Hausu
00:37:20
About
It’s time to unleash some absolute mania, as we experience the multiple derangements of Nobuhiko Ôbayashi’s “Hausu” (aka “House”). A film in which we learn the best way to store a watermelon; the worst way to store futons; and that your legs can live to fight another day, even if the rest of you has been devoured. Like a food-colouring fuelled half remembrance of 60s pop group films fused to the most avant-guard of haunted house movies, with disturbing imagery drawn from the director’s young daughter, and nothing but torment and despair for our likeable young protagonists, “Hausu” should not work. However, Ôbayashi’s vision, style and flair make this a joyous dive headlong into a reality that the word surreal barely does justice to. It’s relentless energy and charm make for a real gem, that balances humour with the macabre - the switch halfway through from teen summer break to crazed nightmare barely dents its propulsive fun, meaning that the viewer comes away with a giddy contact high of absurdist joy. Watch (or re-watch) to avoid spoilers and join us.
Transcript
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LeeGood evening and welcome to Horror. I'm Lee.
ChrisI'm Chris.
AdamI'm Adam.
LeeAnd we are here with spoilers and swearing to cover quite possibly the most batshit movie we have covered to date in 200 plus episodes. 1977's Hausu.
ChrisIt's certainly in the running.
LeeI this is a film that Adam and Dean have talked about for years and I'd never got around to. So I bought it about three months ago in prep for this and watched it and just went,
UnknownYeah, 20 years of hearing about just how mental it is did not prepare me for how mental this film is. Yeah. Yeah.
ChrisI can certainly see why it left a mark.
AdamThis this is not one that you can condense down into a snappy 10 films that you've won't believe that because it's like, you wouldn't even scratch the fucking surface of how insane this film is. It's wonderful.
ChrisI tell you what though, after about it was like 10, maybe 15 minutes. I was thinking, am I definitely watching the right film? Because that is pretty much all I'd heard and I was like, it's quite nice. I mean, little bit odd, you know, it's not a typical sort of film I would watch at that point.
ChrisBut it's charming, you know?
AdamBecause at that at that point, it's just kind of shot weird.
ChrisBecause it's kind of.
AdamYeah. Because there's a lot of techniques and sort of wipes and a lot of cinematic techniques that sort of because the first bit always reminds me of a Beatles film.
LeeYes. And the closing music sounds like the Beatles as well. I was thinking of listening to it today.
AdamOh, by the way, the people who did the songs, not the not the piano score bit, but the songs is the band Godeago and they are also the band who did all the music for Monkee.
ChrisOh, now that's that's quite quite because I just started watching Monkee again.
LeeAll right. Yeah. Just yesterday. I love Monkee so much.
ChrisI thought it's time to show Toby and he he was like what are you showing me at first. I was like you got to stick with it. It just keeps getting better and better.
ChrisBut yeah, that's kind of funny.
AdamYeah. But then I think that has a similar sort of.
ChrisIt does, yeah, definitely.
AdamBut yeah, so the first half feels like a Beatles film like they're a band or something like it's like this just this seven girl pop band from Japan that we don't know, but they've got, you know, we're watching their help or you know, whatever.
AdamAnd so it's yeah, it's sort of shot weirdly and has a lot of just artifice to it.
AdamAnd then you get to the house and it's like basically same story, but applied to the supernatural and sort of yeah.
ChrisIt it really does.
Adamfilm but a film where they genuinely get murdered.
ChrisIt does grow at the right frequency, so the effects get crazier, the concepts get crazier, the action kicks off.
LeeThe music goes absolutely well. It goes crazy jazz score that's just nuts.
AdamYeah.
AdamWell I just I I love the fact that Kung Fu has her own theme.
ChrisRight, so I was going to say, she could absolutely be spun off into her own film.
AdamWell, they all can.
Chrispotentially, yeah.
AdamBecause that was the other thing as well because I was thinking pop band, I was also thinking Spice Girls.
AdamSo you've got like Kung Fu Spice, Gorgeous Spice, Prof Spice.
ChrisYeah.
AdamMac Spice.
ChrisMelody, yeah.
AdamMelody, yeah.
Adamin that same sort of way, but yeah, but yeah, it is just like, I would.
AdamWe'll just give him seven personalities.
AdamAlso.
AdamAlso they are particularly cruel to Mack because when she disappears, they just keep going on about maybe she's going to eat some more potatoes.
ChrisShe's just gone to the bins.
AdamYeah.
LeeYeah.
AdamYeah.
