This Friday is the Final Friday the 13th of the year, and it’s all the more special because it’s taking place in October, mere weeks before Halloween. How are we celebrating?
By watching horror movies all day long, of course!
While streaming services like Shudder, Screambox, Netflix, Hulu, Max, Paramount+ and Prime Video are loaded with frights to stream for Friday the 13th, don’t forget that the nightmares aren’t limited to streaming. Good old fashioned cable television is always a great source of horror this time of the year, and that’s doubly true on a day like Friday the 13th.
We’ve scoured the schedules of channels like AMC, Syfy and Freeform to find all the horror airing on TV this Friday, putting together your official Friday the 13th TV Guide!
Highlights include a Friday the 13th marathon on AMC FearFest, the I Know What You Did...
By watching horror movies all day long, of course!
While streaming services like Shudder, Screambox, Netflix, Hulu, Max, Paramount+ and Prime Video are loaded with frights to stream for Friday the 13th, don’t forget that the nightmares aren’t limited to streaming. Good old fashioned cable television is always a great source of horror this time of the year, and that’s doubly true on a day like Friday the 13th.
We’ve scoured the schedules of channels like AMC, Syfy and Freeform to find all the horror airing on TV this Friday, putting together your official Friday the 13th TV Guide!
Highlights include a Friday the 13th marathon on AMC FearFest, the I Know What You Did...
- 10/12/2023
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
Sometimes, a particular subgenre simply isn’t your thing. I can count the number of haunted house movies I like with no fear of running out of fingers: Robert Wise’s original The Haunting; The Innocents; Crimson Peak; Hausu; Beetlejuice if you count comedies. Lake Mungo is a borderline case, not truly a haunted house movie for me, but a great film. I might also say The Others, but I last saw it about 20 years ago, so who knows? There’s one more I enjoy a lot, and we’ll come to that, but to cut a long story short, The Changeling had a bit of a mountain to climb with me. I’ll say this upfront: if you’re generally into ghost/haunting movies, you can add a star to my grade here.
Composer John Russell (George C. Scott) loses his wife and daughter when a truck ploughs into their broken down car.
Composer John Russell (George C. Scott) loses his wife and daughter when a truck ploughs into their broken down car.
- 6/2/2023
- by Sam Inglis
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
One of the most time-honored genre setups in history, the haunted house comes about through a nearly-incalculable number of entries that offer up everything, from the glossy mainstream work to the barest indie productions. A mainstay in American and European productions, Asia had tackled the genre with random success with the wild Japanese classic “Hausu” to the traditional Taiwanese effort “The Heirloom,” proving that the genre had staying power around the world. Already tackled before in “The House in the Alley,” director Le-Van Kiet's new film, a box-office smash in Vietnam upon its initial release, will now stream on Screambox from May 2, 2023.
Start screaming now with Screambox on iOS, Android, Prime Video, Roku, YouTube TV, Samsung, Comcast, Cox, and Screambox.com.
Moving out to the countryside, Thanh (Quang Tuan) and his daughters Linh (Lam Thanh My) and Yen (Mai Cat Vi) arrive at an ancestral house to get back...
Start screaming now with Screambox on iOS, Android, Prime Video, Roku, YouTube TV, Samsung, Comcast, Cox, and Screambox.com.
Moving out to the countryside, Thanh (Quang Tuan) and his daughters Linh (Lam Thanh My) and Yen (Mai Cat Vi) arrive at an ancestral house to get back...
- 4/26/2023
- by Don Anelli
- AsianMoviePulse
The world of Japanese cinema is one of the most acclaimed and beloved. This video examines many of the classics, the most essential films ever made in Japan or by Japanese filmmakers. Why is the appreciation of Japanese cinema so enduring? "Narrator Luiza Liz Bond emphasized the 'heightened aesthetic sensibility' of Japanese filmmakers, on display in 'the tender observation of Ozu's Tokyo Story, the poetic rhapsody of Kurosawa's Dreams, the harrowing feminine gaze of Videophobia." The video essay is split into different chapters covering different styles of films: Bushidō, Wabi-Sabi, Mono No Aware, Yūgen, Guro, and Hen. Many all-timer films are featured including The Sword of Doom, Seven Samurai, Hausu, Tetsuo: The Iron Man, Tampopo, Love Exposure, Sansho the Bailiff, Tokyo Sonata + many more. Discover films below. // Continue Reading ›...
- 3/31/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
For as long as we humans have been making art, we've been making art about the things that scare us. Horror as a genre has existed in every form, from macabre paintings to spooky songs to the tremendously popular horror movies that have terrified generations of thrillseekers who love the creeping dread of heroes pitted against monsters of every shape and size. Many different aspects of our culture have been indelibly marked by horror -- including the seemingly innocent and innocuous board game.
Of course, there are plenty of movies about games turning deadly, but we're not talking about your ouija boards or even party games like "Bodies Bodies Bodies." No, we're here to discuss friends turning into traitorous villains, vintage monsters raiding cursed towns, hotels you never check out of, and endless onslaughts of ghosts. Our list covers 10 perfect pairings between a spooky, scary movie night and blood-curdling board...
Of course, there are plenty of movies about games turning deadly, but we're not talking about your ouija boards or even party games like "Bodies Bodies Bodies." No, we're here to discuss friends turning into traitorous villains, vintage monsters raiding cursed towns, hotels you never check out of, and endless onslaughts of ghosts. Our list covers 10 perfect pairings between a spooky, scary movie night and blood-curdling board...
- 2/23/2023
- by Jessica Fisher
- Slash Film
Waxwork Records releases today the House (Hausu) Original Motion Picture Soundtrack!
“House, also known as Hausu, is a 1977 experimental Japanese Horror film written and directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi. The plot follows a schoolgirl traveling with her six friends to her ailing aunt’s country home where they come face to face with supernatural events as the girls are, one by one, devoured by the home.
“The soundtrack to House features original music by Asei Kobayashi, Mickie Yoshino, and Yoshino’s Japanese rock band, Godiego. The now classic soundtrack effectively lures you into a false sense of security. Beginning with upbeat pop-sing-a-longs and jovial tracks such as “Buggie Boogie” and “Cherries Were Made For Eating”, the soundtrack slowly transforms into a dark sonic landscape of chaos and psychedelia. The second half of the soundtrack offers a juxtaposed tone that sets the stage for dismemberment, man-eating pianos, flashing colors, hallucinatory visions, and...
“House, also known as Hausu, is a 1977 experimental Japanese Horror film written and directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi. The plot follows a schoolgirl traveling with her six friends to her ailing aunt’s country home where they come face to face with supernatural events as the girls are, one by one, devoured by the home.
“The soundtrack to House features original music by Asei Kobayashi, Mickie Yoshino, and Yoshino’s Japanese rock band, Godiego. The now classic soundtrack effectively lures you into a false sense of security. Beginning with upbeat pop-sing-a-longs and jovial tracks such as “Buggie Boogie” and “Cherries Were Made For Eating”, the soundtrack slowly transforms into a dark sonic landscape of chaos and psychedelia. The second half of the soundtrack offers a juxtaposed tone that sets the stage for dismemberment, man-eating pianos, flashing colors, hallucinatory visions, and...
