Touches You

Sorry, this movie sucks

Highly Overrated But Still Good

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Perhaps the very best thing about this bizarre and imaginative romp is attempting to tell your friends about it after you have seen it. To explain further: about fifty years ago, Thornton Wilder wrote The Skin Of Your Teeth, his masterpiece about the Antrobus family, a group which survives in spite of all the disasters that befall them. Wilder broke theatrical conventions by having actors as pet dinosaurs, rear screen projections of strange locations, and a maid who addresses the audience directly. Similar things happen in this film, with parody, satire, sentiment and mayhem all mixed in a daft melange of sometimes zany offshoots.The essential plot is simple: the head of the Katakuri family wants to move his family into the country,and open a bed and breakfast, and find contentment. Their first customer dies. There is a volcano nearby. The son dishes out attitude and the daughter falls in love with a British Spy in a navy uniform; thats just a hint of the weird and sometimes funny tale to follow. Not consistently entertaining, not always making sense, but in retrospect, zany and sometimes thoughtful viewing.

The maverick like Takashi Miike, who sends up Japanese culture in many of his films, directed this film about a family who have a guest house in the middle of nowhere, where the (few) lodgers end up dead by morning. And, its a musical! The film is all over the map and even includes some claymation. It is not bad, but it is somewhat uneven. I wish I cared more for the characters, they are somewhat one dimensional. However, Takashi is always interesting as a film maker, so I do recommend it, but he has done better. Its strange in its approach, a black comedy if you will. Once you understand it, you can watch it. Be warned, though, its a little out there.

Anyone familiar with Takashi Miike (Audition, Ichi the Killer) would find this film to be so unlike his other efforts, but, still, only he could do this and make it work.It started with claymation and I really wasn't sure where it was going because it was so strange.Then it settled down to a normal film about a father who just wanted to bring his family together in the hills running a guest-house.Unfortunately, the guests kept dying and they had to bury them so that their guest-house would not get a bad reputation.Sounds like an interesting story by itself, but they would just break out in song at the strangest times. A musical about happiness and death, with claymation and dancing zombies? There is absolutely no way to categorize this film. You just have to sit back and enjoy it, and enjoy it you will for the singing, the philosophy, and the constant humor.Miike hit another home run.

From my rating, you'll know which side of the divide I am on. This is a tired, unfunny film that is too predictable to be zany and aims too hard at off-the-wall to make you care about the characters. It seems to reference a lot of films; the dark comedy isn't as effective as Shallow Grave, the horror less visceral than Swallowtail Butterfly, the dance sequences don't get your foot tapping like Zatoichi, and the songs are putrid, clumsily interspersed rather than effortlessly woven in as in Dancer in the Dark.As for the comedy, from the moment the Dad sits on the swing you know it is going to break and he'll come crashing down. In this vein, all the so-called gags are telegraphed way ahead of time. I smiled twice during the film; when they drop the dead sumo guy out the window, and when the mountain first puffs out smoke to signal it is a volcano. This is lazy, sloppy storytelling - a policeman on a wobbly bicycle?? Are we regurgitating the Keystone Cops now? Downright embarrassing is the casting of and performance by Kiyoshiro Imawano as a conman. That whole pidgin Japanese routine went out with late eighties variety TV here in Japan.Miike has his fans, but after this stale, unpalatable effort I won't be tempted to re-visit any time soon.