ChrisYeah.
AdamThey're really quite so I mean, they clearly love her and it's affectionate, but there is no.
LeeYeah.
LeeThey're just like if she isn't here, she's eating somewhere. She's fine. Don't even sweat it.
LeeAs soon as the next one goes missing, all hell breaks loose.
LeeThey try and find Angel when she's gone.
LeeBut Mac, they just go, it's fine.
LeeDespite the fact one of them saw her decapitated head floating around in the courtyard.
AdamYeah, but.
AdamYeah, but hopefully that's fantasy. So she could easily see that in a daydream. So they're like, oh well, she's...
ChrisFantasy.
AdamSo she could easily see that in a daydream.
AdamWhich I think is one of the because I really like the aunt, the aunt is...
AdamHe's talk like constantly looking out.
AdamHe's talking like constantly looking out at the audience and sort of talking sort of acting to the audience.
AdamThere's a bit where she just looks down the camera and grins because and which is kind of lovely because it's that sort of trickster demon like,
AdamWhat am I going to fucking do now?
AdamIt's almost like Freddy or something like that.
AdamYou know where they sort of you know or funny man actually.
LeeYeah.
AdamBut, you know, on a slightly classier level, should we say.
AdamBut
LeeHopefully.
AdamBut yeah, I.
AdamSo I love the fact that the demon because it's a demon like that or the monster, the ghost, whatever you want to call it. it keeps doing it to fantasy because it knows they won't believe her.
ChrisYeah, that's funny. Yeah, it does treat her differently.
AdamSo it sort of like it picks on her as like, I'll show her the eye trick.
AdamI'll do this.
LeeYeah.
AdamI'll disappear into the fridge whilst dancing, you know, and sort of.
AdamIt's.
LeeIt's just so.
LeeAnd like some of the choices of things as well.
LeeSo the right from the off, like Chris was saying.
LeeThe bit when they're on the train and she's telling the story of her arm.
LeeBut she's telling them the story and they're all saying things like, oh look at that. she beautiful?
LeeAnd I'm like, she's telling the story and you can see her story.
LeeIt's a really strange mechanism.
LeeBut.
AdamYeah, well they're sort of going, oh I like all they look great in uniform.
AdamWhen they did back then, you know, they're sort.
LeeWhat, what?
ChrisI'm not sure the teacher wasn't quite as manly and handsome as they'd present him to be.
ChrisHe seemed a bit a bit of a.
AdamI think, can I just like, I think the teacher is spot on.
AdamFor a teacher with a dune buggy who's taking some of the students on summer holiday.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYeah, that's that is why he's a boling sleeves.
AdamYou know, he's.
AdamIt's like it's like a sort of dodgy Robin Askwith figure.
ChrisI actually that was that was one of the stand out bits of cinematography.
ChrisWhen he fell down the stairs and they changed it to stop motion and it's like, that's actually looks still like he is just falling down the stairs.
ChrisIt's pretty good.
LeeYeah. And his head get stuck in the bucket and starts moving around and they drove that in the moving car.
ChrisYeah, in front of the car.
ChrisBut it's like.
ChrisThat's that's great. It's just so.
AdamAnd the little the little girl who's drumming on the bucket when it starts to move.
LeeYes.
AdamThat's the director's daughter.
LeeOh.
AdamOh yeah.
AdamYeah and she's where he got all the ideas from.
Chris
AdamSo she she's about 10.
ChrisAnd she's like it'd be great if you did this.
AdamWell, he he basically went here and said what scares you?
ChrisYeah.
AdamAnd she was like, like the grandfather clock at grandma's house. And getting my fingers cut off by a piano and stuff like that.
ChrisOh yeah. Yeah.
ChrisYeah, yeah.
ChrisOn the piano, yeah.
AdamAnd like, so.
ChrisThat's where it really picked up was piano scene from there onwards.
ChrisLike that was like.
ChrisWhat.
AdamOkay.
AdamYeah, so where is it and and even like the watermelon in the well turning into a head and stuff like that.
AdamThat's all stuff that the daughter came up with.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd so the director is let's hope I'm doing this right. Nobuhiko Obayashi.
ChrisObayashi, yeah.
AdamAnd the the daughter is Chigumi. And but yeah, so.
AdamThe when he did it, it was like what was it?
AdamI got I had to write down because it was a good quote.
AdamHe asked her for the ideas because it was because grownups can only think about things they understand.
Chris
AdamSo everything stays on a boring level, like human level.
AdamWhereas children can come up with things that can't be explained.
