Title: House A.k.a. Hausu
Director: Nobuhiko Obayashi
Released: 1977
Starring: Kimiko Ikegami, Miki Jinbo, Kumiko Oba, Ai
Matubara, Mieko Sato, Eriko Tanaka, Masayo Miyako, Yoko Minamida
Plot: A young girl nicknamed Gorgeous (Ikegami) travels to
visit her aunt with her friends Prof (Matsubara), Melody (Tanaka), Kung Fu
(Jinbo), Mac (Sato), Sweet (Miyako) and Fantasy (Oba). However upon arriving at
the house they soon find themselves experiencing a series of increasingly
strange supernatural events as things might not be as they seem.
Review: Occasionally I will come across a film were it seems
the director is openly challenging critics to try and find a way to critic
their film, as they bombard the viewer with so much randomness it leaves you
wondering where the hell you are going to start when it comes to reviewing the
film. It’s a situation I encountered with both “If…” and “Boardinghouse” and
here this film also seemed to throw down the gauntlet as it reached ever new
heights of sheer randomness.
Reportedly the studio bosses at Toho were looking for
Obayashi to make a film like “Jaws” which seemingly was an idea which got lost
somewhere in the production process as this is not even close to what they were
probably expecting Obayashi to produce for them. Still after two years of being
refused by every director at on the Toho books, who unsurprisingly felt it
would end their careers if they took it on, it was eventually passed back to
Obayashi to direct, who not being a staff member at Toho had previously had his
request to direct the film turned down.
Starting off like a carefree high school drama, it really is
hard to imagine were the film will eventually end up as director Obayahi wheels
out a whole host of visual tricks he’d picked up from his time directing
commercials and which here only grow in intensity as the film continues, while
at the same time ensuring that the film maintains a surreal quality throughout.
Unlike so many other surreal films though there is atleast a line of coherent
plotting which runs through the film while Obayashi surrounds it with
randomness so that your still never quite sure what you’re watching yet never
to the point that it becomes confused.
The friends all nicknamed after their various personality
quirks, so hence Prof is the bookish smart one, Melody is a talented musician
and Kung Fu unsurprisingly likes to karate kick inanimate objects. There really
is nothing hidden by this group who despite their wide skill range and sheer
number of them they are surprisingly a believably close group and one whose
personality’s remain individual even as the film becomes increasingly more
frantic, while at the same time Obayahi continues to find ever more ingenious
ways to utilise their skills into the storyline no matter how random they might
seem.
The first half of the film charts the girls journey to the
titular house, while Gorgeous fills in the background on her aunt, shown in the
style of home movie footage, which for some explained reason the girls can all
see and cast comments over what is happening on the screen, even though at this
point they are riding on a train and hence nowhere near a movie projector or
any other way that they could actually be viewing this footage. It is really in
this first half that the film largely plays things for laughs, even with the
strange flashes of greens which come from the eyes of Snowy the cat.
Once we get into the second half the film though the film
makes for a polar shift in tone, as it changes from care free comedy into a
surreal horror as the house starts to come to life in a style highly
reminiscent of “Evil Dead 2” that you would be easily mistaken that it was a
key influence for Sam Rami, which considering the film only got a release
stateside in 2009 makes it highly unlikely at best and instead more of a
strange coincidence. It is within this second half that the crazy factor goes
way off the scale, as any number inanimate objects suddenly take on a life of
their own, reinforcing the comparisons to “Evil Dead 2” with many of these
ideas coming from Obayahi’s daughter before he creatively found a way to
utilise them within the film. Hence we are treated to such fun surprises as a
carnivorous piano and futons through to more simple yet still highly effective
ones like a possessed mirror. Due to the surreal style which Obayahi shoots the
film with none of these moments are especially scary even with occasional
fountain of blood or sporadic moment of gore. At the same time this perhaps
makes them only all the more fascinating to watch, especially as it makes you
question if he was truly aiming to scare the audience or instead just take them
on a visual journey.
Because of the surreal shooting style this isn’t a film that
will suit all tastes, especially as it frequent lack of coherency or bizarre
imagery will most likely frustrate the more casual movie viewer, especially
when Obayahi feels no need to spoon feed his audience the answers and instead
seems to put enough faith in his audience knowing what’s important to the plot
and what is just visual flair / fluff. Unquestionably though this is one of the
more original viewing experiences you can have, even if it’s doubtful that most
will give it more than a single watch.
Love this review. The way it switches tone and style is great and i feel that in another diirector's hands it would feel gimicky but for some reason not here. Yes this is a movie that is hard to watch only once. Great review
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