Death and the Maidens

The other night I got the chance to see the 1977 Japanese film ハウス (Hausu),
alias House.



I’m not sure what I can tell you about it of import that the insane trailer doesn’t —
save to verify that while House does have at least the framework of a story it lives up to the trailer’s wildly abrupt shifts in scene and tone. Even if you don’t think you’ll ever watch the film, I urge you to click through the link for its distillation of sublime weirdness into 1¾ minutes.

House was directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi for Toho Co., a studio most associated on these shores with the Godzilla franchise. Chiho Katsura wrote the screenplay based on a springboard from Obayashi that incorporated ideas from Obayashi’s daughter Chigumi. It looks roughly like a mashup of The Monkees, Scooby-Doo, and H.R. Pufnstuf made for Hammer Films, by the love child of Federico Fellini and Ed Wood, starring young Japanese women.

Plot? Gorgeous is looking forward to spending the school break with her widowed father, but he surprises her by stating that his new galpal will be joining them: “She’s going to be your mom,” his subtitles read, all the more awkwardly blunt for the jaunty tone in his voice. “She’s surprisingly good at cooking,” he adds, “and other things.” While it’s obvious why Dad’s high on New Mom, his daughter is having none of it, and she heads out to her aunt’s house for vacation instead — bringing six classmates whose plans for some kind of training camp with the supposedly dreamy Mr. Togo have fallen through. Like Gorgeous the other girls have English-based names reflecting their personalities: Fantasy, or Fanta, who daydreams; Prof, a bookworm; Mac, described as fat although she’s nothing of the sort, who eats a lot; Melody, the musical one; Sweet, who must be particularly nice; and Kung Fu, who has martial-arts skills and is totally awesome.

I give away absolutely zilch by telling you that the aunt’s house is haunted, nor by describing the 90-minute film as (pardon my transliteration) battoshito kureizii.

House wasn’t released in America until distributor Janus Films began exhibiting it in 2009. A Criterion Collection DVD release followed in 2010, whose extras include a nearly 40-minute experimental short of Obayashi’s from 1966 and a new 45-minute piece interviewing Obayashi, screenwriter Chihu Katsura, and the now-adult Chigumi Obayashi. I very much recommend seeing House in a group, with a viewing party at home or better yet in the theater if you can get it screened at a local art-house cinema.

Despite my interest in Japanese language and history, I’ve never been possessed of a particular bent for manga, anime, or kaiju eiga like so many of my friends, although I certainly appreciate them as part of an omnivorous pop-cultural diet. No amount of that stuff will prepare you for House anyway.


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