AdamAnd it's like, I I I know, you know, if you ask an adult, it's like, well what scares you?
AdamBut it's got to be something that could you've got to find a logic to it or whatever like that.
AdamWhereas a kid it was just like, being buried under futons.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know, and it's like.
AdamYou know.
AdamAnd so you end up with this because it's because it's weirdly, it's the it's the Beatles do Suspiria in a weird way.
AdamSo it's.
AdamSo.
AdamIt's so sort of like but in a utterly different vibe to Suspiria because this is because this is fun.
LeeYeah.
LeeIt's.
AdamIt's fun all the way through despite the gruesomeness of the fates.
AdamBut even then they're so cartoonishly fucking weird.
LeeYeah. Yeah.
LeeSo and that's what I got from this that the second time watching it today because I literally just finished it a half hour ago.
LeeI was like, I've got a feeling that Evil Dead has a lot of horror to pay to this.
LeeLike there's so much of that like the over the top blood and all the strange visuals and the weird camera angles.
LeeLike so much of it.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYeah.
LeeLike.
AdamThe mirror coming alive and attacking you.
LeeYeah.
AdamAnd.
LeeYeah.
LeeIt's just.
LeeIt's it's such a good film.
LeeIt is one that I.
LeeI struggle sometimes with weird films and I find them frustrating, but because this is so fun, you're right, that is the word.
LeeYou just go with it and it's just it's it's such a good time. It really, really is.
AdamAnd yeah, and and weird because because the girls are all I think it's only Angel or Gorgeous.
Adamwho is the who had done some films before, but the rest of them were all
Adamlike models that he knew the director knew because he did loads of adverts.
LeeAll right.
AdamHe did something like 2,000 adverts, but this was like his
ChrisI'd I'd like to see some of them.
AdamThis is his first feature film.
AdamAnd.
AdamAnd it's it basically this is meant to be a response to jaws.
LeeOh my God.
ChrisYeah, I didn't see that coming.
AdamSo Toho Studios, who is who produced this, are still going strong and they were famous particularly for Godzilla.
AdamAnd but they distributed they did like Studio Ghibli, they did a lot of
AdamYou know, just a lot of cool bits and pieces. where are we?
Adamyeah, they did like, they released Akira Kurosawa's films and things like that.
AdamSo they were big sort of mighty powerhouse.
AdamAnd yeah, they were like, well, there's this thing called Jaws and we need something like that.
AdamAnd somehow they got to this.
ChrisThey.
Chrismake this and like, yep, we've we've done it.
ChrisThat's it.
LeeYeah.
AdamYeah.
LeeAnd it's just The only thing I can think of, it's a cat.
ChrisOh The only thing I can think of.
ChrisThere's a pretty great cat, shout out to the cat.
LeeOh, the cat's great.
AdamThe cat's great.
AdamAlthough the cat, the surprise on its face when it gets thrown on to the auntie's lap by camera.
AdamYou know, and it's just like they're like, I was over there a minute ago. As she's wheeled past, you know, I just think yeah.
AdamIt's a marvelous cat performance.
AdamBut
AdamBut yeah, I think and that's the thing is I think everyone in it like like the the bloke who does the watermelon, who sells the watermelons, he's the composer.
AdamHe's the one he's the one who wrote the piano bit.
AdamAnd so and everything.
AdamBut yeah, it's mostly sort of.
AdamThe aunt is the only person who had a career before this.
Chris
AdamShe'd been like quite a successful actress.
AdamBut apparently because I've not seen I've not seen any of I've not seen any of his other films.
AdamBut Obayashi in Japan is really renowned and respected and a very mainstream director.
AdamSo I can only think I can only equate this almost to like bad taste.
AdamYou know where you've got like Peter Jackson now it's just, oh it's Lord of the Rings.
ChrisNo, no.
AdamSo it's.
AdamBut if you go back and look at bad taste and brain dead.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisYeah.
AdamYou know, it's like that's this.
AdamSo I can only assume that this sort of rings a bit weird.
AdamAlthough he has done because apparently he does lots of like team comedies and sort of coming of age films.
AdamI saw someone, I mean, obviously I can't say whether that's true or not.
AdamBut someone described him as always being like Spielberg in Japan, you know, that kind of level of success.
AdamAnd sort of mainstream success and everything else like that.
AdamSo I mean, this fuck knows where this sort of sprang from.
ChrisWell, Spielberg attempted it.
ChrisPoltergeist and.
AdamI suppose he did.
