Masao Katakuri (Kenji Sawada) was a hard working, lowly shoe salesman until one day he was fired, and had to go home to his wife Peg and his two ungrateful kids who- wait, wrong shoe salesman. Masao, down on his luck but desperate to provide for his family, learns of a large house up in the mountains which is in close proximity to a proposed new road, which he is sure will bring many visitors to the beautiful area. He buys the house and uproots his family to this new location, so they can run the house as a guest house for tourists. He brings with him his faithful wife Terue, his father Jinpei (Tetsuro Tamba - Story of Ricky), his reluctant twenty-something son Masayuki, and his divorced daughter Shizue who in turn brings her adorable young daughter Yurie. This is not a happy family however and there are many tensions between them, Shizue was dumped by her husband while pregnant with Yurie and is getting increasingly desperate to bring a new man into her life and a new papa for her daughter. Masayuki is an angry young man who had trouble with the law in the past, and is the most resentful of being dragged up into the mountains away from civilisation and forced to work in what has proved so far to be a sadly unsuccessful venture. Masao is also extremely desperate, to make this a success after his being fired, he clearly does not want to let his family down. Just how determined he is to make the White Lover’s Guest House a success will be put to the test soon enough.

One night a harsh storm tears through the area, and while the weather outside is inhospitable, they nevertheless gain their first guest! The sodden man glumly takes a room, refusing food but asking for a beer to be brought to his room. Masayuki takes the beer shortly after but the man asks him a strange question, that if the world was ending the next day, what would he do that night? We don’t hear his answer, but later that night the sound of grinding can be heard coming from the man’s room as he seems to be doing something to the plastic tag attached to the room key. The next day the guest does not come down for breakfast and when he also misses checking-out time, they go to wake him. When they can’t get a response from him they open the door themselves, only to find that he has stabbed himself in the neck with the room key, seemingly committing suicide! They can’t find his wallet either, and no small amount of suspicion is put upon Masayuki, whose criminal past is only hinted at, but was also the last to see the man alive. Nevertheless, something must be done with the body and while Terue wants to call the police, Masao is terrified that news of someone committing suicide in their guest house would stop anybody else from coming, and he cannot let that happen. They resolve to dispose of the body by burying it out next to the near-by lake, and speak nothing more of the incident.

While the body is being discovered, Shizue has taken Yurie into town and is treating her to ice cream when she sees a dashing stranger in a naval uniform. She gains the man’s attention and he soon introduces himself as Richard Sagawa. He tells an absolutely ridiculous story of his past and what he does for a living – he is an officer in the US Navy, and of the Royal British Navy. He’s also a British secret agent, and we later ‘discover’ that his mother is the little known of half-sister of Queen Elizabeth. Poor Shizue is so taken with this stranger and so desperate for a man in her life however that she believes every single thing he tells her, and gives him the phone number and address of the guest house so he can come and visit. Meanwhile, with the unfortunate death behind them, the Katakuris welcome two more guests - a famous sumo wrestler and his teeny, tiny girlfriend. Excited that they have a celebrity guest staying with them, they put up with the incredible noise as the couple indulge in, er, sexual relations which end with an almighty crash. What they don’t discover until the next morning is that the crash occurred when the mighty sumo suffered a fatal heart attack, unfortunately it takes them a while to realise that the man’s poor girlfriend was also crushed and suffocated under his large frame. Even worse, the local police officer has just come to visit on his bicycle! A small man who isn’t big enough for his bike or his uniform, he brings a questionnaire for them to fill in and a wanted poster to put up, which we see has a picture of Shizue’s US British Naval Secret Agent member of the Royal Family on it! Barely avoiding disaster with two corpses upstairs and a policeman present, they family dispose of the bodies. Perhaps after these unfortunate occurrences, things will now go smoother for the Katakuris....

