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The diary entries of a little girl in her 30s! ~ Part 2
Oct 31, 2013 at 11:12 PM Post #19,309 of 21,761
james444 said:
   
I didn't even know her, but now I'm against her.
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Is her skin smooth?
 
Nov 1, 2013 at 2:00 AM Post #19,311 of 21,761
Nov 1, 2013 at 6:54 AM Post #19,316 of 21,761
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MF On Flicks​
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House​
(Obayashi, 1977)​
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All Hallows' Eve: the perfect occasion for Nobuhiko Obayashi's Hausu, a deranged artifact of 70s technicolor Japanese horror kitsch and one of my favorite films of all time. Admittedly I'm not that familiar with Obayashi's other works, though I know he directed some classic school ground ghost stories as well as Sada, his version of the same notorious bondage-gone-awry tale that inspired Oshima's In the Realm of the Senses. From what I can tell, most of his work has a similar style to Hausu, a sort of scrapbook-esque collection of meticulously crafted tableaux; almost every shot is set up as if to give the overt impression of being on a small stage, and even 'outdoor' scenes consist of obvious, over-the-top painted backgrounds. The color pallets used in these compositions are usually really vibrant, and---coupled with the soap opera style music---it creates a melodramatic world of perpetual sunsets and sentimental yearning.
 
 
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Hausu tells the story of a schoolgirl named Gorgeous. All of her friends have similar designations based off of a single defining personality trait: Melody plays the piano, Kung Fu is athletic and jumps around a lot, Sweet is dutiful in performing household chores, Prof is your typical "girl with glasses" trope, etc. etc. All of them are best of friends, bubbly and innocent. They're looking forward to their summer together as they travel to a country house owned by the aunt of Gorgeous. The build up to their arrival is just ridiculous, with the entire town cheerfully sending them off, swaying from side-to-side and singing as they perform mock renditions of their daily routines. Some carpenters for instance swing their hammers as if its the greatest thing in the world, barely connecting with the boards they're working on as they psychotically grin from ear-to-ear, their behavior reminiscent of animatronic props at Disney World. Like the skies above, the below people are purposefully fake. It's all a thin veneer of kitschy carefree sentiment. You can just imagine huge targets painted on the backs of the schoolgirls getting on the rural-bound bus, as you know this surely isn't going to last. 
 
 
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It doesn't. Thanks to a haunted house with a propensity for eating young virgins, Gorgeous and friends more or less have their summer ruined as---one by one---they end up on the menu and get absorbed into the manor's framework. Of course the "highlights" of the film are those scenes in which an innocent, bubbly schoolgirl gets dispatched in some bizarre fashion. Emphasis on the bizarre part. For instance one hapless victim gets attacked by mattresses that seem to have the ability to change her into a doll. Another gets eaten by a carnivorous piano. Really though the whole thing is quite surreal and ridiculous, and during moments of downtime the audience is treated to scenes of a witch and her possessed cat familiar dancing about as they celebrate the slaughter, jump cutting from one position in the room to another in time to a whimsical rattling-bone-and-cat-meow-soundeffect-laden tune.
 
 
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The remaining girls eventually figure out something is amiss as the plot builds toward some truly sublime final sequences. As if the film itself finally loses its patience and has its nervous breakdown, everything erupts in a frenzy of earthquakes, strobing lights, and geysers of blood. No spoilers for how things ultimate turn out, but really the film outdoes itself leading up to the finale. The whole "ride" analogy is actually quite fitting here rather than just a hopelessly tired cinemaphile cliche: we get furniture used to white water raft down a literal river of blood. Remember the underground slime river from Ghostbusters II? Kind of a precursor to that I s'pose. Along the way though there are plenty of details that are worth mentioning as well. There's a strange little watermelon salesman whom the film seems to imply is part watermelon himself?  Dismembered limbs float around as their former owner gets devoured by that piano I mentioned before. Old photographs come to life as moments from the past intrude into the narrative. Someone gets trapped in a burning mirror world. Oh, and there's a fight scene between a Ms. Kung Fu and firewood.
 
Really Hausu has so many hallmarks of Japanese horror, yet at the same time it manages to defy expectations. Watching it gives me warm and fuzzies. Make it a Halloween tradition, and you'll be a better human being for it.
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Reminds me of tub girl.​
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Every single shot in this film is like some deranged scrapbook collage.​
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Nov 1, 2013 at 8:42 AM Post #19,318 of 21,761
muppetface said:
 
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Every single shot in this film is like some deranged scrapbook collage.​
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I can't believe you reminded me of Tub Girl. Sadly it is now past Halloween and it is too late to be spooked. That looks like an amazing movie. How did you come across it in the first place? Where can I get a copy? It looks like a Tetsuya Nakashima film on a bad trip. That last frame alone makes me want to see this movie.
 
ALSO WHAT COSTUME DID YOU WEAR
 
Nov 1, 2013 at 9:40 AM Post #19,320 of 21,761
drez said:
So reminds me of NG Resonance from Deus Ex: Invisible War.
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While I didn't like the game compared to DX and DX:HR, I did like NG Resonance.
 
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