ChrisGot some of the way there thanks to Toby Hooper.
AdamToby Hooper, yeah, he needed to get nasty Uncle Toby involved, didn't he?
AdamDidn't he?
AdamDad was fine and then dad had like a couple of days off and then nasty Uncle Toby came around and it got shit scary, didn't it?
AdamSo.
AdamNext thing you know, real skeletons in mud.
LeeYeah.
AdamYeah.
LeeI mean this film still for 1977, it looks gorgeous.
ChrisYeah. Yeah.
LeeYeah.
LeeI know some of the effects are a little bit chunky.
ChrisBut I think they doesn't they're not they don't break it because the whole look is.
LeeIt's so surreal.
ChrisIt fits like, yeah.
LeeLike the bit where they pull up at the bus and there's that background.
LeeAnd the bus pulls away and it's just a billboard in the middle of nowhere, nothing like the surroundings.
LeeAnd I'm like, what's it what was it there for?
LeeI don't understand it, but I love it.
LeeIt's great.
AdamBut apparently this was a lot of because this was his first feature film, a lot of this stuff is like stuff that he'd done in adverts and he so he was.
ChrisSo he's like let's just use.
AdamHe kind of like right, I want to do all of this stuff, you know, it's like I I it's classic, you know, I might not get to make a movie again, so I'm just going to put everything I want to do, everything that fascinates me, every trick, every and and that's the thing is I think the effects.
AdamIf the rest of the narrative was straight or the rest of the film was straight, they the effects would look worse, but you've already had so much artificialness, you've had stop motion, slapstick and like there's the bit where the sort of the frame moves out like a window and you're into another scene and things like that.
AdamAnd it's sort of there's a lot of.
ChrisIt's also like a weird slow down when they call you on the phone.
LeeOh, yeah, that's weird.
LeeI don't think they slow motion.
ChrisTV's gone wrong.
AdamWhich which every time gets me because I will tend to watch this film in a sort of state worse for wear and every time it it lasts long enough for me to think, is this.
ChrisIs this.
ChrisHave I.
ChrisIs my.
AdamIs this.
LeeYeah.
LeeIt's just.
LeeIt is it's just everything thrown at one film.
LeeBut because the story is so utterly chaotic and mental, it just works on every level.
LeeIt's just it is.
LeeIt's a great film. I can see why I've heard so much from so many people about it for so long.
LeeAnd it's just mental.
AdamAnd I also.
AdamI was going to say and I also know the number of times that me and Dean have obsessed over a film and it doesn't translate to you yourself.
AdamBecause like you say, sometimes they can be frustrating or fucking, you know, just poorly executed or, you know, the tone is different.
AdamBut certainly in this, I think the tone is like it's just.
AdamIt's weird to call a film like a horror film ecstatic, but it is kind of like, it's like a very, it's like you're allergic to coloring.
AdamAnd you've had a and you've had a tube of smarties.
AdamYou know, it's got that sort of like jittery sort of that's just you can't help but get swept along with.
LeeOh man.
LeeIt just and as you say, like the sound design and everything, it just comes together so like this film flies past.
LeeThis is one of the fastest hour and a half I've ever spent in front of the TV.
ChrisI'm sure I heard a He-Man sound effect at one point.
LeeOh, yeah.
AdamThere's.
ChrisSomething like that.
AdamYeah.
AdamI the bloke who did the voice of He-Man died yesterday, so that could if people want to time when the podcast was done.
Adam
AdamSo.
AdamBut
AdamYeah, no, it's it's everything's huge in it. Everything's.
AdamBecause everything's artificial, everything's.
AdamI mean, but also just I love the fact that there's not actually like.
Adamthe the stepmom or would be stepmom is not presented in any way as evil or wrong or anything else like that.
AdamIt's like Angel or gorgeous is the like sort of.
AdamShe's the one who's taken umbridge at that point.
AdamAnd and but I just love the fact that again it's like an advert is that whenever you see her, she's in soft focus with a fan on and it's like everyone kind of drifts in from their own.
ChrisYeah.
AdamIt's.
AdamYeah.
Adamnarratives almost.
AdamSo it's kind of like why people have got their own music.
AdamLike, you know.
AdamThey're all kind of it's it's all kind of they're in their own films that sort of have all coalesced at this point.
AdamLike the the stepmom should be in some sort of slightly Ferrero Rocher romance film.
LeeOh my God.
AdamBut she but she ends up getting burnt to death by a demon wearing her stepdaughter's face.
AdamYou know.
