Wes Anderson. I mean Wes Anderson is more pitch and he has a very specific colour palette

[00:32:24] as well but he is going for that sort of analogue style or like obvious sets things

[00:32:30] that are obviously not realistic and similar in this movie it kind of goes for that really

[00:32:36] ugly digital look on purpose as if he's trying to make it look like a bad tv movie.

[00:32:44] Yeah it's a choice. Yeah it's not on the same level as Wes Anderson in terms of aesthetics

[00:32:51] but yeah I mean I recently saw Asteroid City and I just feel like Wes needs to just reel it in

[00:32:58] just a little bit. It's a little bit too Wes Anderson for my liking. Same here yeah.

[00:33:04] I found that the claymation scenes in this reminded me of Tim Burton a bit kind of as

[00:33:09] well. Yeah sure sure. A little the beginning especially. Yeah.

[00:33:13] Yeah. Wes took a detour into stop motion animation for a while shortly after this as well.

[00:33:18] I think Fantastic Mr Fox was 2009 wasn't it? Yeah I found um the claymation did remind me of

[00:33:26] there's a movie the Adventures of Tom Sawyer or something I can't remember what it's called

[00:33:31] but it's like a it's like a nightmare hellscape version of Tom Sawyer. I wonder who did it.

[00:33:37] So it's Will Vinton uh who did that who also did the stop motion animation for Return to Oz

[00:33:44] and his studio eventually turned into Leica. Oh right okay yeah interesting. Interesting.

[00:33:51] From what I uh found out was the claymation segments were inspired by a Czech artist or

[00:33:57] claymation maker Jan Svankmajer so it was supposed to be a direct nod to him. Right.

[00:34:04] But that's all I know in terms of inspiration yeah. Yeah this is Alice in Wonderland I think

[00:34:08] in particular that's quite famous. I think it's on YouTube if you want to check it out.

[00:34:12] It's really disturbing again. The animator was Hideki Kimura. There's apparently six minutes

[00:34:20] of claymation in the movie in total and working flat out they were managing to get

[00:34:26] 15 seconds a day. Whoa that's a lot. Yeah and yet it looks janky as hell.

[00:34:33] But kind of on purpose right? Oh yeah I feel like it was yeah. That's what I was wondering too I

[00:34:38] mean my understanding of claymation is very limited I don't know what's good and what isn't

[00:34:43] so I I don't know I mean to me it looked yeah on purpose janky on purpose.

[00:34:49] Yeah I think it was the whole movie was. Yeah I found the sort of absurdist approach

[00:34:53] as well similar to movies like John Dies at the End directed by Don Cascarelli or like

[00:35:00] the Daniels movies you know Swiss Army Man and everything everywhere all at once.

[00:35:04] And also like the Yorgos Lathimos movies like The Lobster really challenging movies

[00:35:12] and all very intentional as well. Yeah. It's almost like he's trying to push the boundaries

[00:35:19] and in terms of the premise as well with these kind of they're not murders though they're just

[00:35:25] deaths I guess. Accidents. What are some other movies that delve into this kind of comedic

[00:35:31] horror genre because I thought of like movies like Fargo and like Shallow Grave I guess.

[00:35:37] I don't know I feel like it's its own beast. Yeah yeah I know there's a I think

[00:35:42] there's a Scandinavian horror movie with a killer mermaid and that's also a musical.

[00:35:48] Oh The Lure. Wow. Yeah it's Polish. Maybe influenced by this movie.

[00:35:53] I haven't seen it. I need to watch that whatever it is. There have been some recently

[00:35:57] haven't they like Anna and the Apocalypse was a zombie musical set at Christmas.

[00:36:03] Oh really? Yeah and Edgar Wright's always had a very musical sensibility so Sean and the Dead

[00:36:09] is almost breaks into a music video occasionally but he hasn't quite got the conviction to do it.

[00:36:15] They have that one scene in Sean of the Dead though right with the um in the bar to Queen.

[00:36:21] That's right yeah. Yeah kind of yeah and I can't figure out how to turn off the music.

[00:36:28] Don't stop me now. Yeah I mean talking about music uh I did find the music in this movie

[00:36:34] incredibly confusing because it just kept changing the tone not even the musical numbers

[00:36:40] not even the singing parts but just the music in general it goes into like soft guitar rock

[00:36:46] and there's atmospheric synths and then you've got like I think what sounds like an Irish jig.