- 10/21/2022
- by Brad Miska
- bloody-disgusting.com
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "Hausu"
Where You Can Stream It: Criterion Channel
The Pitch: A gorgeous teenage girl named Gorgeous becomes upset when her father brings home his fiancée one night. In an act of rebellion, she goes to visit her distant aunt, who lives in an old house in the countryside. Six friends come along for the ride. Prof is smart and wears glasses; Fantasy dreams of one day...
The post The Daily Stream: In the Beautiful, Bizarre Blockbuster Hausu, a Teenage Girl is Eaten By a Piano appeared first on /Film.
The Movie: "Hausu"
Where You Can Stream It: Criterion Channel
The Pitch: A gorgeous teenage girl named Gorgeous becomes upset when her father brings home his fiancée one night. In an act of rebellion, she goes to visit her distant aunt, who lives in an old house in the countryside. Six friends come along for the ride. Prof is smart and wears glasses; Fantasy dreams of one day...
The post The Daily Stream: In the Beautiful, Bizarre Blockbuster Hausu, a Teenage Girl is Eaten By a Piano appeared first on /Film.
- 6/9/2022
- by Adam Wescott
- Slash Film
One of the most time-honored genre setups in history, the haunted house comes about through a nearly-incalculable number of entries that offer up everything, from the glossy mainstream work to the barest indie productions. A mainstay in American and European productions, Asia had tackled the genre with random success with the wild Japanese classic “Hausu” to the traditional Taiwanese effort “The Heirloom,” proving that the genre had staying power around the world. Already tackled before in “The House in the Alley,” director Le-Van Kiet’s new film, a box-office smash in Vietnam upon its initial release, now arrives in select US theaters courtesy of T2 Group, LLC.
Moving out to the countryside, Thanh (Quang Tuan) and his daughters Linh (Lam Thanh My) and Yen (Mai Cat Vi) arrive at an ancestral house to get back on their feet following the death of his wife. As they spend time together in the house,...
Moving out to the countryside, Thanh (Quang Tuan) and his daughters Linh (Lam Thanh My) and Yen (Mai Cat Vi) arrive at an ancestral house to get back on their feet following the death of his wife. As they spend time together in the house,...
- 5/15/2022
- by Don Anelli
- AsianMoviePulse
Terracotta Streaming – Nobuhiko Obayashi focus
Terracotta is now streaming the Obayashi Anti-War trilogy of films. Casting Blossoms to the Sky, Seven Weeks and Hanagatami offer three different stories from the celebrated director of Hausu.
For fans of Japanese cinema, Terracotta also has a collection of films from Sion Sono, Shinya Tsukamoto and Toshiaki Toyoda.
Check out the growing selection of titles on the Terracotta streaming site; new titles are added regularly.
(UK and Eire only)
Terracotta Blu-ray & DVD Store
Eureka have announced three new kung fu titles on Blu-ray, with a limited first run slipcase edition. The first up is Odd Couple starring Sammo Hung.
Knockabout and the much anticipated release of Dreadnaught starring Yuen Biao and directed by Yuen Woo Ping, are both out in April. All three are available to pre-order from the Terracotta store.
Check out the titles in the Lunar New Year promotion – titles start from...
Terracotta is now streaming the Obayashi Anti-War trilogy of films. Casting Blossoms to the Sky, Seven Weeks and Hanagatami offer three different stories from the celebrated director of Hausu.
For fans of Japanese cinema, Terracotta also has a collection of films from Sion Sono, Shinya Tsukamoto and Toshiaki Toyoda.
Check out the growing selection of titles on the Terracotta streaming site; new titles are added regularly.
(UK and Eire only)
Terracotta Blu-ray & DVD Store
Eureka have announced three new kung fu titles on Blu-ray, with a limited first run slipcase edition. The first up is Odd Couple starring Sammo Hung.
Knockabout and the much anticipated release of Dreadnaught starring Yuen Biao and directed by Yuen Woo Ping, are both out in April. All three are available to pre-order from the Terracotta store.
Check out the titles in the Lunar New Year promotion – titles start from...
- 2/9/2022
- by Suzie Cho
- AsianMoviePulse
When Nobuhiko Obayashi sadly passed away in April 2020, most social media was filled with many posts showing pictures of the director and perhaps the feature most people remember, his 1977 film “Hausu”. While there is no denying about the quality of said film, given the vast career of Obayashi which spans over five decades, these pictures also indicate that so many viewers still need to discover for themselves the multitude of themes and the experimental visual style of the majority of his body of work, in which his debut feature makes up only a small portion. One way to start this journey into Obayashi’s work may be the upcoming release of his penultimate work, “Hanagatami” by Third Window, a touching and very poetic film about growing up during war times.
“Hanagatami” is screening at the Hong Kong Arts Centre, as part of the Obayashi Nobuhiko Film Show Case
In 1941, Toshihiko (Shunsuke Kubozuka), a sixteen-year-old teenager,...
“Hanagatami” is screening at the Hong Kong Arts Centre, as part of the Obayashi Nobuhiko Film Show Case
In 1941, Toshihiko (Shunsuke Kubozuka), a sixteen-year-old teenager,...
- 11/10/2021
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Labyrinth of Cinema Review: Nobuhiko Ôbayashi’s Final Film is a Mammoth, Humbling Viewing Experience
There are so many critical and theoretical entry points for discussing a film so dense as Nobuhiko Ôbayashi’s Labyrinth of Cinema that it’s hard to know where to begin. One could easily spend countless hours and thousands of words mulling over all the literary and cinematic references, tonal jumps, and stylistic eccentricities. But one thing’s certain above all else: this mammoth final effort by Ôbayashi, an artist who so often destroyed the conventional boundaries of cinematic space in works like 1977’s Hausu, is a completely humbling viewing experience.
Displaying an unmatched breakneck momentum, Labyrinth careens through key moments in Japanese history and parallel genre universes with the inevitable directionality of a boomerang passing through multiple worm holes only to circle back again. Stylistically, Ôbayashi uses rear-projection and green screen to turn the classic iconography and archetypes of Japanese cinema into a plastic digital space where characters exist...
Displaying an unmatched breakneck momentum, Labyrinth careens through key moments in Japanese history and parallel genre universes with the inevitable directionality of a boomerang passing through multiple worm holes only to circle back again. Stylistically, Ôbayashi uses rear-projection and green screen to turn the classic iconography and archetypes of Japanese cinema into a plastic digital space where characters exist...
- 10/20/2021
- by Glenn Heath Jr.
- The Film Stage
“She eats unmarried young girls. It is the only time she can wear her wedding gown.”
Don’t miss the upcoming screening of the local hero’s best films. Director Nobuhiko Obayashi’s House (1977) will be showing Friday, October 22nd at 8 pm. Tickets are $9 each The Arkadin is located at 5228 Gravois Ave, St Louis, Mo 63116. Films are currently showing on the Backlot Patio (Enter through the Heavy Anchor) and bringing extra lawn chairs is strongly encouraged. The Arkadin Cinema site can be found Here
“Delirious, deranged, gonzo or just gone, baby, gone — no single adjective or even a pileup does justice to House.” -New York Times How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashi’s indescribable 1977 movie House (Hausu)? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story?…
In House, Oshare is excited about spending summer vacation with her father, until she finds out that his beautiful, freakishly serene girlfriend Ryouko would be going as well.