LeeSo.
LeeAnd that's the other thing as well.
LeeIt doesn't have a happy ending, but.
LeeBut yeah, but you still come away with a big smile on your face.
ChrisFeeling good.
LeeYeah.
AdamYeah.
LeeIt's just weird.
AdamWell, I just love the fact that you've got Robin Askwith in his little buggy like on his way to them the whole way through.
AdamAnd fantasy's just like, oh, you know, don't worry, sirs going to come and save us.
AdamAnd all of the rest of them are under no illusion there.
LeeYeah.
AdamThey're all like fucking ridiculous, we've got to sort this out ourselves.
AdamHe's useless, you know.
AdamAnd then he turns up, has a row with the watermelon man, who is clearly something to do with the house as well because he greets him with all the girls have been eaten or whatever it is.
AdamThen they have it turns into a skeleton that shouts watermelon and he's going, no, I prefer bananas.
LeeBananas.
AdamBananas.
AdamAnd then it cuts, other shit goes on, and then when the aunt comes through, they leave you to your own conclusion that there is a man-shaped pile of bananas in the front.
Adamin in the driving seat of the buggy.
AdamSo obviously he's been turned into a bunch of bananas, but they didn't even bother telling you that.
AdamThey've just gone, you'll pick that up.
LeeYeah.
AdamDo you know what I mean? Cuz it's like.
LeeI mean it's a straightforward narrative how can you not follow that.
AdamYeah.
ChrisYeah.
LeeIt's.
AdamYeah.
AdamYeah.
AdamYeah.
LeeYeah.
AdamSo.
AdamI was trying.
ChrisI was trying to follow. So I do think they were getting across something.
ChrisI mean, it seems like certainly the aunt was traumatized by her husband or husband to be dying in the war.
ChrisYeah.
AdamFrom the war, yeah.
ChrisDoes seem a bit like it's a you know, men are kind of causing problems and then these are getting placed on to women who then go to war.
ChrisAnd then now their lives, you know, their potential is ruined.
ChrisAnd then that's getting passed on to the new generation of girls.
ChrisWho also all of their potential is ruined.
AdamYeah, she's praying on them.
ChrisYeah.
ChrisShe's she was ruined and now she's ruining them, she can't help it.
AdamYeah.
AdamBecause there's because I can't quite remember what the quote is at the end, but it's like, you know, that.
ChrisLove, yeah, something about.
AdamIt's basically love you will feel the if you love someone, you will always feel what they're feeling, something along those lines.
AdamAnd it's kind of like, but in the context of this film, it yeah, well that's it.
ChrisI was like, I'm trying to follow.
AdamIt's like you've twisted a greetings card.
LeeYeah.
AdamYou know what I mean, cuz it's like according this film it's like, yeah, he probably felt that as you know, the the parents felt that as she was eaten by the piano.
AdamYou know,.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd but I mean but you say also grew up in Hiroshima like he was like six.
ChrisYeah.
AdamSo obviously he knew.
ChrisHe probably did.
AdamVery much firsthand what war, you know, what war can do and what leave behind and stuff like that.
ChrisWell, the wider implications, yeah.
AdamBut weirdly but still like you say, no happy ending.
AdamA a fucking mental narrative, but it's just so joyous in that and such a fucking visual treat, you know.
ChrisIt's so watchable.
AdamBecause again, I'm I you know, I I like a lot of I like a lot of stuff that has a very artificial look or has also uses weird techniques and things like that.
AdamA it doesn't always work, but also I don't think that this weirdly enough does feel like anyone could watch it.
LeeYeah.
AdamDo you know what I mean, as long as you don't have a problem with subtitles.
AdamIf you do.
AdamBut.
AdamNo.
AdamBut you know what I mean.
AdamI think really it's sort of you know, oddly, I think it's just something that would.
AdamYou know, if someone's willing to sit down with it, it will always cut through the sheer sort of like manic well, the mania of it.
AdamJust the sort of sheer what the fuck.
LeeYeah, it was one of those, you know, like I saw it for the first time two months ago, sat down to watch it today.
LeeAnd I remembered maybe five minutes of it in clips because it is so all over the place, it is hard to remember that all the scenes are actually linked.
LeeAnd it has actually got a fairly straight narrative, despite all the craziness.
ChrisYeah, it's not complex. yeah.
LeeNo.
AdamBut then but then that's probably what it needs.
AdamIf you started, imagine if you started putting into this an investigation into how the aunt became a demon.
Chris
AdamYou know, that derail it.
