HAUSU (HOUSE) Post-Release Discussion

Thanks for the review, Alex. I'll be checking it out for sure when it comes to Chicago.

I love this movie. I first saw it about a year ago and am still not sure about what I saw.

March? Damn. Was hoping we'd get it sooner, but at least we're getting it.

The Banana Splits always comes to mind when i try and think back on Hausu, its got the same hallucinogenic "we're all off our tits on LSD" feel to it. Just watch any clip of that show on youtube, replace the characters with japanese schoolgirls and the most fucked up shit you can think of and you'll be close to the Hausu experience.

I watched it last year and it is hard to remember details. It moves incredibly quick and is a mish-mash of randomness. I honestly don't know if i could put myself through it again, you can take that comment either way. It is an acquired taste, you'll either love it or bloody hate it but thats what makes it worth watching.


Edit: It gets released on DVD in the U.K. on the 25th.

I'll check it out tomorrow probably.

I'm surprised no one has pointed out how bad this movie drags. The schizophrenic nature of the film keeps it from being completely successful at being either a horror film or kids film. It's worth checking out in the sense that it's unlike anything you've ever seen, but I'd not completely recommend it either.

Awesome review, can't wait to see this.

Masters Of Cinema can be counted upon to deliver extras equal or superior to the upcoming Criterion release, right?

Based on every single one of the clips I saw and your review Alex, this is now my #1 most anticipated film of the year. Holy shit, everything about this movie is absolutely bonkers.

Has anyone seen the Banana "scene" -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnWFhPCNHbQ -- words cannot describe it.

Along with the killer lampshade -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOBCM...eature=related

I think it's safe to say this movie has to be experienced by all.

If you've got a Region Free DVD player then the upcoming Eureka Region 2 DVD might be worth looking at.

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content/id/72132/house-[hausu]-masters-of-cinema.html

The picture quality seems to be great and Eureka are always great with special features. This one seems to have a 90 minute documentary on the film on it.

What the fuck did I just see? Something pretty awesome, I think.

Ever since I saw that piano youtube clip on here, I've been wanting to pre-order this movie.

Yeah, I saw it at IFC (with my brand spanking new members' discount, which I totally bought just for Red Riding). There were like four showtimes, and it's been that way since I started looking over the last week or so.

Your review, which I skimmed weeks ago, was a big factor in my decision to see it, and I'm glad I did. It really reminded me why it's so important to see as many movies as I can, and even go into certain ones relatively blind. Because then you get movies like this. So thanks!

What the fuck did I just watch? All I know when I came out of the (tiny ass theater at the IFC) was that I liked it. I tried to describing it to my girlfriend, but all I could come up with is 'you really, really have to see this yourself'. Batshit insane.

I love the internet. I was able to have this movie almost as soon as I read this article. Otherwise it would've been many months. Haven't seen it yet, waiting till a few others are around to watch, but thanks for the heads up.

Got my Masters Of Cinema copy in the pile, promised to watch it with a friend. Because insanity like this deserves to be shared.

Woohoo! This is showing at the New Bev in March!

Looks like there's going to be a bunch of screenings.

Scroll down to march.

There's also a Facebook event that has the details for all the screenings. Looks like I might recognize the names of a couple chewers in the "attending" box.

Yep, I'll be all over that.

That soundtrack is OUT OF CONTROL! Can see what someone said about the pacing - it does take a while to get going - but it's no big deal, there's still enough insanity to be worth the purchase.


SPOILERY QUESTION:



Ok, so at the end the aunt is young again through having consumed the girls, but where is her husband-to-be? Why is she just hanging out with Angel? And what's this talk about how "they'll be hungry"; are thr girls now beings like her? Apologies for asking narrative questions about Hausu, but indulge me....

