CriterionCast

Cinema Gadfly – Episode 24 – The Happiness of the Katakuris

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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 Rankin\Bass 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!

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Arik Devens

I'm attempting to watch my way through the collection, writing about it on my site, Cinema Gadfly. Additionally, I host the Cinema Gadfly podcast, which is essentially an excuse to get my friends to watch awesome films.