Don’t miss the upcoming screening of the local hero’s best films. Director Nobuhiko Obayashi’s House (1977) will be showing Friday, October 22nd at 8 pm. Tickets are $9 each The Arkadin is located at 5228 Gravois Ave, St Louis, Mo 63116. Films are currently showing on the Backlot Patio (Enter through the Heavy Anchor) and bringing extra lawn chairs is strongly encouraged. The Arkadin Cinema site can be found Here
“Delirious, deranged, gonzo or just gone, baby, gone — no single adjective or even a pileup does justice to House.” -New York Times How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashi’s indescribable 1977 movie House (Hausu)? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story?…
In House, Oshare is excited about spending summer vacation with her father, until she finds out that his beautiful, freakishly serene girlfriend Ryouko would be going as well.
- 10/20/2021
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
“f you believe, my dear Francesca, you are… gullible. Can you look around this world and believe in the goodness of a god who rules it? Famine, Pestilence, War, Disease and Death! They rule this world.”
Vincent Price is gold in his hometown of St. Louis. Don’t miss the upcoming screening of the local hero’s best films. Vincent Price in director Roger Corman’s Masque Of The Red Death (1964) will be showing Wednesday, October 20th at 8 pm. Tickets are $5 each The Arkadin is located at 5228 Gravois Ave, St Louis, Mo 63116. Films are currently showing on the Backlot Patio (Enter through the Heavy Anchor) and bringing extra lawn chairs is strongly encouraged. The Arkadin Cinema site can be found Here
The famous Aip Corman-Poe series of films concluded with a great one-two punch: The Masque Of The Red Death and The Tomb Of Ligeia, both released in 1964. Corman had...
Vincent Price is gold in his hometown of St. Louis. Don’t miss the upcoming screening of the local hero’s best films. Vincent Price in director Roger Corman’s Masque Of The Red Death (1964) will be showing Wednesday, October 20th at 8 pm. Tickets are $5 each The Arkadin is located at 5228 Gravois Ave, St Louis, Mo 63116. Films are currently showing on the Backlot Patio (Enter through the Heavy Anchor) and bringing extra lawn chairs is strongly encouraged. The Arkadin Cinema site can be found Here
The famous Aip Corman-Poe series of films concluded with a great one-two punch: The Masque Of The Red Death and The Tomb Of Ligeia, both released in 1964. Corman had...
- 10/12/2021
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The BFI today announces highlights of the UK-wide programme for BFI Japan 2021: 100 Years Of Japanese Cinema, coming to cinemas from October – December 2021. Highlights of the celebration will include a BFI re-release of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954), a BFI Japan Tour, featuring classics from Yasujirō Ozu and Akira Kurosawa, alongside cult titles from Kon Ichikawa and Toshio Matsumoto, which will feature many new 4K restorations and visit cinemas across the UK. For audiences who cannot attend a screening in their local cinema, there is a vast BFI Japan programme online on BFI Player Subscription. The BFI is also working closely with the National Lottery funded BFI Film Audience Network (Fan) to enable cinemas across the UK to host special screenings and events as part of BFI Japan.
Seasons and events will include Day For Night’s Urban, Natural, Human – exploring Japan on screen programme, showing at Home, Manchester, Close-Up...
Seasons and events will include Day For Night’s Urban, Natural, Human – exploring Japan on screen programme, showing at Home, Manchester, Close-Up...
- 10/6/2021
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
“Why should you be afraid to die? Your soul has been dead for a long long time.”
Halloween month just got better in St. Louis as The Arkadin Cinema and Bar announces their spooky October line-up. The Arkadin Cinema, a local independent theater hosts a super-fun outdoor film series that takes place in the back lot at The Heavy Anchor (5226 Gravois Ave in St. Louis) Showtime is 8:00. Enter through the front of The Heavy Anchor. Proof of vaccination or negative Covid test from the past 72 hours is required for all events. All events are 21+.Limited seating available. They have some chairs available, but it’s strongly recommended that you bring your own chair, if you can. Masks are required for entry and must be worn when not eating or drinking.
For more details and ticket information, visit the Arkadin website Here
Here’s the kooky, spooky line-up:
October 1:...
Halloween month just got better in St. Louis as The Arkadin Cinema and Bar announces their spooky October line-up. The Arkadin Cinema, a local independent theater hosts a super-fun outdoor film series that takes place in the back lot at The Heavy Anchor (5226 Gravois Ave in St. Louis) Showtime is 8:00. Enter through the front of The Heavy Anchor. Proof of vaccination or negative Covid test from the past 72 hours is required for all events. All events are 21+.Limited seating available. They have some chairs available, but it’s strongly recommended that you bring your own chair, if you can. Masks are required for entry and must be worn when not eating or drinking.
For more details and ticket information, visit the Arkadin website Here
Here’s the kooky, spooky line-up:
October 1:...
- 9/24/2021
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Even before the success of “Shoplifters” the family drama has been one of the most popular genre within Japanese cinema. As a mirror of social, political and economic issues the family portrait can be quite powerful as many artists, also from other media, have found out which is perhaps why these images have become so frequent. However, it takes a certain kind of director, among other things, to make a family stand out, but in the case of Nobuhiko Obayashi’s “Seven Weeks” we luckily have one of those features. Described by the director as “Guernica in moving images”, the story Obayashi tells in one of his last movies touches upon a death in a family, and the kind of conflicts and memories it brings for the relatives left behind, while at the same time presenting a uniquely maverick portrayal of post-war Japan.
“Seven Weeks” Opens Japan Society, NY and Nationwide Virtual Cinemas and Theaters,...
“Seven Weeks” Opens Japan Society, NY and Nationwide Virtual Cinemas and Theaters,...
- 7/5/2021
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Nobuhiko Ôbayashi’s last work starts as a sentimental elegy to cinema-going’s golden age but takes us through the heart of Japanese darkness
Nobuhiko Ôbayashi is the Japanese film-maker who directed the cult 1977 horror Hausu, or House, and in his long and prolific career also specialised in TV ads starring American movie actors for the domestic market (satirised in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation). Just before his death last year, at the age of 82, he completed this film, his valediction to cinema, to Japan and to life: an epic blitz of pop-culture hyperactivity: baffling, surreal, tragicomic, then simply tragic. At first, it looks as if it is going to be a sentimental lump-in-the-throat elegy to cinema-going’s golden age. But then it takes us to the heart of Japanese darkness: the second world war and the atomic bomb.
In the present day, a movie theatre in Onomichi, near Hiroshima,...
Nobuhiko Ôbayashi is the Japanese film-maker who directed the cult 1977 horror Hausu, or House, and in his long and prolific career also specialised in TV ads starring American movie actors for the domestic market (satirised in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation). Just before his death last year, at the age of 82, he completed this film, his valediction to cinema, to Japan and to life: an epic blitz of pop-culture hyperactivity: baffling, surreal, tragicomic, then simply tragic. At first, it looks as if it is going to be a sentimental lump-in-the-throat elegy to cinema-going’s golden age. But then it takes us to the heart of Japanese darkness: the second world war and the atomic bomb.
In the present day, a movie theatre in Onomichi, near Hiroshima,...
- 4/26/2021
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
On the October 16, 2020 episode of /Film Daily, /Film senior writer Ben Pearson is joined by /Film managing editor Jacob Hall, weekend editor Brad Oman, and writers Hoai-Tran Bui and Chris Evangelista to talk about what they’ve been up to at the virtual water cooler. Opening Banter: Peter’s away, but the staff will play. […]
The post Water Cooler: Rebecca, Hubie Halloween, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Star Trek: Picard, Hausu, and More appeared first on /Film.