AdamThat you know.
AdamIt happened.
AdamShe was pissed off, she became a demon.
AdamAll right.
AdamFuck sake.
LeeYeah.
AdamSo.
LeeHow does attacking a painting of a cat kill the cat kill the demon?
LeeYou don't need to know that.
AdamNo.
LeeWhy does the blood fill an entire room like a river so they end up drowning in it?
LeeBecause it does.
LeeGreat.
LeeExcellent.
LeeI'm I'm going with it.
LeeI am not questioning anything.
AdamWhy why are you attacked and stripped naked by futons and end up squashed in a clock?
LeeYeah.
AdamNo one knows that.
AdamHow determined are you to kick a painting that your disembodied legs will do it after you've been eaten by a light fitting?
LeeOh my God.
AdamAll these all these things are in this film.
AdamAnd that's what that's what brings me a lot of joy with this.
AdamIs there's like.
ChrisI think all of our listeners have just just turned off and gone to start watching it.
AdamI I hope so.
AdamI hope so because weirdly enough, I don't know if I don't know if it's a film you can spoil.
ChrisYeah.
AdamIn a way, you know, there's no there's no twists or anything.
AdamAnd our descriptions are not going to do justice to watching it.
AdamBecause the it's just fucking madness.
LeeAnd it's everything I love about Japanese cinema in.
ChrisIt's it's how to break every rule of cinema and make it work perfectly.
LeeAnd I love it.
AdamYeah.
AdamOn on paper, it shouldn't, you know, on on paper, this should be something that no one would back.
AdamNo one would put money in.
AdamAnd actually, the only reason he got to direct it was because the he he wasn't, although he was hired by Toho, he wasn't one of their directors like staff directors, you know, like.
Adamor in-house directors.
Adam
AdamBut none of them would do it once they'd read the script because they were like, no this is a fucking career ender.
ChrisHow are you possibly going to do this?
AdamAnd probably and that's the thing is really if someone else had taken it, it probably would be quite crap.
LeeYeah.
AdamOr, you know what I mean.
AdamBecause I think it was obviously so much it's so much of Obayashi's vision and his techniques and what, you know, he's going to write what he.
AdamBut no one's going to necessarily take that from the page unless he wrote it out frame by frame as a storyboard or whatever like that.
AdamYou know.
AdamAnd
Adam
AdamBut yeah, so that's and and but even then they weren't keen for him to direct it, so he did like he made a manga of it.
AdamBut yeah, so that's and and but even then they weren't keen for him to direct it, so he did like he made a manga of it.
AdamI don't know if that's I don't know if it's available in translated form because I'd like to see that.
LeeYeah.
Adamhe did a radio version of it.
AdamThat was really successful.
LeeHow would that work?
AdamAgain, I have no idea but obviously it's in Japanese.
AdamSo I can't.
ChrisI'll learn Japanese just to watch.
AdamI feel I feel the need.
AdamBut, you know, that's yeah, so he did like a radio drama of it that was really well received so everyone's like, oh it looks like you know what you're doing.
Adam
AdamI think the the the songs were written by Godeago before the film was made.
ChrisOkay.
AdamSo he could play the music on set and stuff like that.
Adamand actually Godeago are in it because they're the ones who are they're the ones who like it's like seconds but they're talking to the girls at a bus stop or outside the train station, that's it.
AdamAnd there's like guys talking to him and that's the band.
AdamSo again, there's barely anyone.
LeeOh yeah, that's random as they go in to get on the train and there's just loads of people waving them off.
LeeLike that's what happens when you get on a train, loads of strangers just come and wave and cheer you goodbye.
LeeWhen you're just some school kids just going about your school holidays.
AdamIt.
Leethe other thing that I kept thinking the whole way through this is I'm getting my Yokai box set back out again because.
LeeThis film goes so well with the the Yokai movies.
AdamYeah.
AdamWe need we need to do one of those or any of those.
Lee
Leeon I I think the first one possibly but yeah I mean I I so I bought the box set.
Leeon I I think the first one possibly, but yeah, I mean, I I so I bought the box set two years ago when Arrow released it.
Adam
LeeI picked it up at horror on TV, actually.
AdamYes, yes, I remember.
LeeAnd yeah, and in a week I watched all four of the movies and three of the movies and the documentary.
LeeOh, yeah.
LeeIt's just.
LeeThey're brilliant, but they're just like this, it's just it throws you in at the deep end.
LeeDoesn't explain anything.
LeeNothing ever gets, but it just looks beautiful and you just go with it.