[00:36:53] Yeah. Why? I don't I'd be curious to find out the bands and the solo career

[00:37:00] that Kenji Sawada had. I'd be curious to know what sort of music that was. Yeah sure. To see if any

[00:37:06] of it is similar to any of these segments that we watch in the movie. I'm unsure. I know he

[00:37:13] was a part of a band that's really well known in Japan apparently called Tiger. Okay sure. So

[00:37:19] maybe that's a good reference point I have no idea. Apparently I did look this up apparently

[00:37:23] they came out of the 60s and 70s group sounds movement which was sparked by a live performance

[00:37:32] in Japan by the Beatles so it was very much a combination of Japanese music and rock. Interesting.

[00:37:41] Basically on the commentary track they said that Kenji is sort of the Japanese Paul McCartney.

[00:37:47] Oh okay of course. Just imagine Paul McCartney doing this. I love that. He's a fascinating man

[00:37:55] as well I mean he was in Paul Schrader's Mishima. He was in Mishima, he was in a bunch of movies

[00:38:03] by Seijan Suzuki who's one of my favorite Japanese filmmakers. He's really well known

[00:38:07] he's a really prolific artist in general. Yeah I think by all accounts the whole lineup

[00:38:13] in this movie are incredibly famous in Japan. The grandpa too. Yeah he was in Herakiri which is

[00:38:20] one of the most you know iconic samurai movies in Japan too so you're right yeah they come from

[00:38:27] huge backgrounds. Yeah so if you can imagine that like having you know Meryl Streep and Paul

[00:38:33] McCartney and you know all coming together in this one 1.5 million dollar movie that looks

[00:38:39] like a karaoke on cheap video with special effects by a YouTuber. It's utterly bizarre,

[00:38:47] unthinkable in Western culture. Yeah I mean I think culturally that's what draws me to a lot

[00:38:53] of like Japanese cinema is it doesn't kind of follow any template. Like there's often the

[00:38:59] act structures are completely different. I also find the characters always deeply flawed as well

[00:39:06] which is interesting it's more complex they're not just squeaky clean sort of American characters

[00:39:12] and so yeah there's room for development and character arcs as well and also with this movie

[00:39:19] just not sticking to any genre whatsoever. But it also does it well like I feel like

[00:39:26] it does all these different genres so well because at the end of it especially last night

[00:39:30] during my re-watch I realized well you know what the fact that it was done by Shochiku

[00:39:34] Studios who did these familial dramas and comedies in the end this is a familial comedy.

[00:39:41] So in some weird twisted way the studio is still sticking to what they were doing decades ago

[00:39:48] but just modernized it and made it this I don't know what to say. Yeah I'm just imagining

[00:39:55] Yatsuhiro Ozu rolling in his grave. This couldn't be any more different from Ozu.

[00:40:04] Yeah so we'll talk about I mean the characters but we haven't really talked about one character

[00:40:08] in particular Richard who was a is he a US Marine but then he says he's actually a British

[00:40:19] spy and his mother was a sister to Queen Elizabeth yes but like a secret sister that

[00:40:27] no one knows anything about. The English as well that he throws in every so often.

[00:40:33] Yeah yeah so apparently even if you're looking at it and thinking that this is an incredibly

[00:40:39] mannered and stiff performance apparently it's actually a very good performance of somebody who

[00:40:46] is speaking Japanese like an English person awkwardly and badly and the guy who's playing

[00:40:53] that character by all accounts is the Mick Jagger in Japan the king of hard rock or was. He's no

[00:41:02] longer with us sadly he died of cancer in his 50s and here he is in an officer and a

[00:41:07] gentleman Richard Gere uniform singing to synthesized pop Sambas for some reason.

[00:41:15] Unbelievable yeah but apparently his character which was you'll be surprised to hear not in

[00:41:20] The Quiet Family the film on which this is based. Oh really no it wasn't in there oddly

[00:41:26] enough but this is based on a true story according to the commentary Mieke says that

[00:41:32] Japanese women are particularly susceptible to con artists claiming to be members of the British

[00:41:38] royal family. Oh wow yeah this was a thing apparently in the early aughts this was

[00:41:44] a common catfishing trend but his lie gets so much more outrageous because first he's a part

[00:41:52] of the US Navy and then you bring in the royal family like it just gets so progressively

[00:41:58] more bananas yeah and this woman just believes all of it. Yeah because she keeps falling in

[00:42:04] love with every guy that walks by yeah because she thinks her route to happiness will be

[00:42:09] romance but her arc in the movie is learning that that's not true

[00:42:14] it's her family and her child that will bring her happiness yeah yeah exactly.

