Summary:
A dark comedy concerning a family that opens an inn in a remote mountain region, only to have the arriving customers die in mysterious ways.
The ‘soup demon’.
My Thoughts:
The sing-along portion of the film.
Takashi Miike is a weird freaking director, but whenever he strikes gold with me, he strikes a payload. Miike is as diverse as he is unusual; his films include wuxia epics (“13 Assassins”), manga adaptations (“As The Gods Will”), bizarre thrillers (“Ichi the Killer”), disturbing horror flicks (“Audition”), and now, apparently, dark musical comedies. Honestly, this is one of the weirder films I’ve seen from Miike, but it’s also one of my favorite films from the acclaimed cult director. And yet, while I proclaim that this is one of my favorite films of one of my favorite Japanese cult directors, I don’t at all doubt this particular film will appeal to a wide range of audiences. I, personally, think this movie is freaking hysterical and brilliant, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the next critic finds this film to be unwatchable; Miike is just that kind of director: divisive, controversial, and polarizing.
Even from the first scene, which really has little to do with the rest of the overall film, this film establishes that it will be a bizarre ride. The movie starts with a woman eating soup in a restaurant, and in the soup she finds a weird sort of- erm- for lack of a better phrase- ‘soup demon’- an alien-esque creature. After the woman pulls the soup demon out of her meal, the film switches into Claymation. The creature reaches into the woman’s mouth and pulls out her uvula, then the creature flies away and is eaten by a snake, which is then eaten by a raven, which is then eaten by an- erm- possessed teddy bear with Freddy Kruger fingers, which then turns into an egg that is eat by a snake, which is picked up by a raven and given to its babies, only to turn back into an egg and hatch another soup demon. This weird sort of life cycle continues for some time, until finally, we cut to a resort in the mountains and never return to the soup demon thing. It’s a very bizarre way to start the film, but it also sort of works into the themes of the circle of life: there is no real right or wrong in this film, things just are.
We learn that the Katakuri family has moved to this unvisited region of Japan (an area by Mount Fuji that used to be a garbage dump), and, almost immediately, through a serious of quick flashbacks and hilarious exposition dumps we learn that the family members are all sort of on bad terms. It becomes incredibly apparent that the whole family followed the patriarch Masao (Kenji Sawada, “Mishima A Life in Four Chapters”) into the mountains so he could pursue a harebrained idea to open a bed and breakfast, where, he has been told by someone (we don’t know who), a new road will soon be built, which will no doubt transform the area into a new bustling metropolis. Masao’s wife Terue (Keiko Matsuzaka, “The Gate of Youth”) is supportive, but somewhat pessimistic about the endeavor, while their divorced daughter Shizue (Naomi Nishida, “Godzilla 2000”), who brings her child Yurie (Tamaki Miyazaki), and their former criminal son Masayuki (Shinji Takeda, “Pulse (2001)”), are openly pessimistic about the success of their father’s venture. Their Grandfather Jinpei (Tetsuro Tanba, “Three Outlaw Samurai”) also lives with them. Their first guest arrives, and immediately dies in a mysterious way. Determined not to let the death put a damper on their business, they decide not to report the death, but instead to bury the body and continue on as if nothing happened. It’s about here that they first break into song.
The first musical number happens when the Katakuri’s stumble upon the first body, and the song is just about their surprise at finding a dead body (probably nearing the 20 minute mark). The camera whip-zooms in on cartoonishly shocked faces, while the family dances over a dead body and wonder what to do; it’s absolutely hysterical. I had no idea this film was a musical before jumping in (I haven’t seen Miike do anything like this before), and the very first reveal that it is indeed a musical is one of the funniest reveals I’ve witnessed in a long time. From here, the songs become more frequent (and they quickly wade into more absurd waters). More people show up and more people die; another, absolutely ridiculous but more mysterious guest, Richado Sagawa (Kiyoshiro Imawano, “A Boy and His Samurai”), who claims to be an officer in the US Royal Navy, the nephew of Queen Elizabeth, and also a spy, attempts to seduce Shizue.
This film is just a smorgasbord of weird ideas and weird innovations (I kept thinking of the 2015 Polish mermaid musical “The Lure”). One of my favorite things this film does is mix Claymation and real-life scenes together to create the sequences that would’ve required special effects; for example, when a certain character falls off a cliff. The biggest trick this film pulls however, is being able to blend all of these unique elements together into something that is not only palatable, but, in my opinion, scrumptiously delicious. It’s a film that is insane, but it is in so many right ways that it somehow manages to say something about the importance of family, and the unbreakable bonds of blood. This is a story about a family learning to thrive under the most unusual circumstances; and unusual it is, but it’s also delightful.
Verdict:
The more I see of Takashi Miike the more I love him; while this film wouldn’t be the first Miike movie I’d recommend if you’re unfamiliar with him (start with “Audition”, “Ichi the Killer”, “13 Assassins” or “Blade of the Immortal”- those are all good, but relatively accessible), I honestly think it’s one of my favorites of the cult director’s diverse oeuvre. I imagine most people will view this film as a love it or hate it kind of flick; I personally loved it, but you’ll honestly have to see it to decide for yourself.
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