LeeAnd you have a fun time.
AdamYeah, I mean they're they're not quite on this manic level.
AdamBut certainly.
AdamBut also just that thing of like you going.
AdamThese effects are fucking amazing.
AdamYou know, it's you're not even giving it a for for its time sort of thing.
ChrisYeah.
AdamBecause some of some of the stuff in like in the the Yokai series, there's like like those living umbrellas and stuff like that.
AdamThey just look really fucking good, they're just weird, they're not like, they don't look even though they're an umbrella monster, so immediately that's already a bit crap or a bit weird or you know, it's not necessarily if someone said to you, oh, there's an umbrella monster.
AdamYou think that's that scary.
LeeYeah.
AdamBut they make them so.
AdamThey do genuinely feel real, you know, they they brilliant effects for them and so they actually do become really uncanny and quite sort of like that's just odd.
LeeIt is there's something unnerving about it because yeah, it's it looks so real.
LeeBecause it's not CGI, it's all old, but yeah, it's just.
Chris
AdamBut they're just.
AdamBut but then weirdly enough, I was watching.
AdamIn the week I found someone has put up subtitled episodes of Ultra Q on YouTube.
AdamAnd Ultra Q is like a 60s I've been trying to get me hands on it to watch it was basically a Japanese TV series in the 60s.
AdamThey wanted to make like a sort of monster version of the Twilight Zone, but it basically is more the X files because it's like a group who investigate.
AdamAnd it's basically Kaiju of the week.
LeeOh, can you set me a link to that?
LeeBecause.
AdamYeah, I'll I'll I'll send you a.
AdamYeah.
AdamBut it's like yeah, I watched I watched the first episode the other day.
AdamIt's really good.
AdamBut the thing that struck me was obviously.
Adamthe Kaiju monsters because this is they've literally raided Toho Studio's cupboard.
AdamSo the monster in it has got like Godzilla's head with added bits and the body of King Kong and stuff like that.
AdamSo it's all yeah, it's just all sort of mishmash.
AdamBut the actual when I was watching it, I was just absolutely stunned.
Adamby the model like the model sets that they were destroying.
AdamBecause they were fucking perfect.
LeeWow.
AdamYou know, they just they were they looked so good and it sold it so well because there was just a weird moment where I was going.
AdamThat's because you've seen people walk past these things, it wasn't like, you know, it's not just a set that.
AdamIt's not like the city, they they're basically in this episode is they dig up an egg at a mine.
AdamSo they're all around the mine and you've got like the little mine carts next to him and everything and they're all standing there and talking and everything else like that.
AdamAnd then this location has then been turned into this model and it's so fucking good that it took me a moment to go.
AdamOh yeah, that is a bloke in a suit on a model, is it?
AdamIt was almost like, oh, this fan a really big guy like fucking to and just put him in a suit.
AdamIs that.
AdamYou know.
AdamIt was but yeah, it was just such such good stuff, but yeah, I'm going to definitely watch more of that.
AdamSo it's it's it's obviously the season.
AdamSo.
LeeYes.
LeeAnd and it kind of, I don't know why, I had the same, I'm sure I mentioned it on the show before, every now and again, probably once a year, once every two years.
LeeI will think, I will get a Shaw Brothers film off the shelf and then I will go on a massive Kung Fu movie bender.
LeeAnd it happened last week, and just kind of out of nowhere.
LeeAnd I smashed through about four or five of those films.
LeeSo but they're the same that so obviously Chinese cinema is very different from Japanese, but again, it's just got that very strange blend of things that are you know.
LeeThe fact that if you can do Kung Fu, you can fly, that is just a given.
LeeYou just accept it, it's just.
AdamThat's that's always that's always in Kung Fu movies that it's always you are quite you know.
AdamIt it's it's always a plus, there's very, there's very there's amazing fights, but there's also acrobatics that are out of, you know, very you know, stuff stuff that's more superhero movie than, you know.
AdamA a realistic depiction of a.
Leeof someone's abilities.
LeeBut yes, Asian cinema is just it's so spectacular and it's so bright and garish.
LeeAnd.
LeeYeah, and and this is the same.
LeeIt's just a delight to watch yeah, and even the story with this film is great.
LeeBut even if it didn't make any sense.
LeeI'd still watch this just for the visuals, it's such a stunning looking film.
Adam
AdamAnd that's the thing is I think it's yeah, it just bypasses everything.
AdamIn just look and sort of attitude and heart of the film.