[00:42:18] Now it's time for Random Trivia. So Dan it's just us and it's trivia time what fascinating

[00:42:29] piece of trivia did you find dead in your guest house today? Well did you know that the

[00:42:36] director Takashi Mieke cameos in the Eli Roth movie Hostel it's in the scene where he's

[00:42:45] warning the character Paxton in English be careful you could spend all your money here

[00:42:51] and his character name in the credits is Mieke Takashi which is silly but yeah oh that's cool

[00:43:02] tiny tiny cameo yes and that's our trivia yes

[00:43:12] I've got a question for some of the other characters that keep popping up so there's

[00:43:16] these kind of four older ladies that just keep appearing so they appear at the start

[00:43:21] in the background and then they also appear almost as guests but then they run away yeah and

[00:43:28] then I think one of them appears in that that Samba number as well I just don't understand

[00:43:33] what was the purpose of them? I didn't pick it up that it's the same group are you talking

[00:43:38] about the first group of women that are hiking? Yeah yeah they're all in like sort of 80s

[00:43:44] aerobics clothing or something yeah like chode back suits maybe I didn't were they in the same

[00:43:50] clothing later on that could be why I didn't recognize them I think they were oh I didn't

[00:43:55] think they were okay no because Mieke does point out that one of the women is wearing

[00:44:00] a wet white t-shirt okay and you can see her nipples and he did that on purpose I didn't

[00:44:07] and then later on she's in another outfit and he says her nipples aren't visible anymore I'd

[00:44:14] had enough of them okay wow I had no idea it could all be lies it might have been an accident

[00:44:21] he's a prankster and a provocateur who knows I couldn't take anything he said in the commentary

[00:44:26] seriously but there you go yeah apparently they represent these sort of mystic spiritualists

[00:44:32] and they come to the guest house immediately notice that there's some bad omen hanging around

[00:44:38] and then run okay speaking of um I guess bringing in that sort of supernatural element

[00:44:44] to it I'm torn with this movie so I'd be curious to know what you guys think but

[00:44:48] is it supernatural or is it all a result of toxic waste because there is that one dance

[00:44:54] segment where we see all those like the spillages of all that toxic waste which leads

[00:45:00] me to wonder yeah is it is it supernatural because the first death that occurs makes

[00:45:06] everything feel with the fog and everything yeah and then it feels like he abandons

[00:45:11] the supernatural aspects of it and then it goes to toxic waste natural disasters etc etc

[00:45:17] uh yeah actually I'm come to think about I'm not sure I'm not sure because there is that

[00:45:22] scene where it shows the the pond and it's just filled with like these empty chemical

[00:45:29] containers and like dead animals yeah uh which Richard just you know throws water in his face

[00:45:35] and gets like extreme stomach problems oh yeah because I'm more convinced that maybe it is

[00:45:43] toxic waste because I'm pretty sure Mikke has said one of his inspirations is David Cronenberg

[00:45:48] okay then that makes me think that's a bit Cronenberg-esque yeah if he was to go that

[00:45:55] route it could be that theme of um yeah natural versus man-made pollution because at the end the

[00:46:01] volcano you know takes them to happiness the natural disaster makes everything better and

[00:46:08] suddenly they're in the strangest backdrop I've ever seen for a movie there's snow-capped

[00:46:14] mountains and elephants and zebras and giraffes I've like I'm just not even gonna question it

[00:46:21] it's fine that's for the sort of Hills are alive with the sound of music yeah yeah with African

[00:46:27] animals in the background why no idea I'd be curious to know what I would pick up during

[00:46:34] another rewatch because when those African animals appeared this time around that was like the

[00:46:40] first time I saw them I don't even remember them from my first viewing experience yeah

[00:46:44] wow I feel like you throw so much at you I mean there's a lot to take in yeah exactly

[00:46:49] it is an assault on the senses and because it's not obeying any as you say any kind of genre rules

[00:46:55] or any visual language that you're accustomed to you have to really work at it to follow

[00:47:01] what's happening even yeah at least I did I mean even some of the um editing choices

[00:47:07] okay but at one point it's like glitchy on purpose like it keeps like almost jump cutting

[00:47:13] and there's like dialogue at the same time so you're trying to follow this dialogue

[00:47:17] but it keeps kind of jump cutting it feels like is the movie skipping what's happening right now

[00:47:23] yeah formally it is a very strange movie I thought the movie was going in different

[00:47:28] directions but then it would just yeah like you said Maro just abandoned that direction

[00:47:34] so the first death felt like oh it's gonna be one of those cursed house movies where it's

