Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted January 7, 2011 Moderator Share Posted January 7, 2011 Wow....I just watched this movie for the first time last night after purchasing the recently released Criterion Collection DVD. If ever there was a movie that defies words, this could be it, and I mean that in the best possible way. It is the type of movie you could expect to see if Dario Argento and Tim Burton ever collaborated together, then throw in a sprinking of horror, karate, psychadelic style sets, fairy tale like imagery....and maybe then you could have some idea of what to expect. I would strongly recommend people to check out this movie, it is a great example of how powerful the medium of cinema can be....long before the days of CGI and advanced special effects came along. H0NWIxl2VJk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Tosh Posted January 7, 2011 Member Share Posted January 7, 2011 Ahhhhhhhhhh you beat me to this:xd: Just picked this up the other week, hope to get to it this weekend, looks like my kind of movie:nerd: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member OldPangYau Posted January 7, 2011 Member Share Posted January 7, 2011 My gf (who was awesome enough to buy the blu-ray for me for Christmas) and I watched this on New Year's Day... wow, ridiculously surreal and insane! The old school chroma key effects only added to the bizarre dream-like state of the film, as did the giant matte paintings in the backdrops. It's almost like a non-musical Japanese Rocky Horror Picture Show Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Takuma Posted January 7, 2011 Member Share Posted January 7, 2011 It's been years since I last watched my dvd, but I do think this is over-rated. The cartoon visuals are quite stunning at first, but the joke dates quick. A visual over-dose, pretty much. But it's still relatively fun and entertaining - like Evil Dead 2 with kawaii factor. And I do love the soundtrack. And Kung Fu's pantsu are somewhat a stand out... Still, it's nowhere near as good as Obayashi's better films, like Tenkousei (1982). Got Futari and Sabishinbou on dvd, too, but haven't watched yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member kungfusamurai Posted January 9, 2011 Member Share Posted January 9, 2011 I saw it in the theater recently, and sort of expected something weird, but didn't expect to be so mesmerized by the film. It's not perfect, and there's a lot of stuff in there that clearly doesn't make sense, but it's worth checking out. I don't know if I would have enjoyed it as much sitting down to a DVD. The theater setting was probably helpful because everyone was laughing at the zaniness of it. KFS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Tosh Posted January 10, 2011 Member Share Posted January 10, 2011 Wow if you crossed Suspiria and Grease, with the Yellow Submarine and add some Partridge family, then make it Japanese it would be something like this movie. I was a little lighter in tone then what I thought it would be, the girls are adorable. Definitely a good wtf movie to put in for your friends. Bananas, bananas, bananas... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member KenHashibe Posted September 19, 2014 Member Share Posted September 19, 2014 For those of you who don't know, House is a Japanese movie from 1977 which was released in the US by the Criterion Collection on DVD. The movie is mainly known for being extremely bizarre and crazy. Though many have made it seem like the weirdest movie ever made, I was surprised that only the last 30 minutes really made me freak out. Other than that, I found it pretty comprehensible, but that can't be said about the ending or the imagery. There's actually a very nice theme hidden in this movie about growing up and realizing that you won't be young forever. Of course, this isn't what House is remembered for. When this movie gets crazy, it gets freaking crazy. Many people may discuss the scene where a girl gets eaten by a piano or the scene where a girl gets eaten by a lamp...or a clock...or the scene where a guy turns into a pile of bananas. But never mind that. House is a great movie. When talking about this movie, I always think about different contradictions. This movie's beautiful but it's disturbing. I love the movie but I also wish it never existed. It certainly has some things that you'll never forget seeing. But I've seen weirder. Let's discuss. Takuma, I'm looking at you. This should be fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted September 19, 2014 Administrator Share Posted September 19, 2014 I love this film and have both the Criterion and the Eureka "Masters of Cinema" releases of it. Watching it is like dreaming... after an acid trip that wasn't quite over when you fell asleep. My favorite part is when they stutter the shot of the cat on the piano. It's a great movie to show people who are bored with cinema and think they've seen it all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Takuma Posted September 19, 2014 Member Share Posted September 19, 2014 It's certainly a nice movie, but at the same time I feel it's drawing attention away from director Obayashi's even better movies like Transfer Student (1982) and Futari (1991). Futari is pribably the closest that anyone has ever come to making a live action Studio Ghibli movie. These kind of fantasy dramas are the type of films Obayashi is best known for in Japan, not House. Teaser for Futari twroeLlr_lU I'd say more about House, but it's probably been about 7 years since the last time I saw it... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member KenHashibe Posted September 19, 2014 Member Share Posted September 19, 2014 I love this film and have both the Criterion and the Eureka "Masters of Cinema" releases of it. Watching it is like dreaming... after an acid trip that wasn't quite over when you fell asleep. My favorite part is when they stutter the shot of the cat on the piano. It's a great movie to show people who are bored with cinema and think they've seen it all. Very interesting depiction! I don't know if I have a favorite part. There are so many memorable ones, it's hard to chose for me. There was a review of this movie by Mike Matei who said, "Each frame is like a work of art." This is a hard movie to not be interested in. It's certainly a nice movie, but at the same time I feel it's drawing attention away from director Obayashi's even better movies like Transfer Student (1982) and Futari (1991). Futari is pribably the closest that anyone has ever come to making a live action Studio Ghibli movie. These kind of fantasy dramas are the type of films Obayashi is best known for in Japan, not House. I'd say more about House, but it's probably been about 7 years since the last time I saw it... I don't think I'd call House a "nice movie." There's quite a bit of bizarre and even pretty disturbing imagery, but there are those few moments that are beautiful as well as the cinematography. I actually haven't seen any other Obayashi films. I'll try checking out Futari if I can find it. I would imagine he'd be more well known in Japan for his fantasy films as opposed to House. Partly because House was released about 37 years ago and if House was made now, I think the movie would received a mixed reception. I could tell by watching the trailer for Futari that Obayashi's visual style of story-telling has changed a bit but it still looks very pretty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Takuma Posted September 19, 2014 Member Share Posted September 19, 2014 The only DVD release of Futari is the Japanese one. The original 2 disc release included the full version without subtitles and the shorter international version with subs. However, that is long OOP and you wouln't want to miss a minute of the Japanese cut anyway. Custom subs should be floating somewhere on the internet for the full Japanese version. One Obayashi film that should be easier to obtain is School in the Crosshairs (Aimed School) (1981), which was released on HK DVD by IVL when they put out all the most important Kadokawa idol films. It's not one of Obayashi's best movies, but it's still a nice movie with gorgeous visuals and of course stars the greatest idol of all time, Hiroko Yakushimaru (I could talk about her all night, but I'll try to restrain myself now) in one of her early roles. A few screencaps from my Japanese DVD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted September 19, 2014 Administrator Share Posted September 19, 2014 It's certainly a nice movie, but at the same time I feel it's drawing attention away from director Obayashi's even better movies like Transfer Student (1982) and Futari (1991). Futari is pribably the closest that anyone has ever come to making a live action Studio Ghibli movie. These kind of fantasy dramas are the type of films Obayashi is best known for in Japan, not House. It seems like nearly every time I read a post by you I wind up wanting to see some film thatI've never heard of before. This post is no different! Added to The List. There was a review of this movie by Mike Matei who said, "Each frame is like a work of art." This is a hard movie to not be interested in. Some freaky-ass Pop art! I agree though. I don't think I'd call House a "nice movie." There's quite a bit of bizarre and even pretty disturbing imagery, but there are those few moments that are beautiful as well as the cinematography. I like the surprising mix of elements- as you describe- that are one minute bizarre and disturbing, yet still beautiful. There were some OTT moments that were funny, yet often I still felt uneasy at the same time. A unique viewing experience to say the least. The only DVD release of Futari is the Japanese one. The original 2 disc release included the full version without subtitles and the shorter international version with subs. However, that is long OOP and you wouln't want to miss a minute of the Japanese cut anyway. Custom subs should be floating somewhere on the internet for the full Japanese version. Thank you for the info. One Obayashi film that should be easier to obtain is School in the Crosshairs (Aimed School) (1981), which was released on HK DVD by IVL when they put out all the most important Kadokawa idol films. It's not one of Obayashi's best movies, but it's still a nice movie with gorgeous visuals and of course stars the greatest idol of all time, Hiroko Yakushimaru (I could talk about her all night, but I'll try to restrain myself now) in one of her early roles. Okay, I'll try to check this out Thanks for the screen-grabs. BTW Takuma. I've been saving reading your big retro theater thread for an occasion when I can read the whole thing uninterrupted. Looking forward to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Takuma Posted September 20, 2014 Member Share Posted September 20, 2014 Right, I forgot we had an old thread for House, too. What's really cool about this forum these days is that we have a moderator who does his job! No more 17 threads for the same film It seems like nearly every time I read a post by you I wind up wanting to see some film thatI've never heard of before. This post is no different! Added to The List. Maybe I'm just bad at staying in topic and talk about too many (un)related movies BTW Takuma. I've been saving reading your big retro theater thread for an occasion when I can read the whole thing uninterrupted. Looking forward