The post Water Cooler: Rebecca, Hubie Halloween, The Haunting of Bly Manor, Star Trek: Picard, Hausu, and More appeared first on /Film.
- 10/16/2020
- by Ben Pearson
- Slash Film
One Shot is a series that seeks to find an essence of cinema history in one single image of a movie. Hausu (1977) is showing July 22 – August 20, 2020 on Mubi in the United Kingdom.By turns surreal, kitschy, psychedelic, traditional, sentimental, and zany, Hausu keeps us spinning round and round as we sink deeper and deeper under its spell. A ghost cat vomiting blood? Check. A decapitated head biting friends on the ass? Yep. A piano with an appetite for human flesh? You bet! A hippy schoolteacher who turns into a bunch of bananas? Obviously. But these examples don’t even begin to convey the truly delirious nature of the film, which Nobuhiko Ōbayashi layers with playful special effects, animation, meta-commentary, and antiwar sagacity. Filled with genre conventions yet utterly original, the film’s 1970s psychedelia tempers the gruesome actions with comedy. As its name implies, Hausu is a horror film about location,...
- 7/25/2020
- MUBI
Three upcoming Japanese films from Third Window Films are now available for preorder.
Hanagatami
Out July 6th
In 2016, Nobuhiko Obayashi, the director of the cult Japanese film House (Hausu) was diagnosed with lung cancer and given only a few months to live. Despite not much time left, for what was supposed to be his final film he adapted Kazuo Dan’s 1937 novella Hanagatami, his passion project 40 years in the making.
In 1941, as Japan prepares its attack on Pearl Harbor, 16 year-old Toshihiko (Shunsuke Kubozuka) leaves his parents in Amsterdam and moves to the seaside town of Karatsu where his aunt Keiko (Takako Tokiwa) cares for his ailing cousin Mina (Honoka Yahagi). Immersed in the exquisite nature and phenomenal culture of Karatsu, Toshihiko befriends the beautiful, Apollo-like Ukai (Shinnosuke Mitsushima), the contemplative Kira (Keishi Nagatsuka), the ingenuous Akine (Hirona Yamazaki) and the brooding Chitose (Mugi Kadowaki) as they all contend with the war’s inescapable gravitational pull.
Hanagatami
Out July 6th
In 2016, Nobuhiko Obayashi, the director of the cult Japanese film House (Hausu) was diagnosed with lung cancer and given only a few months to live. Despite not much time left, for what was supposed to be his final film he adapted Kazuo Dan’s 1937 novella Hanagatami, his passion project 40 years in the making.
In 1941, as Japan prepares its attack on Pearl Harbor, 16 year-old Toshihiko (Shunsuke Kubozuka) leaves his parents in Amsterdam and moves to the seaside town of Karatsu where his aunt Keiko (Takako Tokiwa) cares for his ailing cousin Mina (Honoka Yahagi). Immersed in the exquisite nature and phenomenal culture of Karatsu, Toshihiko befriends the beautiful, Apollo-like Ukai (Shinnosuke Mitsushima), the contemplative Kira (Keishi Nagatsuka), the ingenuous Akine (Hirona Yamazaki) and the brooding Chitose (Mugi Kadowaki) as they all contend with the war’s inescapable gravitational pull.
- 6/16/2020
- by Rhythm Zaveri
- AsianMoviePulse
When Nobuhiko Obayashi sadly passed away in April 2020, most social media was filled with many posts showing pictures of the director and perhaps the feature most people remember, his 1977 film “Hausu”. While there is no denying about the quality of said film, given the vast career of Obayashi which spans over five decades, these pictures also indicate that so many viewers still need to discover for themselves the multitude of themes and the experimental visual style of the majority of his body of work, in which his debut feature makes up only a small portion. One way to start this journey into Obayashi’s work may be the upcoming release of his penultimate work, “Hanagatami” by Third Window, a touching and very poetic film about growing up during war times.
In 1941, Toshihiko (Shunsuke Kubozuka), a sixteen-year-old teenager, returns from Europe to his Japanese home to attend school.
In 1941, Toshihiko (Shunsuke Kubozuka), a sixteen-year-old teenager, returns from Europe to his Japanese home to attend school.
- 5/16/2020
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Cat person or not, there’s something we can all agree on: Universal Pictures’ live-action (or is it more CGI?) adaptation Cats was definitely… not what we wanted to see. We at Amp believe, however, that there are plenty of great cat-related movies out there — Asian ones, specifically — that can represent our feline friends in a less grotesque light. We’ve compiled below a list of comedies and horror, of the trippy and documentary, of the adorable and the heartwarming, all in honor of the original homebody champs. Get cozy, because these films will definitely warrant some snuggle-time with our favorite furballs.
1. Take Care of My Cat
Jeong’s themes are universal and not just the anxieties of young women in South Korea: they can be applied to many countries in the world and to many people. “Take Care of my Cat”, therefore, is relatively gimmick-free for a coming-of-age drama...
1. Take Care of My Cat
Jeong’s themes are universal and not just the anxieties of young women in South Korea: they can be applied to many countries in the world and to many people. “Take Care of my Cat”, therefore, is relatively gimmick-free for a coming-of-age drama...
- 5/2/2020
- by AMP Group
- AsianMoviePulse
Many of us outside of Asia know and love Ôbayashi Nobuhiko predominantly for his wonderfully imaginative, not to mention utterly bonkers, cult favorite, Hausu, from 1977, which grew to legendary status upon the release of its 2009 restoration. Those who lapped up the supplements of the film’s Criterion package were tickled to learn that the production was largely inspired by the dreams of his 9-year-old niece, among other wonderful oddball tidbits. House (its English-language title) was a project swimming with curious factoids just like this one, and I think my favorite of the lot might just be the fact that the screenplay, which had been floating around for some time before making its way to Obayashi, was considered not only unfilmable, but unreadable. Obayashi not only saw...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 4/22/2020
- Screen Anarchy
Japanese director Nobuhiko Obayashi died Friday in Tokyo of lung cancer. He was 82.
Born in Onomichi, a port on Japan’s Inland Sea, in 1938, Obayashi began making films as a child, using a projector and film owned by his physician father.
A pioneering experimental filmmaker in the 1960s, Obayashi went on direct nearly 3,000 TV commercials in a long career, many with international talent including Charles Bronson and Catherine Deneuve.
In 1977 he made his feature debut with “House,” a free-spirited, wildly imaginative horror-fantasy that was a hit on its release in Japan and later became a cult favorite abroad.
In Japan, Obayashi is best known for a trilogy of films he shot in Onomichi: “Exchange Students” (1982), “The Girl Who Leapt through Time” (1983) and “Lonely Heart” (1985).
These and other films he made in the 1980s and after typically starred young female talents and had sci-fi and fantasy elements. Obayashi also worked a more serious vein,...
Born in Onomichi, a port on Japan’s Inland Sea, in 1938, Obayashi began making films as a child, using a projector and film owned by his physician father.
A pioneering experimental filmmaker in the 1960s, Obayashi went on direct nearly 3,000 TV commercials in a long career, many with international talent including Charles Bronson and Catherine Deneuve.
In 1977 he made his feature debut with “House,” a free-spirited, wildly imaginative horror-fantasy that was a hit on its release in Japan and later became a cult favorite abroad.