[00:47:40] like um the grudge where like you know everyone that comes to this house dies but it

[00:47:45] ends up not really being like that and more just accidental deaths and then you know it's almost

[00:47:49] like you've got all these criminals coming to the house and they die so the big guy that

[00:47:55] is obviously having sex with someone that's not supposed to be of age um and then at the end

[00:48:01] the guy that has killed his wife and also Richard is on the wanted poster at one point

[00:48:08] that they don't even refer back to so I thought oh is this what the movie's going for

[00:48:12] but I don't even think that's it I don't know I mean you could argue but this just came to me

[00:48:18] right now so I could very well be wrong but you could argue that all the people that show up

[00:48:22] at their lodge maybe they tasted that water or that sewage or whatever it is right yeah okay

[00:48:30] right maybe so that on the way because they all just show up out of nowhere that's the only

[00:48:36] thing that I can think of and maybe that toxic waste is what's driving people crazy perhaps

[00:48:42] and then there's the final family who are being rained on and they look like something straight

[00:48:48] out of a horror movie yeah the kids coughing the other girls playing this sort of desultory

[00:48:54] flute yeah like something out of a horror movie they look like they're ghosts already

[00:48:59] but they're just a poor family that are down on their luck and they stay in the smallest

[00:49:03] room together and then they leave and they're happy and everything's fine yeah they don't die

[00:49:08] the spell is broken that was a great gag with the cord that ends up just being to tie the kids

[00:49:14] pants together yeah that's right I love that the mum asking for rope and they all think that she's

[00:49:20] going to hang herself with it yeah but I love that the the son and the great grandfather are

[00:49:26] out digging a massive hole just ready to bury this whole family so and then they're fine

[00:49:33] who was the person that fell in that hole I think it was the guy who killed his wife was

[00:49:37] yeah yeah yeah I looked away for a second and then what what just happened a guy fell in the hole

[00:49:45] and like they sort of start just shoveling soil on him as if he's already dead but he's not

[00:49:50] but then they bring him back to the guest house and clean him up and he wakes up and

[00:49:54] like right right I mean it's very confusing like he's barely in the shot as well when he

[00:49:59] falls in the hole so I thought the bush moved or something I didn't really know what

[00:50:04] knew what happened I thought it was a crew member

[00:50:09] yeah maybe it was and they just put it in the movie or put it possibly yeah why not

[00:50:16] I was watching an interview with Takashi Miki where he says that none of his movies have

[00:50:21] a positive worldview he's very negative and that's because he thinks that this is just

[00:50:26] how the world is so he always tries to have that in all of his movies wow

[00:50:29] and that's the reason why he made one of the central characters die in the end he just threw

[00:50:35] that in there last minute because he was like this is too happy something bad needs to happen

[00:50:42] and that was his solution okay right yeah yeah I mean it's true like I don't think any of

[00:50:48] his movies have happy endings or just the endings are completely absurd as well but the

[00:50:54] ending of Dead or Alive is you think this whole movie it's just like a kind of a Yakuza

[00:51:00] like gang war movie but then it turns to like Dragon Ball Z

[00:51:05] at the end and they're throwing like fireballs at it it's like what

[00:51:10] he just has fun truly yeah he does and at the end of this one the note he ends it on is

[00:51:16] humankind will eventually lose the battle for natural selection we're all doomed the end

[00:51:23] yeah I had to rewind that because I was in shock at that statement at the end I

[00:51:28] couldn't believe what I was reading yeah I had to watch it twice

[00:51:33] coming to you live from the movie Oublie at theater it's the prestigious Mublie Awards

[00:51:42] okay it's everyone's special time of the pod the Mublie Awards it's just me and Conrad

[00:51:48] for this one it's a segment where we nominate our favorite singing dancing

[00:51:53] dying parts of the film and a number of confusingly whimsical yet disturbing categories

[00:52:01] best quote my favorite quote and it's one that I was disappointed to see is in IMDB as well

[00:52:08] because I always like to pick one that isn't but it's the line that comes from the narrator

[00:52:13] Yuri and she's introducing all of her family members and she says great grandpa lives an

[00:52:19] easy life telling lies and being selfish lovely he's loving the dream he is yeah I just love

[00:52:30] that but in amongst all these sort of happy intros there's that which seems like really

[00:52:36] damning but she says it with such love and affection yeah yeah it's like he's earned it

[00:52:41] yeah yeah exactly yeah my favorite quote is from Richard the US Marine when he's talking to

