Welcome to the Hausu

[imomus]

Hausu, directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi in 1977, is perhaps the most visually exuberant film I've ever seen. The comedy-horror "watch-'em-die" flick was his first feature after a career in TV advertising; according to the film's Wikipedia page Obayashi got the idea from his 7 year-old daughter. It certainly looks like it; the film has a hyperactive pace, saturated colours, unrealistic situations taken to the extreme, storybook backdrops, and absurdly inventive cinematic devices. It's a genre film which uses the strictness of formula to allow itself a wildness of technique which is really quite extraordinary.



I discovered Hausu this Halloween just by typing "Japanese horror film" into YouTube. The clips there were enough to send me to Veoh to download the whole film (for that you need to install the Veoh player, which is free). I was surprised I hadn't heard of the film, but apparently it's been unavailable for a while on DVD and is only now being shown theatrically in the US, in places like the BAM Cinematek, with a view to appearing on DVD shortly via Janus Films. (Sorry, Janus, you probably didn't want people to know it was available on Veoh, did you?)



Generally speaking, I'm not terribly interested in genre films, in OTT horror, in 70s watch-'em-die exploito-formula flicks, in Tarantino Asian fleapit raves (not sure if he's raved about this one, but it wouldn't surprise me) and so on. I could talk about the sweet-sour contrast between the first half of the film and the second, or I could tell you the film's plot and describe how the seven teenage girls are killed one by one via a possessed house and a "seven deadly sins" structure which sees each of them offed in a way appropriate to the virtue or vice which defines their stereotypically flattened characters. Talented musician Melody is swallowed by the piano, pretty Oshare by a mirror, Kung-Fu is felled in a kung-fu fight with a witch, and there are similarly far-fetched deaths for Fantasy, Prof, Mac, and Sweet (which one drowns naked in a rising tide of cat's blood when she falls off a tatami raft? I lost track; they all sound the same when they scream).



But recounting the ludicrous plot would be a waste of time. What's really compelling about this film is all on the formal level, and it's all about excess, exuberance, license and invention. Within the first few minutes the director establishes that he can and will do anything to tell his story. He'll overlap two different musical pieces on the soundtrack, shoot a scene, Cassavetes-like, through a glass door, freeze the frame, billow a silk scarf in a wind machine, zoom suddenly down to a telescopic detail, blackening the rest of the screen, insert an animation, spin the picture upside down, use absurdly unrealistic (and gorgeously beautiful) painted backdrops featuring towering cumulo-nimbus clouds, insert a musical number... And that's even before the inventive murders begin. Here, have a look for yourself:

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The sheer absurdity and excess of the film would irritate if it weren't so beautiful and charming, with a gorgeous musical score and seductive Wizard-of-Oz-like colours. It isn't just that Obayashi throws in every cinematic device he can think of, but that he makes them work so well. His next films (Drifting Classroom, Exchange Students and The Girl Who Conquered Time) were apparently quite similar; I'll be seeking them out, interested to see whether he burned out quickly or continued, on a purely visual level, to be as inventive as he was in Hausu.



To my mind -- in this film, at least -- Nobuhiko Obayashi is much better than the over-hyped Dario Argento.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Momus, as you head into your sixth decade, I find myself somewhat concerned for your health. Since you've never done salaried work in Germany, I very much doubt you're covered by its excellent health system. And because you're no longer a UK resident, you're not covered by the NHS either. And yet it's when people get into their fifties that the niggling health problems start. Also, there's the preventative side of things. From the age of fifty, men are strongly recommended to get a colonoscopy check every couple of years, for example. How will you manage this without health coverage? If I were you, I'd start thinking about how to manage all of this now, before it's too late.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

I plan to be eaten by a synthesizer when the moment comes. And you, Anon? Will you perhaps be stung to death by "the bees of the invisible"?

[(Anonymous)]

You jest, Momus, and yet illness - and the avoidance of it - are very serious things indeed.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

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[(Anonymous)]

Ah, thanks for this entry, this movie sounds perfect to be shown at the film club I'm organizing.

It would not be bad to see you write about movies more often. I remember you're not too keen on this medium ("every movie is 20 minutes too long, even the ones that are less than 20 minutes" I think is your stance), but you analyze and write about them so well.

Also, I could help you get your hands onto Tenkosei (Exchange Students), if you like. He's made that one in 1982, four films after Hausu.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh well, hope I didn't come off wrong.

Might have misunderstood your intention of "seeking out" other Obayashi films as a "who can help" request.

[imomus.livejournal.com]

No, offer much appreciated! If you have more directions / info on the hunt, mail me (mailto:momasu@gmail.com)!

[(Anonymous)]

ohmigod i didn't realize this person had commented so! a fortuitous coincidence...maybe my opinion has more merit in numbers!

q.

YES!

[ohshitman.livejournal.com]

YES! YES! YES!
There must be something in the air - I heard of this movie forever ago, but only recently got around to watching it, and immediately after doing so, I find it being mentioned everywhere I turn... it's Hausu fever! (and Amen to that!)

You mentioned that Obayashi did advertising work... did you also know that he had a long history making experimental shorts in Japan's 1960s avant-garde / countercultural scene? it really shows, I think. and not just in the formal brilliance and bizarreness of the film either. his colors remind me a lot of Terayama. they're both fond of that color-filter-over-B&W-footage thing that I guess was all the rage back then.