I thought that was Gorgeous at the end. The mother-to-be spoke to Gorgeous' dad earlier in the film and said that she was going to go up to the house by herself in an attempt to try and connect with Gorgeous. One of the reasons this is a really solid film is that it's not just wall-to-wall insanity for insanity's sake; the supernatural powers of the house are the aunt, sure, but you could also argue that they're a manifestation of Gorgeous' rage towards her future stepmother. Of all the girls, Gorgeous is the only one who seems to embrace the power of the house and lets it possess her to devour her stepmother and have her revenge. My guess is that the girls are all part of the house somehow, and that the house needs to feed for as long as it wants/until its goals of reuniting with the husband are met(and we've seen that the husband, via the male teacher, has run away in fear).

D'oh! Yeah, it's Gorgeous I meant.

EDIT: No it isn't. Angel's the main character with the father and whatnot.


Hadn't even caught that the teacher could be the surrogate/reincarnation/whatever for the lover, either. I should perhaps rewatch this some day sober.

Plenty of interviews and a nice juicy booklet on the DVD, tho, off to dive into that!

Gorgeous is the lead character according to Wikipedia and the print I saw, it might be Angel in a different translation.

The Masters Of Cinema edition has 90 minutes' worth of interviews, mostly with Obayashi. He repeats himself quite frequently, but there's still some great info: how he got into commercials via a love for experimental film (they didn't have scripts back then, and as long as the product was featured the sponsor was happy, so he could go all-out trippy); how Toho wanted a "japanese Jaws"; how he managed to get the studio to let him direct it via a media blitz, getting friends in the press to chat it up and even releasing a manga and a radio play.

I'm curious, does Obayashi mention Raimi or the Evil Deads at all? The influence is undeniable, and massive.

Saw this at the New Bev today. Craziest fucking thing I've seen in a long time.

This sort of plays like a kid's fantasy film, a gore-drenched horror extravaganza and a Asian schoolgirl fetish film all at the same time.

WEDNESDAY EVENING MOTHERFUCKER CAN YOU FEEL IT

I can.

Not to mention that it also seems to heavily influence all the Tsui Hark Chinese Ghost Story movies.

Love the new stepmom character who constantly seems to have a wind machine with her at all times.

The thing I wonder is would Raimi have realistically seen this film before making the EVIL DEAD movies?

Funny. I saw it last night too, and I saw Dellamorte leaving the show before me (what did he think? let's hope he chimes in).

Most of it was completely bonkers. I really loved the psycho-fantasy haunted house aspect of the story. Now maybe it was me, but I totally didn't see everything that happened as a "manifestation of Gorgeous' rage," but rather just as a continuation of the ever-so winking attitude of Obayashi to tell us that everything is so completely unreal, and yet very real for these characters.

Kung Fu was probably my favorite character and her demise was one of the highlights of my movie going year.

I wondered this as well. You have to wonder if the Coen brothers saw it too...

Beaks and I went last night. I was gobsmacked walking out of the theater. There is an element of primitiveness to the filmmaking, but obviously also great skill, in the service of nothing. To the sense that the scariest thing about the movie is not the kills but the experience. I started applauding when it ended. Others joined in.

It reminded me of The 5000 Fingers of Mr. T a little. I really liked the discordant music in the opening, I thought that might be going some place, and the music does haunt, but the collective experience is like absorbing chaos. I knew nothing about the movie going in other than that it was a horror film. And so I thought after the opening that it might be a sweet but insane one, and then severed head and nudity, but then actually it really does have a sweetness to it.

It strikes me that much of Japanese advertising, and that whole realm of Japanese whatever is tied into this. How, I would have to have been a part of Japanese culture to know, but - as I said on twitter - it's like when Lou Reed sings "And then my mind split open" and the song I Heard Her Call My Name goes with crazy noise. There is purpose and design here, but I don't understand it at all.

Obayashi actually comes from the avante garde, did some cult short films prior to HAUSU. His working in advertising was, according to the man himself, because he couldn't jibe with the japanese studio system, where if you want to become a director if you're lucky you get an assistant role for decades before being allowed to tackle directing. Commercials gave him more freedom - as long as you show the product you can go as far out as you want. So I think the purpose and design is basically just down to the old surrealist line (Obayashi cites Bunuel as an influence) of exploring the subconcious - not meant to be understood.