[00:52:52] Shizui the daughter the divorced daughter after she points out that he's got a bleeding nose

[00:52:59] and he replies my nose isn't bleeding because I'm horny the blood is rushing to enhance my

[00:53:05] critical faculties and as I have much more blood than a Japanese it surges uncontrollably

[00:53:13] beyond all reason like wow what a chauva

[00:53:21] why a woman not falling for him well everybody seemingly does I mean I think he's a serial con

[00:53:28] isn't he that's why he gets the wanted yeah yeah yeah well works every time then

[00:53:37] my favorite costumes in the film were the suns shirts mazayuki yes I was gonna mention that

[00:53:45] yeah I don't know what the hell is going on with that one of them has yes I'm here one one

[00:53:52] backwards which doesn't make any sense at all and then later on he has one that says

[00:54:00] there is a risk of losing your way in life which

[00:54:06] I thought might be a play on those white shirts with black bold letters on that

[00:54:11] Wham used to wear in their videos in the 80s like choose life and all that kind of thing

[00:54:16] maybe it was instead of just choose life and all these sort of simple positive messages yeah

[00:54:23] mikay has there is a risk of losing your way in life and I think it's quite important that

[00:54:27] it's the sun wearing it because he did lose his way in life he became a criminal for a while so

[00:54:32] yeah most naughty moment I mean I would say the most naughty thing about this movie is

[00:54:39] like the rise of digital film I mean digital movies uh it was shot digitally so apparently

[00:54:47] it goes back as far as 1996 with the movie windhorse um but dancer in the dark which

[00:54:54] we mentioned in 2000 was was shot on digital camera and star wars episode 2 attack of the

[00:55:01] clones is often cited as the the first digitally shot blockbuster which came out in 2002

[00:55:11] coincidentally we're recording this on star wars day um yes may the fourth be with you

[00:55:18] and I do remember um collateral um coming out and and all the you know critics and

[00:55:24] posters were saying oh it's a digital digital film I mean digital movie um and that came out

[00:55:30] in 2004 so yeah obviously takashi mikay's is is really sort of leaning into the shittiness

[00:55:38] of early digital media he is yeah and I think again it's a piss take isn't it

[00:55:45] I think deliberately making it look awful yeah yeah he really is

[00:55:51] noughties for you what's the most noughties thing uh for me it was the spate of post

[00:55:56] modern shit musicals oh yes so we've mentioned Lars von Trier's dancer in the dark which is

[00:56:06] as I said jokingly referred to in the commentary as an inspiration if only for parody

[00:56:12] apparently Kenneth Branagh did a musical adaptation of Shakespeare's love's labor lost

[00:56:17] which has got Alicia Silverstone and Matthew Lillard in it anyway it was a massive flop and

[00:56:24] it resulted in him losing his three picture deal with Miramax oh wow Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge

[00:56:30] in 2001 yeah I loved that Hedwig and the Angry Inch Chicago producers rent so lots of stage

[00:56:38] musicals being adapted favorite scene I did not have a favorite scene in this movie but

[00:56:46] I did have a favorite shot yes which I mentioned that I love the son the category

[00:56:52] his dance moves and there was a scene towards the end where all of the men of the categories are

[00:56:58] all sort of vying to be the person who's going to sacrifice themselves to the police

[00:57:04] that's right on behalf of the family and there's this great shot where the son sort

[00:57:08] of like he's got a loose shirt on and I think he puts his arms out behind him leaves

[00:57:14] blowing past him yeah and it looks like a manga shot or a Michael Jackson video or something

[00:57:20] I thought that's a great shot yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah they did it yeah employ use of wind

[00:57:26] machines and fans a lot of this movie they did yeah it's a great effect so I enjoyed that

[00:57:31] I thought that was a great shot yeah yeah my favorite scene is a scene that is just probably

[00:57:38] just the both batch it crazy this fight scene between the grandpa and Richard they're both

[00:57:45] sort of tumbling down this hill in claymation because it's in the claymation

[00:57:50] they're like falling off the cliff and they're grasping at these like tree roots

[00:57:55] and then she's who he ends up making the choice to save her grandpa and kicks a rock

[00:58:01] onto Richard and he plummets to into the ravine below that is just like a crazy scene

[00:58:08] most cliche moment I spotted a fun horror cliche in this that we've mentioned several

[00:58:14] times on this podcast it is where somebody wakes up after a shock and then they have another

[00:58:21] shock and they wake up again yeah yeah the double jump scare from a nightmare sequence

[00:58:29] it's it's such a cliche the double scare because you first of all you've got the