In Japan, Obayashi is best known for a trilogy of films he shot in Onomichi: “Exchange Students” (1982), “The Girl Who Leapt through Time” (1983) and “Lonely Heart” (1985).
These and other films he made in the 1980s and after typically starred young female talents and had sci-fi and fantasy elements. Obayashi also worked a more serious vein,...
- 4/11/2020
- by Mark Schilling
- Variety Film + TV
By Omar Rasya Joenoes
“Are you married?”
“I hate men.”
“Then, you have no hope.”
“My hope is to die.”
The conversation in the search description takes place on a ride home, under the pouring rain. It is initiated by a man, who happens to be Japan’s no. 3 hitman, and answered by a woman, who is a suicidal femme fatale. Witnessing their first exchange is a dead bird, hung between them. And in this weirdest of all film-noir films, the scene belongs to a long line of surreal, mind-boggling, out-of-this-world scene after scene after scene after scene.
“Japanese films are weird” is surely a stereotype most of you, if not all of you, have heard at least once before. It is not entirely true and not entirely mistaken. With cult titles like Funky Forest (2005), Hausu (1977), Big Man Japan (2007), Versus (2000), Tokyo Gore Police (2008), RoboGeisha (2009), Tetsuo the Iron Man...
“Are you married?”
“I hate men.”
“Then, you have no hope.”
“My hope is to die.”
The conversation in the search description takes place on a ride home, under the pouring rain. It is initiated by a man, who happens to be Japan’s no. 3 hitman, and answered by a woman, who is a suicidal femme fatale. Witnessing their first exchange is a dead bird, hung between them. And in this weirdest of all film-noir films, the scene belongs to a long line of surreal, mind-boggling, out-of-this-world scene after scene after scene after scene.
“Japanese films are weird” is surely a stereotype most of you, if not all of you, have heard at least once before. It is not entirely true and not entirely mistaken. With cult titles like Funky Forest (2005), Hausu (1977), Big Man Japan (2007), Versus (2000), Tokyo Gore Police (2008), RoboGeisha (2009), Tetsuo the Iron Man...
- 3/23/2020
- by Guest Writer
- AsianMoviePulse
Nobuhiko Obayashi’s classic 1977 film, “House,” which is also known as “Hausu,” is a creative and dreamy psychedelic experience that has to be seen to be believed. What was supposed to be Japanese company, Toho’s answer to Spielberg’s “Jaws” became something entirely different. Sprouting from the imagination of Obayashi’s daughter, the film transformed into a bizarre creation truly of its own with use of a unique blend of practical and special effects, varied editing techniques, and beautiful set pieces. Originally panned by critics when it first got released in Japan for it’s absurdity, it has since gone on to become a cult classic among fans of Asian cinema all around the world, as well as many film critics today.
Enter the world of Obayashi.
The story of “House” begins with a high school student named, Gorgeous, who is excited for summer vacation, which she has plans to spend with her father.
Enter the world of Obayashi.
The story of “House” begins with a high school student named, Gorgeous, who is excited for summer vacation, which she has plans to spend with her father.
- 8/21/2017
- by Nicholas Richardson
- AsianMoviePulse
If anybody’s dreams are interesting, Akira Kurosawa’s should be, and this late career fantasy is a consistently rewarding string of morality tales and visual essays that pop off the screen. Some of the imagery has input from the famed Ishiro Honda.
Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 842
1990 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 120 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date November 15, 2016 / 39.95
Starring Mieko Harada, Mitsunori Isaki, Toshihiko Nakano, Yoshitaka Zushi, Hisashi Igawa, Chosuke, Chishu Ryu, Martin Scorsese, Masayuki Yui.
Cinematography Takao Saito, Shoji Ueda
Film Editor Tome Minami
Original Music Sinichiro Ikebe
Creative Consultant ishiro Honda
Visual Effects Supervisors Ken Ralston, Mark Sullivan
Produced by Hisao Kurosawa, Mike Y. Inoue
Written and Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
At the twilight of his career, after some episodes of career frustration and instability, Akira Kurosawa hit a high note with the epic costume dramas Kagemusha and Ran.
Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 842
1990 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 120 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date November 15, 2016 / 39.95
Starring Mieko Harada, Mitsunori Isaki, Toshihiko Nakano, Yoshitaka Zushi, Hisashi Igawa, Chosuke, Chishu Ryu, Martin Scorsese, Masayuki Yui.
Cinematography Takao Saito, Shoji Ueda
Film Editor Tome Minami
Original Music Sinichiro Ikebe
Creative Consultant ishiro Honda
Visual Effects Supervisors Ken Ralston, Mark Sullivan
Produced by Hisao Kurosawa, Mike Y. Inoue
Written and Directed by Akira Kurosawa
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
At the twilight of his career, after some episodes of career frustration and instability, Akira Kurosawa hit a high note with the epic costume dramas Kagemusha and Ran.
- 11/21/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
We let our hair down for Halloween and celebrate the oddity that is Ôbayashi’s House (1977). Dave and Jessica join Mark and Aaron. We agree that House is the most random and the most bonkers “horror” film in existence. Rather than break it down thematically, we celebrate its weirdness by pointing out the Wtf moments and the occasions that make us laugh. Warning: this episode has a lot of profanity.
About the film:
How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashi’s indescribable 1977 movie House (Hausu)? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode of Scooby-Doo as directed by Mario Bava? Any of the above will do for this hallucinatory head trip about a schoolgirl who travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt’s creaky country home and comes 5face-to-face with evil spirits, a demonic house cat, a bloodthirsty piano, and other ghoulish visions, all realized by Obayashi via mattes,...
About the film:
How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashi’s indescribable 1977 movie House (Hausu)? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode of Scooby-Doo as directed by Mario Bava? Any of the above will do for this hallucinatory head trip about a schoolgirl who travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt’s creaky country home and comes 5face-to-face with evil spirits, a demonic house cat, a bloodthirsty piano, and other ghoulish visions, all realized by Obayashi via mattes,...
- 10/31/2016
- by Aaron West
- CriterionCast
Nobuhiko Obayashi’s 1977 film flew under the radar for years until the recent interest in Japanese horror films shined a light on its peculiar charms. Best viewed as The Haunting meets Hellzapoppin’, Hausu, at its gonzo best, works as a reminder of the staid and conservative state of current American horror films. The film, while a sizable hit in its homeland, never received a stateside release until its appearance on a must-have Criterion Blu-ray edition.
- 12/18/2015
- by TFH Team
- Trailers from Hell
It's reassuring to learn that the gulf between east and west isn't as great as we might assume: it turns out that, in the sixties, just as they did in Europe and America, people in Japan got about mainly by means of jump-cuts.Nobuhiko Obayashi is best known for Hausu (a.k.a. House, 1977), a dayglo, balls-out insane horror movie that plays like a cross between The Evil Dead, a lunatic's idea of Douglas Sirk, and a girl's comic, all fed through a mincer and laced with psilocybin. The prolific filmmaker (still going strong today) actually began in the sixties with TV commercials and experimental films, of which the forty-minute oddity Emotion is one.The movie, a collage of camera effects, stills, pixillation and every other trick the decade had to offer, opens with a dedication to Roger Vadim's Blood and Roses, but though the film does feature lesbianism and vampirism,...