to it. haha, to be honest, I don't recommend reading it all at once. The Sonny Chiba coverage alone is (going to be) about 15 pages of you printed it on A4s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted September 20, 2014 Author Moderator Share Posted September 20, 2014 What's really cool about this forum these days is that we have a moderator who does his job! No more 17 threads for the same film Ha ha, guilty as charged, it was always one of my aims that if I became a moderator, one of the first things I'd do would be to merge all the countless threads which seem to get created about the same movie. Happy to see it's being noticed! I also have to contribute to your retro theater thread at some point, I wanted to cover the old cinema in Asakusa which I used to regularly attend amongst the homeless bums and the cockroaches. For just 1000 Yen though, you could attend stuff like double bills of 'Enter the Dragon' & 'Ong Bak 2', not to mention the pinku movies and old school samurai stuff. I miss that place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Takuma Posted September 20, 2014 Member Share Posted September 20, 2014 I also have to contribute to your retro theater thread at some point, I wanted to cover the old cinema in Asakusa which I used to regularly attend amongst the homeless bums and the cockroaches. For just 1000 Yen though, you could attend stuff like double bills of 'Enter the Dragon' & 'Ong Bak 2', not to mention the pinku movies and old school samurai stuff. I miss that place. Never heard of that place. Must have closed by now, or I'm missing something great... Looking forward to reading about that theater. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted September 20, 2014 Administrator Share Posted September 20, 2014 No more 17 threads for the same film I've noticed this too. It is cool that this problem is getting fixed, but if members would take a second to search the topic before they post a new thread that would help too. Maybe I'm just bad at staying in topic and talk about too many (un)related movies No man, I definitely wasn't pointing this out as a negative. I just think that you touch on films related to the thread subject or filmmakers being discussed, and that I wind up getting to hear about a lot of titles I was oblivious to. haha, to be honest, I don't recommend reading it all at once. The Sonny Chiba coverage alone is (going to be) about 15 pages of you printed it on A4s Oh... it sounds good! Ha ha, guilty as charged, it was always one of my aims that if I became a moderator, one of the first things I'd do would be to merge all the countless threads which seem to get created about the same movie. Happy to see it's being noticed! You've ruined my hobby of Russian Roulette Thread choosing. Now I don't have to decide which thread to post in when I want to comment on a film. I also have to contribute to your retro theater thread at some point, I wanted to cover the old cinema in Asakusa which I used to regularly attend amongst the homeless bums and the cockroaches. For just 1000 Yen though, you could attend stuff like double bills of 'Enter the Dragon' & 'Ong Bak 2', not to mention the pinku movies and old school samurai stuff. I miss that place. Yes, please do. The snippets you've told me about that place were fascinating. I want to hear more, and I know others would dig reading that too. My only theater experience that I shared with (non-human) vermin was when I saw the original BAD LIEUTENANT in NYC in 1992. As we attempted to buy our tickets we wee warned that we might not want to go in because an entire motorcycle gang had been sitting through each screening of the film, filling the top few rows. I asked "Are they attacking people or something?" The ticket guy said "No, but they are intimidating" and he didn't want to have to give us refunds if we didn't want to stay, so he warned us up-front. The majority of bikers I've known have been solid dudes, nothing like "in the movies" so in we went. Got to admit- it was intimidating walking in and seeing them all there, but we took our seats and immediately got into the film. At one point my buddy kicked my foot. I looked at him to see what he wanted, but he didn't look at me. It happened again. "What I asked?" He looked at me confused. "Why are you kicking me?" I whispered. He said "I'm not" as I felt it again. I looked down and there was a huge rat crawling over my boot! "Fuck!" I yelled as I kicked my foot out. You could hear the rat sliding beneath the chairs, knocking over empty bottles and trash, and the thump of it hitting chair struts. One of the bikers chuckled. I glanced over at my friends, both wide-eyed, and all at once we lifted our feet and put our knees up against the backs of the chairs in front of us. LOL Anyway... yeah... HOUSE. Back on topic. For those interested in getting this film, I recommend the Criterion version which is full-screen. The Eureka release is matted, but the director has said that this aspect ratio is incorrect. Originally the film was intended for TV (! ) so he said that 1:33:1 (full-screen) is how it was meant to be seen. With a film this visual you absolutely don't want any of the image cropped. Here's where I got this info: "OVERALL: R1 Criterion (choice for best version) For having the film in it's OAR of 1.33:1 and the extras. Do note, the UK release includes interviews, but the film is matted to 1.55:1. General Notes: There is some confusion on the film's aspect ratio or how it was supposed to be framed. IMDB lists the OAR as 1.37:1 while according to The Digital Fix, the correct AR is 1.55:1 since the print used for the UK release was sourced from the Toho Restoration. It's been confirmed by Criterion that they