House (Hausu)

Anyone seen this? I have it on order. It sounds insane.

it's the fucking best. saw it twice.

Four weeks ago, I'd never heard of the film. Now every day brings eight new breathless blog posts. I'm sure it's great and batshit and all, but I'm kinda sick of hearing about it tbh.

i must be on the wrong blogs. two questions: 1.where can i hear this overdose of hyperbole? and 2. have you seen it?

i'm NEVER EVER on top of shit like this, so I can totally BRAGGIN 2010 when i say I've seen this on the big screen TWICE in 2009 before this re-release fever

O.K I guess i should actually post after i have seen it but it sounds really crazy and good. Is it accessible or arty? What i like about it is that it sounds like it is not trying to be arty but actually just surprising and fun. Does it have a knowing sense of humour or is it played straight?

Sorry. I should just wait to watch it. I have go this coming with the new Sunrise double DVD reissue from Masters of cinema.

And now i am drunk and I bit bored. Hence trying to get some sort of conversation started.

Well that was a crazy fever ride. I am overwhelmed.
I have to go.
Goodbye all.

I desperately want to see this and have for years but Janus releases never come to Philadelphia :(

what is this - a horror movie? with a piano eating girl?

I mean, girl-eating piano.

the first 20 minutes are so are funny,geniusly idiotic and therefore awesome.the middle is kinda dragging on and repetetive but the ending, again, is great.

film is seriously must-see

you could say it's a Japanese analog to Suspiria in that it's got the same second-by-second total freedom in the plot twists, the colors & backgrounds are surreal and gorgeous, pause any frame of the film and just try to figure out what you're seeing, and that even though it's not overtly pretentious, the details & non sequiturs & stylistic quirks do tip the scales towards art film as much as horror, but in the best and most entertaining way possible. I also liked it as much as I like Suspiria and that movie's one of my favorites (though Hausu is more about the c-c-cute than the slashing)

don't read the blog posts, all contain spoilers

Just saw this. Am going to bed. Completely crackers. Music and camera shots seem to be run by an eccentric child who has a long catalogue of dreamy, inventive ideas on how to tell essentially a very simple story. Its not really an art movie though. I mean the plot hangs togethor well enough. There are plenty of funny asides- nod, winks, knowing looks and so on. Also the advertisement feeling of the whole thing is strange. lots of wind blowing through hair and violently, dramatic sunsets. I like how the whit knight turns into a bunch of bannanas. Good times.

Another thing. Do the girls really have to get half naked? What does this add?

I guess there are a lot of things in this film that you could ???? over.

running @ IFC in NY for the last few weeks, trying to organize noisedude outing.

"Do the girls really have to get half naked? What does this add?"

more viewrs.

plus, for a movie as absurd as ridiculous as this, the question is irrelevant

Another thing. Do the girls really have to get half naked? What does this add?

― Hinklepicker, Friday, February 12, 2010 2:55 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

fuck is wrong w/ u

I just felt weird getting a glimpse the naked chests of teenage girls. Thats all. Hey, if that's your thing, then go for it.

Of course you are right though in a film with as many jarring notes and strange perspectives a question such as this is irrelavant. It was a minor thing.

I still loved the film, honest.

Here's my review

http://rabbitscgi.blogspot.com/2010/03/nobuhiko-obayashis-house.html

Amazing movie, its on d3m1n01d if you do that sort of thing, and probably elsewhere too. I kind think the first half of this movie (background story, train ride) is even better and stranger than the second half (in the house). I very badly want this on DVD and want to see this movie by him as well. "The School in the Crosshairs":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY6PP24_bC4

It's playing at the Castro in SF pretty soon, fyi

Me and my friend got in a hueg argument because i dragged him to see this in the theater on the last day of ATP. He felt duped because I described it as a "horror movie" which he claims it isn't.

It's totally a horror movie! It just happens to be a lot of other things as well, but it's horror at the core no question.

there was an interview with the director in fangoria, if that's any kind of horror litmus test.

i dunno, i've gotten in like screaming matches with people who think the sole purpose of horror movies is to be scary

which reminds me of that dipshitty convo that derogatis had with schrieber about The Shining vs Saw IV (re: oddfuture, ROFLMAO) as if these two movies share the same goal

2001: Sci-Fi::Hausu:Horror

Hausu is much more Scream than Scary Movie; I can see being let down if yr expecting to be scared shitless but I mean if you are let down in any way by this film then you lose at movies.

^otm

my friend fell asleep last time i put it on & i was smgdh so vigorously

in your friend's defense, it's a trance-inducing movie.
i do think you'd be scared shitless if you fell asleep with this on, though!

also this is one of my favoritest possessions:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/shop_product_images/490/HAUSU_CTA1091.A_3_w285.jpg?1328128355

anyone seen other Obayashi features, like say the two showing here tomorrow?

http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/films/1337

no, but i am very envious that you have the chance

he was here with some short films from the early '60s a few nights ago, couldn't go

I saw "School in the Crosshairs" and it was really pretty great. I don't think anything could ever been OTT as "Hausu" though.