- 11/12/2015
- by David Cairns
- MUBI
Special Mention: Un chien andalou
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Written by Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel
France, 1929
Genre: Experimental Short
The dream – or nightmare – has been a staple of horror cinema for decades. In 1929, Luis Bunuel joined forces with Salvador Dali to create Un chien andalou, an experimental and unforgettable 17-minute surrealist masterpiece. Buñuel famously said that he and Dalí wrote the film by telling one another their dreams. The film went on to influence the horror genre immensely. After all, even as manipulative as the “dream” device is, it’s still a proven way to jolt an audience. Just ask Wes Craven, who understood this bit of cinematic psychology when he dreamt of the central force behind A Nightmare on Elm Street, a film intended to be an exploration of surreal horror. David Lynch is contemporary cinema’s most devoted student of Un chien andalou – the severed ear at...
Directed by Luis Buñuel
Written by Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel
France, 1929
Genre: Experimental Short
The dream – or nightmare – has been a staple of horror cinema for decades. In 1929, Luis Bunuel joined forces with Salvador Dali to create Un chien andalou, an experimental and unforgettable 17-minute surrealist masterpiece. Buñuel famously said that he and Dalí wrote the film by telling one another their dreams. The film went on to influence the horror genre immensely. After all, even as manipulative as the “dream” device is, it’s still a proven way to jolt an audience. Just ask Wes Craven, who understood this bit of cinematic psychology when he dreamt of the central force behind A Nightmare on Elm Street, a film intended to be an exploration of surreal horror. David Lynch is contemporary cinema’s most devoted student of Un chien andalou – the severed ear at...
- 10/28/2015
- by Ricky Fernandes
- SoundOnSight
Goodnight Mommy directors Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz on Ulrich Seidl and Michael Haneke: "It seems to be true because many artists reflect that kind of atmosphere." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala's Goodnight Mommy starring Lukas Schwarz, Elias Schwarz and Susanne Wuest, produced by Ulrich Seidl is the corner of your mind where Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Georges Franju, Damien Hirst and Michael Haneke meet in Nobuhiko Obayashi's House (Hausu) and invite Gregor Samsa to converge with the von Trapp family.
After a short prelude in the form of a clip from an Austrian version of the Sound Of Music story, starring Ruth Leuwerik, we settle into the country house of a woman (Wuest) who has just undergone extensive facial surgery. Her twin sons, Lukas and Elias, are seen spending the time on the grounds around the isolated house.
Hello Mommy Susanne Wuest:...
Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala's Goodnight Mommy starring Lukas Schwarz, Elias Schwarz and Susanne Wuest, produced by Ulrich Seidl is the corner of your mind where Stanley Kubrick, Alfred Hitchcock, Georges Franju, Damien Hirst and Michael Haneke meet in Nobuhiko Obayashi's House (Hausu) and invite Gregor Samsa to converge with the von Trapp family.
After a short prelude in the form of a clip from an Austrian version of the Sound Of Music story, starring Ruth Leuwerik, we settle into the country house of a woman (Wuest) who has just undergone extensive facial surgery. Her twin sons, Lukas and Elias, are seen spending the time on the grounds around the isolated house.
Hello Mommy Susanne Wuest:...
- 3/31/2015
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
In an odd turn of events, this list has a number of films that don’t have English-language titles. They just go by whatever the original title was. Good for us. What we do see in this portion of the list is a few movies that weren’t really created specifically to be horror films, but their themes and visuals made it so. In addition, we have some heavyweights of non-horror cinema creating horror films that push the genre all the more upward. “Thinking man horror,” if you will.
20. Le locataire (1976)
English Language Title: The Tenant
Directed by: Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski has made one of the greatest horror “trilogies” of all time with 1965′s British production Repulsion, 1968′s American production Rosemary’s Baby, and 1976′s French production The Tenant, completing his “Apartment Trilogy.” Unlike the other two, Polanski actually stars in The Tenant as Trelkovsky, a reserved man renting an apartment in Paris.
20. Le locataire (1976)
English Language Title: The Tenant
Directed by: Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski has made one of the greatest horror “trilogies” of all time with 1965′s British production Repulsion, 1968′s American production Rosemary’s Baby, and 1976′s French production The Tenant, completing his “Apartment Trilogy.” Unlike the other two, Polanski actually stars in The Tenant as Trelkovsky, a reserved man renting an apartment in Paris.
- 7/26/2014
- by Joshua Gaul
- SoundOnSight
There are myriad reasons why some horror films don’t make a connection with moviegoers, and in turn fail to live up to the expectations set by the studios that financed them. Sometimes it’s because a movie simply isn’t any good, but often a film’s lack of box office success can be attributed to circumstances beyond the filmmakers’ control: factors like lack of appropriate promotion, bad marketing, poorly-timed release dates and unduly harsh critical reception can work against an otherwise decent film's success. There are countless well-made movies that get a bad rap for one reason or another, and we think it’s a damn shame that moviegoers often miss out. Because we love an underdog story, we're showing our appreciation for these under-appreciated horror titles by highlighting five of our favorites... Slither I cannot say enough good things about Slither. It cleverly blends comedy with horror,...
- 11/13/2013
- by Tyler Doupe
- FEARnet
This Week’s Must Read: Pfft, forget the Sight & Sound polls — Hey, they never ask for my opinion! — the One+One Filmmaking Journal has compiled a great list of 10 films they love and which you must see, none of which we can really argue with. The list includes films by George Kuchar, Jeff Keen, Derek Jarman, Shuji Terayama and, of course, several more — including one film we ourselves saw and loved just recently, the bat-shit crazy Hausu by Nobuhiko Obayashi.If you want some awesome Sunday experimental film browsing, then a great stop is the Mono No Aware filmmaking workshop films!If you live in Toronto, or want to live there, the Images Festival is looking to hire a programmer for next year’s festival.Film Journal International reviews Pip Chodorov’s Free Radicals: A History of Experimental Film, which has been screening at the Anthology Film Archives. The review asks the question,...
- 8/5/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Fancy a scare of the unfamiliar variety? Then check out some of the finest horror movies you've never seen...
There are a lot of terrible horror movies out there. Possibly more than any other genre, horror seems to appeal to wannabe filmmakers who figure it’s easy and cheap to pull off a scary movie – and thanks to the success of many low budget horror movies, distributors seem to be putting out an awful lot of them. So I’d understand if you didn’t want to trawl through an endless sea of crap to find the few real gems amongst the cinematic slurry.
But I’m an addict, and keep coming back for more punishment. The payoff is that sometimes, very occasionally, you discover something brilliant. Here are 25 great horror movies that you probably haven’t seen, possibly haven’t even heard of (some of them don’t even...
There are a lot of terrible horror movies out there. Possibly more than any other genre, horror seems to appeal to wannabe filmmakers who figure it’s easy and cheap to pull off a scary movie – and thanks to the success of many low budget horror movies, distributors seem to be putting out an awful lot of them. So I’d understand if you didn’t want to trawl through an endless sea of crap to find the few real gems amongst the cinematic slurry.
But I’m an addict, and keep coming back for more punishment. The payoff is that sometimes, very occasionally, you discover something brilliant. Here are 25 great horror movies that you probably haven’t seen, possibly haven’t even heard of (some of them don’t even...
- 1/4/2012
- Den of Geek
Matt here… Last year I asked all of the WhatCulture! (then Obsessed With Film) writers to come up with their own Top 10 favourite horror film lists as part of our 31 Days of Horror celebration to the genre but for some reason our New York based writer Mark Zhuravsky’s got lost in the fold. I was reminded this past week that we never did publish Mark’s and so here it is for your reading pleasure today, a particularly eclectic and intriguing list.