[00:58:34] first jump scare and then you think you're safe and then you have the second jump scare so

[00:58:38] oh it's it's so overused it is yeah so it's the dad who sees the first guest after he's died

[00:58:47] outside the window with like the the curtains blowing in the wind yeah that's quite a creepy

[00:58:53] shot actually and then after he wakes up and goes downstairs to get some water or something

[00:58:58] he finds him dead in the fridge yes that's right yeah yeah yeah best special effect my

[00:59:05] favorite special effect in the movie was the fake sumo wrestler body oh yeah they hoist out of the

[00:59:12] window yeah because I didn't even realize that it was fake until I heard it on the commentary

[00:59:20] and uh yeah takashi mike says they just physically could not hoist this guy up and

[00:59:26] wow yeah hang him naked outside the window yeah just couldn't do it so they made a big

[00:59:32] silicon version of him and dropped him out of the window drop that out wow yeah yeah yeah

[00:59:39] yeah I didn't realize it's very lifelike yeah I didn't realize it was fake either

[00:59:43] yeah it's great it's totally fake um uh special effect for me I did like the zombie

[00:59:50] dancing scene with kind of like bloated zombie corpses doing that dance um because it was yeah

[01:00:00] they were they were very convincing um decomposing bodies um and singing they were singing right at

[01:00:10] some point yeah yeah yeah I think they were yeah favorite sound defect uh my favorite sound in

[01:00:19] the movie is Richard cigar was stomach noises after he drinks I was gonna say that too yeah

[01:00:26] like what are those noises they're the most disgusting squelchy

[01:00:33] oozy oh like what what do they do to make that noise I don't know but it's very believable

[01:00:40] though as a stomach noise oh yeah it is like a really loud one the one thing I couldn't figure

[01:00:46] out is I can understand maybe it's a cultural thing but you know I recognize as a visual

[01:00:52] language doubling over holding your stomach when you have like stomach pain yeah but not

[01:00:59] thrusting your hand up your backside yeah I didn't understand that it's almost like he was

[01:01:05] trying to hold it in it's like why don't you just go to the toilet you're in a guest house

[01:01:12] they are facilities most funniest moment uh funniest moment for me was uh Richard's first

[01:01:20] musical number the uh the cabaret samba uh because it's it's pretty impressive because you've he's

[01:01:27] in full sort of navy attire or marine attire I should say and he's accompanied by like

[01:01:34] 50 backup dancers it seems like the whole staff of the entire hotel

[01:01:41] just dancing with him but it also starts in a really weird way because he throws a

[01:01:47] paper plane at shizui and she opens it up and it's just this crude drawing of her with the

[01:01:54] words in English I love you but then he says I love you then it just starts a strange musical

[01:02:02] number um and it ends in a funny way as well because you realize it's just all this weird

[01:02:08] fantasy daydream that she has and she's just writhing around on the floor like what

[01:02:14] yeah with all the staff just sort of around her looking concerned yeah yeah yeah it's uh hilarious

[01:02:23] my favorite funny moment in it or the bit that really made me laugh out loud was where

[01:02:29] after the scene with the manga shot that I talked about with the son

[01:02:34] he does actually battle with the murderer and he sustains a wound oh yes that's right

[01:02:41] I think he dives in front of his father takes a knife to the gut and uh the whole family gathers

[01:02:49] around him and they all sing this song with him about how sad they are that he's dying and

[01:02:54] what have you then they pull up his shirt and it's just like a scratch yeah and he's fine

[01:03:02] I know but he actually dies like he thinks he's died so he's like still in dead

[01:03:09] and then they go oh it's just a scratch and they just rub it with their fingers

[01:03:12] and he he just wakes up so oh oh it's just a scratch like I'm not dead yeah he just sits

[01:03:20] there looking a bit embarrassed yeah and I love it I love how the actor plays that part yeah

[01:03:27] I think he's hilarious throughout yes yes he is yeah all right and that's our moment

[01:03:33] in the movie.

[01:03:37] Hi I'm Chris McKay I'm the director of Renfield and you're listening to movie Oublié.

[01:03:44] Okay it's time for our final verdicts should the happiness of the categories be

[01:03:49] resurrected from it being six feet under to sing and dance and be praised or should it

[01:03:53] be hit by grandpa's flung log of wood and plunged back down into the darkness of the

[01:04:01] Oublié it lost forever so Marta you have brought to us the happiness of the categories

[01:04:07] this is probably the most bizarre film I've ever seen should people watch this I mean well first

[01:04:13] of all I think that was a job well done you asked for something weird so there you go

[01:04:19] I think it should be I think it's it's just a testament to creativity as we were saying it

[01:04:26] was made in no time practically and what he was able to accomplish is so cool it's um I

[01:04:32] consider this a cult film I think it carries so many characteristics of what makes a cult film

[01:04:38] and I think it's a great example of one so yeah if people want something truly bizarre

[01:04:43] look no further.