The idea of Takeshi Miike, the man behind such bizzare and violent cult favourites as Audition and Dead or Alive, adapting what was already a bizarre Korean black comedy seems difficult to comprehend. In fact, even after watching it, I don’t find the idea or motivation for doing it much easier to fathom. You see, while The Quiet Family was an extremely black comedy with some mild horror overtones, Happiness of the Katakuris goes to similar extremes, only in a far more surreal direction. Miike is in fact a great fan of the original and was taken aback by the style and strangeness of it, so much so that he really wanted to take a crack at the same story, only in his own inimitably bizarre style. Indeed, the film starts with the strange adventures of a small winged creature, all rendered in claymation, and on more than one occasion it slips back into that form to tell short parts of the story. There is still much humour and many laughs are to be found thanks to a clever script, though again it is somewhat less black and is often of a more surreal nature. However the most surprising addition to the proceedings comes in the form of a series of musical numbers! Nothing can prepare you for various members of the cast breaking out into song and simple dance steps, and this is where the film veers totally away from the Korean original into a strange world of its own and comes from about as far from left field as is humanly possible.

Those who have seen the likes of the disturbing and surreal Audition will be thoroughly bewildered if they expect Katakuris to bare any resemblance to Miike’s previous work, as what seems to be a desire to make each of his films different and unique has taken him to a place few could have expected. This film is bright and a hell of a lot of fun, helped enormously by the enthusiastic performances by the cast both in their acting and during the numerous musical moments. While The Quiet Family was a very darkly comic film, this concentrates far less on the deaths of those visitors to the guest house and more on the various characters, particularly the relationships between the various family members. Miike wanted to explore the idea of a family that lives together, but that togetherness only exists on a physical level, and there are many issues under the surface dividing them, and that aspect of the film is well-realised. Miike also impresses by making this a group of very engaging characters, the loving father who desperately wants to provide for his family, the loving wife who is utterly devoted to her husband and family, the wily grandfather who watches his family from a bemused patriarchal position, the frustrated son who is conflicted between being angry with his father while still loving his family, and the lonely daughter who feels like her life is empty without a partner and father for Yuri. Each family member is treated warmly by the script and direction, and each go through changes as the film goes on, whether is finding redemption for oneself or realising the importance of family, each of them are lead to a greater peace which gives the film a sense of touching and good-natured intention towards them.

The musical performances serve to make the Katakuris more endearing also, performed in the style of enthusiastic amateurs rather than highly trained dancers as they cavort about the place, this is not Gene Kelly suddenly tap dancing effortlessly wherever he happens to be. However the songs are also used to further the story, break moments of tension, and give us a deeper look at how one or more characters are feeling about a situation. One fine example of this is when Shizue first encounters Richard Sagawa, suddenly all the local people quickly assemble as backing dancers, Richard flies into the air, and Shizue pictures him whisking her away from a wedding before she can marry someone else, and performs the rest of the number in a wedding dress – the bold images use are a true highlight and give the film a peculiar surreal edge. The musical numbers are expertly handled in both choreography and the style in while they are shot, no two numbers really look the same as Miike uses many different backdrops in while to stage the scenes. Even if the performers aren’t highly skilled, the direction and production is very crisp and certainly brings a highly polished look to the proceedings, another aspect of the film that is particularly surprising considering Miike’s extremely gritty prior filmography.

Those thinking that his is Miike selling out to the mainstream, however, would still have a difficult time arguing such a case, as this still contains large doses of Miike’s special brand of weirdness. This can be seen almost immediately as the film jumps into the aforementioned claymation introduction which segues into our introduction to our central characters. The claymation comes into play a on other occasions during the course of the films and goes a long way to cement the uniqueness of this film. There are also moments of surreal humour, including a hilarious scene when the family is watching TV, switching between a channel featuring a famous old actress (obviously a man in drag singing dreadfully) and a news feature where the reporter’s work becomes more difficult when a fly crawls up his nose and he vainly attempts to carry on. While still a trifle odd, the film really has a sense that it was as much fun to make as it is to watch, taking joy in both entertaining and confusing the viewer. The surreal nature of the film does confuse things just a teeny bit towards the end of the film it has to be said, but the conclusion is satisfying enough to negate the seriousness of any lapses in the narrative.

Be prepared, this is an extremely oddball, surreal and at times confusing movie which is not going to appeal to everybody. Some will have trouble with what seems to be a uniquely Japanese style of surreal humour, but perseverance will pay off as though this is based on another film, it is a highly entertaining and unique film in its own right which has enough innovation, humour, excellent performances, and high production values to really stand out as a great achievement in world cinema. Takeshi Miike does not seem to be a director to rest on his laurels and his continued innovation and attempts to vary his output as much as possible has paid of magnificently well here. Not truly representative of his full body of work, but undoubtedly a highlight and I can highly recommend this wonderful look into the Katakuris’ world