Also be sure to check our other authors lists at the end of this post.
I am not loath to say horror is not my choice genre – that honor goes to crime dramas, occasionally to my chagrin. That said, I love a good chiller as much as any other goodfella. Here’s a list of ten films, some obviously horror, others more subversive, that I consider my...
Also be sure to check our other authors lists at the end of this post.
I am not loath to say horror is not my choice genre – that honor goes to crime dramas, occasionally to my chagrin. That said, I love a good chiller as much as any other goodfella. Here’s a list of ten films, some obviously horror, others more subversive, that I consider my...
- 10/8/2011
- by Mark Zhuravsky
- Obsessed with Film
Savage Witches is the upcoming feature film by British filmmaker Daniel Fawcett. After getting constantly in trouble with their headmistress, Gretchen and Margarita (Christina Wood and Victoria Smith) hide out in their secret location in the woods and transform the world around them with their magic.
Described as a “playful and experimental” movie, the filmmakers are raising production funds through the crowdfunding website Sponsume. It’s basically the same idea as other crowdfunding websites in which the escalating levels of donation come with different gift packages, including, in this case, posters, DVDs, production photos, screening invites and more.
Inspired primarily by two films — Daisies, directed by Vera Chytilová; and Hausu, directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi — Savage Witches is designed to be “an ode to cinema, to the magic of cinema, to filmmaking as an art form, as a tool for expression and exploration.”
To help fund this project, please visit the Savage Witches page on Sponsume.
Described as a “playful and experimental” movie, the filmmakers are raising production funds through the crowdfunding website Sponsume. It’s basically the same idea as other crowdfunding websites in which the escalating levels of donation come with different gift packages, including, in this case, posters, DVDs, production photos, screening invites and more.
Inspired primarily by two films — Daisies, directed by Vera Chytilová; and Hausu, directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi — Savage Witches is designed to be “an ode to cinema, to the magic of cinema, to filmmaking as an art form, as a tool for expression and exploration.”
To help fund this project, please visit the Savage Witches page on Sponsume.
- 7/13/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
House (Hausu) Directed by: Nobuhiko Obayashi Written by: Chiho Katsura Starring: Kimiko Ikegami, Miki Jinbo, Kumiko Oba, Ai Matsubara Just in time for Halloween, the Criterion Collection has released director Nobuhiko Obayashi's creepy, cartoony and absurdly hilarious feature film debut House (Hausu) on DVD and Blu Ray. The film is a smorgasbord of in-camera tricks and techniques that celebrate all of the best elements of genre filmmaking while creating a completely unusual and unique cinematic experience. The synopsis on the back of the House blu ray couldn't be more appropriate, describing the film as Scooby Doo through the lens of Mario Bava. It's certainly a colourful experience that probably owes some of its imagery and effects to Italian genre films. To put it into a modern perspective, the film's aesthetics could be described as a Michel Gondry take on J-Horror. Oddly enough, Hausu was apparently Japan's direct response to...
- 10/29/2010
- by Jay C.
- FilmJunk
by Steve Dollar
Every minute, four ideas. That's the oft-quoted credo of celebrated French director Arnaud Desplechin, a guy who gets a lot of critical mileage for packing his films with rich, allusive layers of literary, musical and historical information, modulated through an effusive technique that can only be called encyclopedic. Unlike, say, his forefather Jean-Luc Godard in later years, his work doesn't require a decoder ring—but a Desplechin film both merits and rewards repeat viewings in ways that those by many of his peers do not. There's a lot to chew on, and it tastes pretty good.
Well, let me tell you this: Nobuhiko Obayashi kicks Arnaud Desplechin's ass in the ideas-per-minute department. I have now seen the director's 1977 House (or Hausu, as it was released in Japan)—what, five or six times? I've seen it on an imperfect file downloaded from the Internet, in bootleg form on homebrewed DVD,...
Every minute, four ideas. That's the oft-quoted credo of celebrated French director Arnaud Desplechin, a guy who gets a lot of critical mileage for packing his films with rich, allusive layers of literary, musical and historical information, modulated through an effusive technique that can only be called encyclopedic. Unlike, say, his forefather Jean-Luc Godard in later years, his work doesn't require a decoder ring—but a Desplechin film both merits and rewards repeat viewings in ways that those by many of his peers do not. There's a lot to chew on, and it tastes pretty good.
Well, let me tell you this: Nobuhiko Obayashi kicks Arnaud Desplechin's ass in the ideas-per-minute department. I have now seen the director's 1977 House (or Hausu, as it was released in Japan)—what, five or six times? I've seen it on an imperfect file downloaded from the Internet, in bootleg form on homebrewed DVD,...
- 10/29/2010
- GreenCine Daily
Janus Films' aggressive booking and marketing of Nobuhiko Obayashi's psychedelic art-horror film House (Hausu) has quickly turned a heavily-bootlegged Japanese obscurity into a North American pop culture phenomenon. So much has been written about House in recent years that one might get the impression that there is not much to say. To the contrary, The Criterion Collection's new Blu-Ray shows there is much left to be said about House.
Nobuhiko Obayashi was itching to use his skills as a television commercial director -- he did those Charles Bronson Mandom commercials floating around the Internet -- to make a feature film. He asked his 11 year old daughter Chigumi to come up with some ideas. She came up with some wild concepts that only a little kid could dream up, including: an evil cat, a house that eats people, a finger-chopping piano, murderous futons, a bleeding clock and all other sorts of mayhem.
Nobuhiko Obayashi was itching to use his skills as a television commercial director -- he did those Charles Bronson Mandom commercials floating around the Internet -- to make a feature film. He asked his 11 year old daughter Chigumi to come up with some ideas. She came up with some wild concepts that only a little kid could dream up, including: an evil cat, a house that eats people, a finger-chopping piano, murderous futons, a bleeding clock and all other sorts of mayhem.
- 10/26/2010
- Screen Anarchy
A look at what's new on DVD today:
"Back to the Future: 25th Anniversary Trilogy"
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Released by Universal Home Entertainment
Yes, we're finally getting the footage of the original Marty McFly, Eric Stoltz, for the first time, but for many simply having the hi-def version of Robert Zemeckis' time-travel franchise will be good enough. Commentaries, deleted scenes, a full-length documentary and much, much more come on this new set of the trilogy.
"Alien Anthology"
Directed by Ridley Scott, James Cameron, David Fincher, Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Released by Fox Home Entertainment
While not as much of an upgrade over its previous DVD release as "Back to the Future," the Blu-ray update of the four "Alien" films worth owning now boasts isolated scores for each film, all of Ridley Scott's sketches for the first "Alien," the uncut documentary of David Fincher's ill-fated "Alien 3" as...
"Back to the Future: 25th Anniversary Trilogy"
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Released by Universal Home Entertainment
Yes, we're finally getting the footage of the original Marty McFly, Eric Stoltz, for the first time, but for many simply having the hi-def version of Robert Zemeckis' time-travel franchise will be good enough. Commentaries, deleted scenes, a full-length documentary and much, much more come on this new set of the trilogy.
