24. The Happiness of the Katakuris

My guest for this month is Christa Mrgan, and she’s joined me to discuss the film she chose for me, the 2001 surreal horror-comedy film The Happiness of the Katakuris. You can follow the show on Twitter @cinemagadfly.

Show notes:

Takashi Miike has made an astonishing 90 films in his career, but none quite like this one
Thematically it would be hard to have two films as different as this one and our last episode on Ozu’s An Autumn Afternoon
Arcadia, California was home to at least one video store, in 2004
It really is quite hilarious that both An Autumn Afternoon and this were released by Shochiku, how the world changes
Shochiku were, of course, also the sometime home to films by Nagisa Oshima, and Mikio Naruse
As well as the phenomenally goofy films of their horror period, so brilliantly captures by Criterion in the When Horror Came to Shochiku Eclipse set
Those films were inspired by the likes of Godzilla, and Jigoku
House, by Nobuhiko Obayashi, is a much watch film if you even kind of enjoy this one
The RankinBass production of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer has undoubtedly caused its share of nightmares
The Big Lebowski is one of my all-time favorite films. I can quote it endlessly
I’d really like to see The Quiet Family someday, just to see how far this adaptation strayed
Sadly you won’t find this film on Netflix
As of this writing, you can still watch the film on Fandor though
The film is also coming to iTunes, as of the end of August, 2016
It was also released on Blu-ray by Arrow in a Region A and B edition
If you can find a copy of Nowhere you’re in for a treat, there has never been a Region 1 DVD
If you’re ever in Portland you should absolutely check out Movie Madness, it’s an incredible store
And, yes, they have the knife from Psycho
I love Letterboxd
Civil Comments is amazing. You should all check it out!

Buy the film from Amazon
Buy or rent the film from iTunes