[01:04:47] How about you Conrad?

[01:04:49] Well yes famously I am not a fan of musicals I have to say if you you combine that with this

[01:04:56] sort of completely random approach to story and characterization songs visual aesthetic and

[01:05:06] and yeah just make it this bizarre and difficult to follow it's it's not it's

[01:05:11] not going to help it win me over unfortunately on second viewing I did appreciate it more

[01:05:18] because I could actually I wasn't just sitting in complete stunned horror

[01:05:24] holding my notepad I wrote nothing during the first viewing I just literally looked just

[01:05:31] terrified at what was happening in front of me so I can appreciate it and I think if you

[01:05:36] do want something really bizarre and if what we've described to you sounds like you'd be

[01:05:40] you know just with a few friends with a few drinks and just just having a time of your life

[01:05:45] you will enjoy it but if you're not fond of something that's really challenging

[01:05:50] and not challenging in the way that Mika usually is you know pushing sexual boundaries

[01:05:54] and taboos for example but just out and out just insane this will probably leave you

[01:06:01] cold I have to say it left me cold but I do I appreciate it I respect it but it didn't do

[01:06:08] anything for me personally right right well uh this movie is yes uh I wouldn't recommend it

[01:06:17] to everyone uh like I don't think my mother would appreciate this movie at all um but it

[01:06:24] is right up my alley in terms of bizarre like I I used to watch a lot of movies like this

[01:06:30] just like trying to find movies that really challenged me and I had a lot of fun with this

[01:06:37] like I don't think I've laughed so hard in a movie before like every time a musical number

[01:06:46] started it was just like hilarious to me like just the the tonal shift from horrifying

[01:06:54] to whimsical is just it's just hysterically funny for me I just I can't I can't describe

[01:07:02] it um and yeah I I love his his kind of approach to like not giving a shit

[01:07:08] and making it look ugly on purpose like I think that's brilliant so I would I would recommend it

[01:07:15] to people that like challenging movies and I mean I'm so glad I got to finally watch this

[01:07:23] movie as well because it's been on my watch list for many many years and it definitely

[01:07:28] lives up to the hype of being utterly insane

[01:07:35] well we better find out what our patrons think hello Hal yes Conrad I can't believe

[01:07:40] you've done 150 episodes of this yes thanks Hal uh patrons vote please

[01:07:49] you'll never guess they want to set it free oh interesting I wasn't expecting that this is a

[01:07:55] very uh I would say polarizing movie yeah no I'm surprised too and the uh the comments are mixed

[01:08:03] but yeah on the whole they thought that it should be set free uh Eddie Coulter says let go full

[01:08:10] footloose out of the obliate this is the kind of remake I like where they took the original

[01:08:16] concept and put their own spin on it one of Mieke's best films in my opinion wow wow

[01:08:21] Jasmine said I'm not sure what I just witnessed or how I feel about it some of the musical

[01:08:27] numbers work great a few of them are awkward and seem inappropriate acclaimations unique but

[01:08:33] totally off-putting especially when live heads are superimposed on it the entire ending is

[01:08:38] just baffling and how the plot is seemingly resolved but it never ceased to be entertaining

[01:08:45] so I think I would tentatively release it from the you it's kind of a I don't know I wasn't

[01:08:52] bored yeah yeah and Shazila says I responded to one of the patron polls saying maybe try

[01:09:00] something out of genre and Dan and Conrad didn't disappoint with this fever dream

[01:09:05] I love the claymation sequences even if some of it was nightmare fuel this was the

[01:09:10] theater of the bizarre right from the opening sequence a live action anime musical zombie

[01:09:15] family comedy somebody had some opium in their saki there's a trip for sure it is yeah not

[01:09:25] even the movie Oubliat could contain this madness so let it out so there you go on the

[01:09:33] whole people just couldn't make any sense of it but had a good time that's great good

[01:09:38] to hear all right let's see the frame yeah so thank you Marta for bringing it to us because

[01:09:46] we would never have naturally come to this movie I don't think I mean I think I would have but

[01:09:52] yeah I'm not sure that Conrad would have no it's my pleasure it's my absolute pleasure