"Alien Anthology"
Directed by Ridley Scott, James Cameron, David Fincher, Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Released by Fox Home Entertainment
While not as much of an upgrade over its previous DVD release as "Back to the Future," the Blu-ray update of the four "Alien" films worth owning now boasts isolated scores for each film, all of Ridley Scott's sketches for the first "Alien," the uncut documentary of David Fincher's ill-fated "Alien 3" as...
- 10/26/2010
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
It’s October ladies and gentleman, and Washington, D.C.’s E-Street Cinema is celebrating the scariest month of the year (unofficially of course) with midnight screenings this Friday October 15th, and Saturday October 16th, of Nobuhiko Obayahshi’s debut film House (Hausu).In an effort to avoid spending the summer with her father’s new girlfriend, Japanese schoolgirl, Gorgeous (Kimiko Ikegami), chooses to visit her sick aunt in her country home with six of her closest friends tagging along. Unfortunately, Georgeous’s aunt just so happens to be an evil spirit who...
- 10/13/2010
- by Alexandra Hartnett, DC Horror Movie Examiner
- Examiner Movies Channel
Back in May of this year, the Dryden theater [located at 900 East Ave.] screened Japanese cult film, House aka Hausu (Nobuhiko Obayashi, 1977) to a wild and enthusiastic crowd. For those who missed the cult sensation, the Dryden theater will be screening it again this Wednesday at 8pm. And just in time for Halloween. Be advised, and show up early, because the line was unusually long last time. A mix of comedy, fantasy (one of the female characters is actually given this name), and horror, Obayashi was inspired to make this film based on the musings of his grade...
- 10/4/2010
- by Denny Yeh, Rochester Film Industry Examiner
- Examiner Movies Channel
As you all are well aware, we have been talking about the upcoming Criterion Collection release of Nobuhiko Obayashi’s 1977 film, House (Hausu), for over a year on the podcast and here on the site. Over the summer we brought decals to Comic Con, and have been giving them out to listeners and readers and Twitter friends since. Those lucky enough to have attended Fantastic Fest in Austin this past week will have received decals in their gift bags as well.
Now that you all should be reasonably equipped to decorate the world with the infamous orange cat face from the film, and the beautiful poster from Sam’s Myth, we can begin one of the biggest contests we’ve been involved with.
We’re going to be giving away 5 copies of the release, either on DVD or Blu-ray (the winners choose their format), to 5 lucky readers/listeners who use...
Now that you all should be reasonably equipped to decorate the world with the infamous orange cat face from the film, and the beautiful poster from Sam’s Myth, we can begin one of the biggest contests we’ve been involved with.
We’re going to be giving away 5 copies of the release, either on DVD or Blu-ray (the winners choose their format), to 5 lucky readers/listeners who use...
- 9/29/2010
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
Virtually unseen and since rescued and restored, Nobuhiko Obayashi's wonderfully bizarre 1977 movie House (Hausu) will finally see a DVD/Blu-ray release (after a successful, nationwide limited theatrical release) October 26th courtesy of Criterion Collection. Full details below. How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashi's indescribable 1977 movie House (Hausu)? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode of Scooby-Doo as directed by Mario Bava? Any of the above will do for this hallucinatory head trip about a schoolgirl who travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt's creaky country home and comes face-to-face with evil spirits, a demonic house cat, a bloodthirsty piano, and other...
- 9/13/2010
- FEARnet
This October, Criterion will be releasing a DVD and Blu-ray of Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Hausu (otherwise known as House), and while we have talked and written about the movie on the podcast and blog, I have a feeling that you lovely readers don’t have a good idea as to why this is such an important release. You may not necessarily follow all of the various film blogs, or attend all of the genre film festivals, like Fantastic Fest, but this is a movie that has a tremendous amount of buzz surrounding it.
The European distributor, Masters of Cinema, released a DVD of Hausu earlier this year, and if you have a region-free DVD player, I’d highly recommend picking it up, to supplement your inevitable Criterion purchase. I imported a copy for myself relatively cheaply, just so that I could watch the movie before Criterion released their Blu-ray, and...
The European distributor, Masters of Cinema, released a DVD of Hausu earlier this year, and if you have a region-free DVD player, I’d highly recommend picking it up, to supplement your inevitable Criterion purchase. I imported a copy for myself relatively cheaply, just so that I could watch the movie before Criterion released their Blu-ray, and...
- 9/10/2010
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
I'm thankful for the Criterion Collection nearly every day, but especially on a slow weekend before Comic Con. This week Criterion finally announced a slate of October releases, which includes a couple of highly anticipated pressings. Finally we'll get Criterion editions of Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory and the absolutely insane 1977 Japanese haunted house movie Hausu. And the collection continues its love affair with Ingmar Bergman and Wes Anderson with releases of The Magician and The Darjeeling Limited. All four films will hit both standard and Blu-ray DVDs, with all being single-disc editions except for the standard DVD of The Darjeeling Limited, which is a double-disc edition. I'm excited for the releases of Paths of Glory and The Magician, but at the time being even moreso by the idea of having a pristine transfer of Nobuhiko Obayashi's utterly insane Hausu with an uncompressed mono soundtrack on the Blu.
- 7/19/2010
- by Russ Fischer
- Slash Film
It feels like we've been waiting forever for Criterion to tell us when they're going to release Nobuhiko Obayashi's insane masterpiece House (or Hausu), and it looks like it'll be arriving just in time for Halloween on DVD and Blu-Ray! Look at this list of special features: * New, restored high-definition digital transfer (with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition) * Constructing a House, a new video piece featuring interviews with director Nobuhiko Obayashi, story scenarist and daughter of the director Chigumi Obayashi, and screenwriter Chiho Katsura * Emotion, a 1966 experimental film by Obayashi * New video appreciation by director Ti West (House of the Devil) * Theatrical trailer * New and improved English subtitle translation * Plus: An essay by Chuck Stephens...
- 7/16/2010
- 24framespersecond.net
Nobuhiko Obayashi's bizarre, cult-crazy-fest House is coming to your home on Blu-Ray and DVD October 26, 2010 from Criterion!
From Criterion:
How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashi's indescribable 1977 movie House (Hausu)? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode of Scooby-Doo as directed by Mario Bava? Any of the above will do for this hallucinatory head trip about a schoolgirl who travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt's creaky country home and comes face-to-face with evil spirits, a demonic house cat, a bloodthirsty piano, and other ghoulish visions, all realized by Obayashi via a series of mattes, animation, and collage effects. Equal parts absurd and nightmarish, House might have been beamed to Earth from some other planet. Never before available on home video in the United States, it's one of the most exciting cult discoveries in years.
Features include an early experimental film from Obayashi, an appreciation...
From Criterion:
How to describe Nobuhiko Obayashi's indescribable 1977 movie House (Hausu)? As a psychedelic ghost tale? A stream-of-consciousness bedtime story? An episode of Scooby-Doo as directed by Mario Bava? Any of the above will do for this hallucinatory head trip about a schoolgirl who travels with six classmates to her ailing aunt's creaky country home and comes face-to-face with evil spirits, a demonic house cat, a bloodthirsty piano, and other ghoulish visions, all realized by Obayashi via a series of mattes, animation, and collage effects. Equal parts absurd and nightmarish, House might have been beamed to Earth from some other planet. Never before available on home video in the United States, it's one of the most exciting cult discoveries in years.
Features include an early experimental film from Obayashi, an appreciation...
- 7/16/2010
- Screen Anarchy
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