AdamIt's just like, yeah.
AdamAnd
AdamSo so if anyone was in any if anyone was worried about how they feel.
AdamI would like to say that I for one think this is quite a good film.
LeeYeah.
Adam
LeeI'm gutted it's taken me this long to watch it.
AdamIt's I I understand it because it's one of those things where like I say, when people describe it to you like, yeah, I've heard you say this before.
AdamAnd this was you know, and you've you've made me sit through some right shot.
AdamSo.
LeeEven even the back of the arrow release that I've got describes it as like a psychedelic story.
LeeA a psychedelic teen drama.
LeeAnd I was like, I'm pretty sure it's a horror.
LeeBut it does start off as a psychedelic teen drama, it's very yeah, it kind of forget and then all of a sudden you go, oh no, there's ghosts and demons and incredibly gore.
Leejust explodes out of nowhere and you.
AdamYeah.
AdamVery much so.
AdamYeah.
AdamIt has a very it has a very distinct turn.
AdamAnd yet somehow manages to maintain that sort of craziness and optimism that is sort of in it at the start.
AdamLike the sort of.
AdamThe craziness and the sort of energy that you've got in that early section.
AdamAnd it's like it doesn't lose that when it brings in the because usually it'd be like, oh something's.
AdamWe see a lot of films where it's like, oh there's a real tonal shift.
AdamAnd it'll be like, oh really dark and then it goes fucking dark as all fuck or whatever like that.
AdamThis doesn't.
AdamEven though it does go dark as all fuck.
AdamBecause.
LeeYeah.
AdamWe're still having fun.
AdamYeah.
AdamYeah.
AdamBut still.
AdamYeah.
AdamSeven.
AdamSeven children are murdered by demons one by a demon spirit of one of their aunts.
AdamBecause of war.
ChrisWe're still having fun.
AdamYou know.
AdamThat's.
AdamYeah.
AdamAnd but still.
AdamYeah.
AdamYeah.
AdamWe're no happy ending.
LeeIt is again, it's one of those.
LeeIt's a party movie.
LeeThis is got your mates over, you're having a laugh and a beer, you want something on in the TV, just in the background.
LeeJust a bit of a talking point.
LeeThis is the one to put on because it's just.
LeeBatshit.
AdamI'm not sure if it is to be honest because I think this is one of those ones where suddenly the room is in silence.
AdamAnd everyone has drifted in from the kitchen and everything and there's just all of you standing there watching it.
ChrisWhat is going to go?
AdamOn next.
AdamYeah, just like and basically you've.
AdamAnd basically you've killed a party stone dead because people are genuinely actually watching the film at that point.
ChrisI mean, I should keep getting flashbacks to everything, but for some reason, it is the poster of the cat with the smiling face at that point.
ChrisJust keep like.
AdamOh man.
LeeOh man.
LeeThat's great.
Lee
LeeIncredible, just incredible.
Leeyes, so as we say, anybody who hasn't seen this film.
LeeAlthough we have told you everything that happens in it, you still need to see yourself.
ChrisYou know nothing.
LeeYeah.
LeeBecause I cannot describe it in all its glory.
AdamYeah.
AdamOur words are.
Adampitiful in front of this.
AdamIn front of this film.
LeeIt's.
LeeFantastic film. right.
LeeSo we are going to be back in a fortnight's time for a film I've not seen and definitely should have done. we are going to be covering The Descent.
AdamYeah.
ChrisExcellent.
LeeYes.
LeeI've never seen it because I I've never been in a particularly claustrophobic environment.
LeeBut the thought of them gives me a panic attack.
LeeSo that's why I've never seen this film, but it's so highly rated by so many people.
LeeI feel it I definitely have to persevere and get through my discomfort hopefully.
ChrisYou're doing your duty.
LeeYeah.
ChrisAdmirable.
LeeHe put me in a box with me coat on.
AdamDon't say do your duty because that's always.
AdamI always think that's what someone says to their dog.
LeeYeah.
AdamGo and do your duty.
LeeYeah.
AdamGo and do your duty.
LeeIsn't that American?
LeeGo and do your duty.
AdamYes.
AdamOf course, yeah.
AdamOh your duty.
LeeYeah.
LeeRight.
LeeSo thanks ever so much for listening, everybody, go and check out Hausu.
LeeIt's an amazing time, it's the fastest hour and a half of your life potentially.
Leeand we'll be back in a fortnight's time with The Descent.
LeeThanks very much for listening, good night.
ChrisGood night.
AdamGood night.
