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An hilariously chaotic reinterpretation of macabre MIFF 1999 comedy The Quiet Family. Miike Takashi dispenses with guns and gangsters, disappearing into the hills to hire a room with a cursed Japanese Von Trapp family who find themselves in a (literally) bloody mess.
"The story concerns a family-run mountain inn where the guests keep mysteriously dying, prompting the clan to hide the bodies for fear of discouraging customers. Struggling to stay united and keep their business afloat, the Katakuris face snooping cops, zombie corpses and an active volcano!
"Even by the gleefully outre standards of director Miike, The Happiness of the Katakuris is an unexpected departure off the map, flinging together elements of Alpine musical, ghoulish Jan Svankmajer-like animation and a family portrait that makes the Brady Bunch look hip. This is an unclassifiable hybrid of black comedy and horror movie, laced with exhuberant song-and-dance numbers and 80s music video choreography. Campy sensibility, anarchic narrative digressions and sheer off-the-wall deliriousness." - Variety