[01:09:59] I'm happy I got to watch it again I rented it on Apple now I'm wondering why I don't own it

[01:10:03] I'm probably going to try and find the aero release of it if I can but yeah thank you

[01:10:09] for having me on this was this was a blast yeah well I mean it's been an absolute pleasure

[01:10:14] having you on and giving your insight into this movie and Japanese cinema

[01:10:19] where can our listeners find you and follow you and look forward to your content oh thank

[01:10:24] you thank you um they can find me at marta.mcfly that's on Instagram TikTok I believe X as well

[01:10:32] or it's a variation of that um I write very long letterbox reviews that's just

[01:10:37] marta mcfly no period um and then my podcast McFly's movie house that's on you know the

[01:10:43] usual suspects YouTube Spotify Apple etc etc so that's me what more movies have you got

[01:10:51] um coming up on your podcast oh um I'm trying to think what did we do this week we covered

[01:10:57] The Swimmer by Frank Perry which I highly recommend it's one of my favorite watches

[01:11:02] of last year next week we have an episode a three movie chat on Jacques Demy's romance trilogy

[01:11:10] which are also musicals one of the few musicals that I like what else do we have coming on we

[01:11:15] have an episode on Nick Cage and just highlighting my favorite performances of Nick Cage and yeah you

[01:11:22] never know what's going to be on the podcast it's sometimes high brow sometimes low brow so

[01:11:26] oh okay what are some of your favorite Nick Cage performances oh uh Face Off of course um

[01:11:36] Con Air, Vampire's Kiss which I saw you guys did an episode on I really like that one

[01:11:43] he's just fantastic I love Nick Cage I think he's truly a man that loves movies and you can

[01:11:48] tell yeah yeah we enjoy it when we get the full Nick Cage we've done a couple of his

[01:11:54] films uh Season of the Witch which he really didn't get full cage and then Vampire's Kiss

[01:12:00] which was just chef's kiss in terms of full yeah Nick Cage insanity I call it cage rage so

[01:12:12] beautiful that's great yeah I think he's in a sort of like a research renaissance period

[01:12:19] as well now like I find like all those movies now are just like wow yeah I loved Mandy,

[01:12:26] Mandy was incredible in my opinion um a dream scenario which he did somewhat recently I

[01:12:32] enjoyed that as well yeah yes yeah I haven't seen June scenario yet but yeah Renfield

[01:12:37] just like phenomenal Dracula amazing and listeners if you want to follow us Movie

[01:12:44] Oubliot you can find us on all platforms as Movie Oubliot and also you can email us at

[01:12:51] movie.oubliot.gmail.com yes and if you'd like to support the show head on over to Patreon

[01:12:57] where for as little as a dollar you can nominate films for us to cover in future episodes

[01:13:02] and gain access to extended portions of the show and for five dollars you can vote on the

[01:13:07] final verdict and get access to our exclusive monthly minisodes and for ten dollars you can

[01:13:13] be an executive producer like Chazilla, Eddie Coulter, Isaac Sutton, Dr Doggy,

[01:13:19] Serge, Iconographer and Ryan A Potter. Many thanks for your support we have merchandise

[01:13:26] on Redbubble we've got a YouTube channel as well and if you haven't already give us a

[01:13:32] rating a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or whatever you listen to us on it does help

[01:13:38] the word of the Oubliot.

[01:13:41] Does indeed yes.

[01:13:43] So what's up next Conrad another musical what's in the next episode?

[01:13:49] No no we're going to be doing werewolves for the first time in a very long time

[01:13:55] but this time it'll be in my native land we'll be covering the 2002 British action

[01:14:01] horror film Dog Soldiers.

[01:14:05] Oh yes yes yes I've been meaning to watch this movie for so long and I keep hearing things

[01:14:12] about it um so yeah also I haven't seen enough werewolf movies so I'm very excited to cover

[01:14:19] this.

[01:14:20] Yeah this is a unique one to start with so it should be a fun time directed by

[01:14:25] Neil Marshall and written by Neil Marshall and starring Sean Pertwee, Liam Cunningham,

[01:14:30] Kevin McKidd and Emma Cleesby.

[01:14:33] Oh looking forward to it thanks again Marta for joining us on this episode and uh maybe

[01:14:38] we'll get you on again in our future episode this has also been our 150th episode so

[01:14:45] a big milestone okay listeners until next time goodbye thanks for having me on bye.

[01:15:01] No not the movie yet.

[01:15:04] Great grandpa lives an easy life telling lies and being selfish.