got confirmation for the OAR from director Nobuhiko Ōbayashi himself, who said the movie was indeed shot in full-frame as it was targeted for TV and felt that was the aspect ratio that suited him best (special thanks goes to Rewind user Jyri_Lehtinen for the info)." Source: http://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=18902 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderator One Armed Boxer Posted September 20, 2014 Author Moderator Share Posted September 20, 2014 My only theater experience that I shared with (non-human) vermin was when I saw the original BAD LIEUTENANT in NYC in 1992. As we attempted to buy our tickets we wee warned that we might not want to go in because an entire motorcycle gang had been sitting through each screening of the film, filling the top few rows. I asked "Are they attacking people or something?" The ticket guy said "No, but they are intimidating" and he didn't want to have to give us refunds if we didn't want to stay, so he warned us up-front. The majority of bikers I've known have been solid dudes, nothing like "in the movies" so in we went. Got to admit- it was intimidating walking in and seeing them all there, but we took our seats and immediately got into the film. Great story, and I promise this will be my last off-topic post on this thread (I'm a moderator after all! )...but this story reminds me of a great Carlsberg beer commercial which was run in Belgium. Check it out below, KFB you & your buddy would definitely have got to enjoy a beer! - RS3iB47nQ6E Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator KUNG FU BOB Posted September 20, 2014 Administrator Share Posted September 20, 2014 Great story, and I promise this will be my last off-topic post on this thread (I'm a moderator after all! )...but this story reminds me of a great Carlsberg beer commercial which was run in Belgium. Check it out below, KFB you & your buddy would definitely have got to enjoy a beer! - Ha ha ha! That was great! Yeah, that's what it looked like, except it was only three-five rows taken up by them. And it was very poorly lit, so that added to the feeling of doom. The fact that they liked the film so much that they watched it over and over again was both kinda cool, dedication-wise, and very disturbing... because of the film. It was actually two friends with me. Afterwards they said "If you hadn't been with us, we'd have left." I was like "Are you f*#@ing mad?! What did you think I was going to do if something happened? Be the only one to die that knew martial arts?" LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member KenHashibe Posted September 21, 2014 Member Share Posted September 21, 2014 Maybe I'm just bad at staying in topic and talk about too many (un)related movies No, please continue doing so. We love the somewhat related recommendations. You let me know about movies that I probably wouldn't have known about on my own. My knowledge on Japanese film is limited. I've seen the Samurai trilogy, House, a few Akira Kurosawa movies, almost every Hayao Miyasaki movie, and a few others. You're the guy that we go to for recommendations. So thank you! Never would've heard of Futari or School in the Crossshairs, but I'll try checking them out if I can find them. And I do love the soundtrack. Speaking of the soundtrack, doesn't it sound eerily similar to the piano theme from Up? That's one heck of a connection. I don't think it has any significance and is probably just a really big coincidence. But seriously, they have very similar soundtracks. Give it a listen, see what you think (Jeez, listening to the theme song from House again is giving me chills). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member Takuma Posted October 12, 2014 Member Share Posted October 12, 2014 Just a big coincidence. Japanese rock band Godiego did the soundtrack to House (great movie by the way, absolutely love it.). Same band did Monkey Magic theme & end song & The Galaxy Express 999 theme. A interesting point, the bassist & 2nd drummer are Japanese American. Steve Fox & Tommy Snyder. There's a lot of music by Godiego in The Youth Killer (1976), which is one one the only two films ever directed by the legendary Hazuhiko Hasegawa. It's been a long time since I saw it, and I don't recall it being quite as good as its reputation, but I can still remember the soundtrack. Hasegawa is perhaps better remembered for his other movie, the all time cult classic The Man who Stole the Sun (1979) in which a high school teacher begins building his own A-bomb to blackmail the Japanese government. He also wrote some terrific films like the police corruption flick Retreat through the Wet Wasteland (1973) that even Nikkatsu tried to stop their own filmmakers from completing in the fear it would get them in trouble with the police... There's I've done it again, spoken about films that have nothing to do with House Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member FilmMomatic Posted November 3, 2015 Member Share Posted November 3, 2015 "Pure unadulterated kaleidoscopic euphoria." https://filmmomaticreviews.wordpress.com/2015/11/03/film-momatic-flashback-hausu/ Also visit my review site and follow my Twitter account (https://twitter.com/FilmMomatic) for more reviews! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Member FilmMomatic Posted November 3, 2015 Member Share Posted November 3, 2015 "Pure unadulterated kaleidoscopic euphoria." https://filmmomaticreviews.wordpress.com/2015/11/03/film-momatic-flashback-hausu/ Also visit my review site and follow my Twitter account (https://twitter.com/FilmMomatic) for more reviews! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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