I'm praying that is the case.

https://www.tiktok.com/@captureash/video/6896985661610495237

If you can find it, I highly recommend Obayashi's HIS MOTORBIKE, HER ISLAND (1986), which feels like just the sort of thing I needed to see right now. Not as wild as HOUSE but makes heavy use of experimental editing and alternating color and black & white (sometimes within the same shot). A fun and youthful movie that manages to be sentimental, sexy, goofy, and experimental.

i'd like to see that. HOUSE was so fucking good. i saw it once, in my backyard, projected onto siding so there were horizontal lines everywhere.

where can one find HIS MOTORBIKE?

Has anyone seen Labyrinth of Cinema?

I'm sure there was some discussion on another thread of a collection of his getting a release, but now I can't find it and Im not sure if His Motorbike was one of them.

xxpost Not sure what the ILX etiquette is in 2021 for discussing certain trackers.

Tempting: https://waxworkrecords.com/collections/all/products/hausu?&utm_campaign=campaign%3A+HAUSU+On+Sale+Now%21+%286352a4d97d08b8001c44f6d8%29&utm_medium=email&utm_source=omnisend&omnisendContactID=5d00597d60eca9ce27209287

&utm_campaign=campaign%3A+HAUSU+On+Sale+Now%21+%286352a4d97d08b8001c44f6d8%29&utm_medium=email&utm_source=omnisend&omnisendContactID=5d00597d60eca9ce27209287

On Criterion Channel. Never watched House.

I saw Labyrinth of Cinema a couple years ago, it was exhausting, especially in the first hour, but I'm really glad to have seen it, hell of a final statement.

House is a riot, you should make time if you're at all curious.

house IS a blast but I also keep waiting for other obayashi movies to get a little more love. such a rich catalog of films that it feels like it should just be a matter of time before they get rediscovered and we get lots of obayashi retros at repertory cinemas and fun stuff like that.

have to admit, I'll prob be disappointed, but some of the descriptions of the new ford coppola movie's garish digital aesthetic are making me think of obayashi's last few anti-war movies. like, they're simultaneously super sincere, emotional movies that also... kinda feel like PS1 game cut-scenes? <3

Yeah we watched Casting Blossoms to the Sky a few weeks back and it was a dizzying mix of naturalism, artifice, abstraction and fantasy with a very serious heart. It was ever the case with him, some of those 80s films like School in the Crosshairs are positively delirious by their climaxes. Singular dude.

school in the crosshairs is an absolute blast. top 5 obayashi for me.

casting blossoms also excellent. something about the super emotional subject matter + super artificial visuals was very moving and i’m not quite sure why

For me it was the presence of some of the real people and the feeling that they haven’t been heard much. Felt like the film shared its discovery process for giving these sentiments and stories their due.

well put! for me, it was like the movie and esp the dramatization in the movie itself functioned like an extreme cathartic release.

i cannot believe i had the kind of dumb confidence to think it was a good idea to show this a few months into the relationship with my now spouse.

like i just watched saltburn and i immediately texted her "may be too salacious to watch on an airline flight!"

Obayashi does have a cult bubbling imo thanks in part to all those Third Window releases; if you look up his films on letterboxd there's a lot of enthusiasts!

If you want full goofy Obayashi I can recommend The Rocking Horsemen about a bunch of high schoolers forming a band inspired by The Ventures. The Japanese title translates roughly as Teenage Dangalangalangalangalang which is about right. Very affectionate.

Obayashi does have a cult bubbling imo thanks in part to all those Third Window releases; if you look up his films on letterboxd there's a lot of enthusiasts!

oh yeah, I have that 80s third window set. great stuff. it's cool that more people are seeing some of the others but that's still a pretty small slice from such a big catalog! I've noticed that criterion is now streaming a few others (including sada!), so I imagine we'll get even more soon.

has obayashi's idea for a revival of the godzilla series, "a space godzilla", been mentioned? godzilla is dying of diabetes! i guess it's gestational diabetes? because she's also pregnant, and through psychic transmissions we learn that her name is rozan, and she is an alien from the planet godzilla. rozan is turned into a rocket to send her and her baby, lilin, back to the planet godzilla, where she is reunited with her husband, kunin. together, they fight to defeat an invasion of the planet godzilla by the evil sunerians.

holy shit WHAT

*reads "a space godzilla" wiki furiously*

thanks matttkkkk this rocking horsemen looks amazing...

oh yeah - https://archive.org/details/the.-rocking.-horsemen.-1992.1080p.-blu-ray.x-264.-aac-yts.-mx

oh hell yeah

ok me being me i found out obayashi was did a _lot_ of tv commercials and i had to see if i could find some of them

and sure enough

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqTGxfWRiHU

i like tv commercials in general, personally. the charles bronson ad for "MANDOM" is amazing. peak "marketing of masculinity".

oh my GOD I cannot believe that obayashi directed the freaking MANDOM commercial!

and, uh, in case you haven't heard the full mandom OST (lol) before...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFTNGlqklFQ

https://www.discogs.com/release/9586064-Minoru-Muraoka-Tadao-Sawai-Shakuhachi-Koto-Mandom

wow, this is some peak schlock. kinda gives me the vibe of GST's classic "New 3D Bossa Simulation" tho. all those Japanese golf simulators with chiptune bossa tracks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHCSSE5BM1w

The commercials and about a dozen other Obayashi films (more than half, new to my pretty-extensive collection) are on archive.org like the link above.

Obayashi started out doing experimental shorts, when he moved to commercials a lot of his colleagues disapproved but he was like "this is just what we were doing anyway but better paid".