01
The Taste of Tea
Why this pick
Like Miike’s family musical, it turns domestic life into a playful, visually surprising universe—warm, deadpan, and happily unconcerned with conventional realism.
A FILM WORTH A CLOSER LOOKTHE FEATURE PRESENTATION
MOVIE2001 1h 53m JPN
IF THIS ONE STAYED WITH YOU
Movies like
The Happiness of the Katakuris
HorrorComedyDrama
CINEHUNCH / THE NEXT FRAME
Keep the feeling.
SIMILAR PICKS / A PERSONAL CONNECTION
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01
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Memories of Matsuko
Why this pick
Its candy-coloured musical imagination and abrupt shifts between broad comedy and bruised emotion echo the Katakuris’ exuberant tonal instability.
03
The Machine Girl
Why this pick
It shares Miike’s cartoonishly heightened splatter-comedy energy, where outrageous violence is staged with colourful, knowingly ludicrous gusto.
04
Big Man Japan
Why this pick
Its mock-documentary restraint makes the increasingly ridiculous premise even funnier, pairing Japanese family melancholy with deadpan monster-movie absurdity.
05
Survive Style 5+
Why this pick
A hyper-stylised mosaic of bizarre characters and escalating comic violence, suited to the Katakuris’ pop-art visuals and manic tonal gear changes.
Finding the atmosphere, tension and little details that made this one stay with you.
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01 / THE STORY
A little about the film.
The Katakuris are a four-generation family of failures: patriarch Masao Katakuri (Kenji Sawada), his wife Terue (Keiko Matsuzaka), his father Jinpei (Tetsurō Tamba), his formerly criminal son Masayuki (Shinji Takeda), his divorced daughter Shizue (Naomi Nishida), her child Yurie (Tamaki Miyazaki, who narrates the film), and their dog, Pochi. The family uses the father's Layoff to purchase a large old home situated on a former garbage dump near Mount Fuji that they have named the ‘White Lover's Inn'. They have the intention of converting it into a bed and breakfast, since the road running nearby is supposed to be expanded up to the house, which would bring many guests and tourists. However, the road hasn't been expanded yet and the Katakuris subsequently have no guests. When one finally shows up, a TV personality, sans clothes, he subsequently commits suicide during the night, and the Katakuris make the decision to save their business by burying the body and concealing the death. The second guest, a Sumo wrestler, also dies of a heart attack during a tryst with his underage girlfriend, who also dies.
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02 / FACES IN THE FRAME
The people who bring it to life.
Naomi Nishida
Shizue Katakuri
Yoshiyuki Morishita
Policeman Miyaki
Kenji Sawada
Masao Katakuri
Keiko Matsuzaka
Terue Katakuri
Naoto Takenaka
TV Reporter / Singer