I know he was just a kid from Michigan, but the films have too much in common for it to be coincidence. In the past Raimi has championed certain directors like John Woo and Takashi Shimizu, so it's not as if he's unfamiliar with bonkers Asian cinema. I dunno, maybe Obayashi's film was on late night TV or something (did they even have Japanese channels then).

Totally agree that he's exploring the subconscious here, or to take it further, the metaphysical level of something as insane as a lampshade eating you, or a pair of legs that kick the shit out of wall art. It might be fair to say that Obayashi does want the audience to understand what's going on even if we don't fully get why the hell someone turns into a skeleton after someone yells "BANANA!" at him repeatedly. That's part of the film's ridiculous charms.

Much like another kindred spirt, Jodorowsky, and to some extent the great Robert Clampett, Obayashi clearly knows what the hell is going on in that brain of his and the best parts stemming from that leave you wondering what the wtf.

And while I would agree with someone before that some parts are fairly slow to rouse the audience, as a whole the movie really gets going into na-na land and for that, I really appreciate what it does and does really freaking well.

One thing I forgot to mention, and which hasn't been discussed in any of the reviews I've read either: HAUSU sort of ties in with a big japanese cultural obsession, that of household objects coming to life. I've been reading about yokai, traditional japanese ghosts & goblins, and every other example is a living umbrella or tatami mat.

This fucking movie.

I like the old aunt looking at the camera and smiling like Kurt Russell in Death Proof.

Still having trouble getting my head around it. No way I would have been able to peg this as being from 1977.

The effects during the death scenes were hilariously wild, the "fight" with the cat and Kung Fu blew my mind (as did the entire movie, to be fair), and I think I'm in love with the score. With all the bizarre, great stylistic choices made in the movie, I'm kinda having trouble pegging down one as a favorite. I kinda want to see this again.

Also, "BANANA BANANA BANANA BANANA!"

I think the killer piano and the cat that drowns the house are my favorite parts.

And all the really obvious fat jokes. lol she likes hamburgers!

I felt really, really bad for Mac. It came across as more of a rampant oral fixation than anything else. Pretty awkward.

78 days

fuck

Mac was like maybe three pounds overweight. She had chubby cheeks more than anything.

Exactly, but every time she showed up they were like "JESUS CHRIST MAC YOU TUB OF LARD". Oh well, I'm already overthinking this movie.

I need this in my life. Desperately.

Hell yes I just saw this at the CASTRO theater. Hell yes I did.

Seriously, the people I saw this with were blown away that this was from the seventies. They thought it was a modern throwback ala Grindhouse, and I can see why. It's like if Tim & Eric were Japanese and decided to make a Sam Raimi movie.

And while the whole thing is meant to be laughed at, there's no denying how truly resplendent this movie is, on a cinematography, set design and editing level. Just jaw dropping.

P.S.: The fact that I'll be able to own this via Criterion just affirms my belief that they are the motherfuckingest company on the planet.

The overwhelming LOL/WTF reaction to this film is understandable, but I think there's some really effective horror stuff under all that. Like with classic Argento, not every style experiment works, but when one does work it is awesome. Been a few years since I last saw it, but some of the eeriest bits I can remember:

SPOILERS

-Obayashi crazily flicking back and forth between the girl being led away and the reflection of this in the mirror (one of the great "nonreflection" bits in movies)

-camera floating and bouncing around the oblivious girls in a really freaky manner in the hall

-when they walk back into the piano room and discover the fingers playing

-the totally Japanese black hair scene when one of the girls is bathing (very Freddy's glove in the soapy water)

I dunno, I think there's a certain dream logic, and this weird aura of childhood innocence, that neutralizes the horror element; the whole thing's so aestheticized as well, I couldn't really feel afraid for the characters at any time. Not that this detracts from the film's charms.