I've just written up a blog post mostly about the film's formal experimentalism, if you're interested:
http://www.brrrptzzapthesubject.com/?p=837
(you can probably skip to the 4th paragraph)

it really is amazing that this was made pre-Youtube era... it so much gives off the vibe of the excesses made possible by non-linear editing... I called it "the missing link between Melies and Trecartin"

Re: YES!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Great piece, which I somehow managed to miss in my googleresearch. I planned to say exactly the same thing: that Obayashi seems to have invented his own unique formal grammar. This is exactly what I reproach pop musicians for not doing, though I admit it took me decades to do myself. I'm not surprised to learn that Obayashi was making experimemtal avant garde films in the 60s alongside Terayama. That breath of liberty and license is still there, alongside the technical slickness and seductiveness of advertising. Great stuff!

Re: YES!

[(Anonymous)]

I had heard of this film, but didn't know it has the same director as 'The girl that cut time', one of my favourite japanese films ever.



It's a quite mainstream film, starring techno-kayo idol Tomoyo Harada and all, but it manages to be at the same time absurdly pretty and slightly unsettling. It has that sort of feeling that something is not really OK with the movie, I can't really describe it, I guess I suck at Kulturkritik.

Re: YES!

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Looks wonderful!

[vogdoid.livejournal.com]

great news! I have a weird bootleg DVD I bought a few years back but the quality is terrible. I love this film.

of course you like it

[(Anonymous)]

it has more women's bodies as the site of sexualized violence. oh, and pretty colors.

Re: of course you like it

[(Anonymous)]

Did you find the deaths sexual? You must be sicker than me.

Re: of course you like it

[(Anonymous)]

you're being dishonest if you assert there's no sexual element to how the women are portrayed and subsequently terrorized.

Re: of course you like it

[(Anonymous)]

Getting your fingers chopped off by a piano is sexy for you? Do you think the audience sit there with big hard ons watching that?

Re: of course you like it

[(Anonymous)]

it's not sexy for me; i'm merely pointing out the obvious way in which the women (and their body parts as you astutely point out) are framed by the camera, in an objectified way (in the most literal sense).

Re: of course you like it

[(Anonymous)]

I found the big bear selling the melons hot, but that may just be me.

Re: of course you like it

[imomus.livejournal.com]

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Re: of course you like it

[(Anonymous)]

this is so sexually exploitive of fractal theory. have you left no sense of decency?

Genre

[(Anonymous)]

Isn't the formula of genre no more restrictive than the rules of Sonata form? A decent artist can always use them to his/her advantage.

Thanks for the link to this film; and do look after yourself, eh?

Stephen Parkin

[(Anonymous)]

Actually, Hausu was played twice on the IFC Channel last year in America.
I happened to caught it on TV randomly, and then watch it again when it shown an hour later. Great movie! Hopefully IFC will show it again, if you live in America, check IFC schedule!

ny

[(Anonymous)]

hello, sorry to be anon. from a long-time reader, was wondering if you have any suggestions about bookstores in nyc or other places of interest. an asian mall would be nice. regards, ben

Re: ny

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Printed Matter on 10th Avenue, Spoonbill and Sugartown on Bedford Avenue, St Marks Bookstore at Astor Place, and OF COURSE Kinoyuni-ahhhhhhh (http://imomus.livejournal.com/459445.html)!

Re: ny

[(Anonymous)]

thank you.

[eclectiktronik.livejournal.com]

That film makes Peter Jackson's 'Bad Taste' sound, well, tasteful!

[(Anonymous)]

momus, i think you could be a very famous cultural critic. maybe you should look into this as a career..?

q.

[(Anonymous)]

assuming, of course, that you're interested in that sort of thing. but in my humble opinion, you're pretty good at it, and you may take that however you'd like

[imomus.livejournal.com]

Why, are there positions vacant at the Culture Criticism Corporation (CCC)? When can I come in for an interview?

[(Anonymous)]

I still have to see Hau-su, but I wanted to write something on behalf of Argento: his films have two films that Obayashi's will never have: the delightful Jessica Harper and Goblin's music.

Olivier

[caws-pobi.livejournal.com]

Yes! I just saw this film a few months ago. I cracked up when the girls are watching the flashback sequence as if it were a movie, and I love how several climactic, 'scary' scenes are contrasted by a gentle piano score. Oh, and the part where the ghost cat plays the piano...

I found it on asian-horror-movies.com, which has a whole slew of wacky films. They even stream the ero-guro classic Midori, supposedly the rarest anime ever made (hand drawn by a single animator!)

[milky-eyes.livejournal.com]

housu was playing in brooklyn on halloween but I missed because I ws working... :(


I havent seen it so I cant really argue about the Dario Argento part... but...
I think he made one or maybe more classic master pieces... and the rest pretty close to complete garbage.
If you are comparing anything to susperia... well, its a solid perfect horror film.
but against him and his whole career... he's a mess.

[aliaspail.livejournal.com]

i saw it on screen at this year's asian film festival at IFC. it was great! fully restored film too! i think it was it's first time to play the restored film in usa. some relevant directors were there to comment. it was a great night and experience!