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House [Hausu]



An unforgettable mixture of bubblegum teen melodrama and grisly phantasmagoria, Obayashi's deranged fairy tale House is one of Japanese cinema's wildest supernatural ventures and a truly startling debut feature.

Distressed by her widowed father's plans to remarry, Angel sets off with six of her schoolgirl friends in tow for a summer getaway in her aunt's isolated mansion. But all is not well – in this house of dormant secrets, long-held emotional traumas have terrifyingly physical embodiments and the girls will have to use all their individual talents if any are to survive.

A rollercoaster ride without brakes, House is by turns sinister, hilarious and curiously touching, with ceaseless cinematic invention and a satirical, full-blooded approach to the horror genre. A gigantic smash upon its original release in Japan, the Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present its UK premiere on DVD.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• New anamorphic transfer of the Toho restoration
• An extensive 90-minute selection of interviews with director Nobuhiko Obayashi, co-screenwriter Chigumi Obayashi, actress Kumiko Oba and Toho promotional executive Shoho Tomiyama
• Theatrical trailer
• A luxurious booklet, with new writing, stills, promotional material and more.

eerik wrote:"Hausu" coming early 2010, but no Blu-ray!? :-k

Is this the new exciting replacement for Manhunt? :-k

perkizitore wrote:

eerik wrote:"Hausu" coming early 2010, but no Blu-ray!? :-k

Is this the new exciting replacement for Manhunt? :-k

You've obviously never seen this, have you? I absolutely adore Manhunt but believe this makes a strange but worthy replacement. I'd still like a Blu-Ray though.

I am not being sarcastic, if i was i would have written 'exciting'...

Is "Hausu" even a word? It comes across as a phony "Japanization" of the title ala The Ring magically becoming "Ringu" when it reached the US. I never understood why, if the title is already English, Western distributors feel the need to render it into some mangled, vaguely "Asian-sounding" butchering of a word. It irks me (for no real good reason, I admit). Admittedly, it's only in brackets so it's not an end-all issue (though you can expect my head to explode if Criterion's cover just says "HAUSU" in giant letters and has no mention of the actual title).

It is a lovely cover, though. I'm just a nit-picker.

CSM126 wrote:Is "Hausu" even a word? It comes across as a phony "Japanization" of the title ala The Ring magically becoming "Ringu" when it reached the US. I never understood why, if the title is already English, Western distributors feel the need to render it into some mangled, vaguely "Asian-sounding" butchering of a word. It irks me (for no real good reason, I admit). Admittedly, it's only in brackets so it's not an end-all issue (though you can expect my head to explode if Criterion's cover just says "HAUSU" in giant letters and has no mention of the actual title).

It is a lovely cover, though. I'm just a nit-picker.

I'm no expert on the language, or the subject of languages, but I'm guessing its a matter of orthography. House and Ring, when translated from Latin alphabet into, I assume, Katakana, pick up the added syllable. In which case, if one wanted to render the Japanese word back into Latin alphabet, the u's would be a part of the pronunciation.

So I assume its not a phony move on the West's part. Perhaps completely unnecessary and redundant, but not phony.

Then again, I have no idea what I'm talking about. And I like the title Hausu, probably because its perceived Japaness gives it a flavor missing from the plain English title. And its much more fun to pronounce.

Cold Bishop wrote: I'm no expert on the language, or the subject of languages, but I'm guessing its a matter of orthography. House and Ring, when translated from Latin alphabet into, I assume, Katakana, pick up the added syllable. In which case, if one wanted to render the Japanese word back into Latin alphabet, the u's would be a part of the pronunciation.

So I assume its not a phony move on the West's part. Perhaps completely unnecessary and redundant, but not phony.

You're right. It's the normal process in order to "transfer" an English word in a Japanese one. They use lots of words "imported" from English.

Hausu on MoC is definitely an unexpected development - clearly MoC and CC must see something in it to release it under their banners. I don't mean to be dismissive of either the film (I haven't seen it but I'm intrigued) or MoC's and CC's decision to release it. I only regret that the Lone Wolf set was not released under MoC's banner since it may have found a few more new fans this way but I imagine Eureka wanted to release it under their main label.

Nick, is the Sirk still going to be released in February?

Yes this Hausu thing is intriguing, has anyone here seen it?

Will we ever see Wakamatsu's Violated Angels? (desperately trying to find some sort of appropriate time to ask this, have pretty much given up)

Peacock wrote:Yes this Hausu thing is intriguing, has anyone here seen it?

Have you seen Nobuhiko Obayashi's Sada, Peacock? It's an excellent counter-part to Oshima's telling of the same story with 'In the Realm of the Senses', but through very different means and motivation. I haven't seen Hausu, though I am presuming his film-making will be as eloquent and visually dazzling (his set designs and unusual-but-brilliant moments of beautiful absurdity would make Seijun Suzuki salivate, and he is presumably a forefront influence on Tetsuya Nakashima - I read he was influential on both Shinya Tsukamoto and Kiyoshi Kurosawa also, though I can't find where I read this - and the more recent, lollipop-coloured, absurdist melodrama's that have come out of Japan (Lalapipo for example)) in his earlier work as in this 1998 film. It has a very good release from HVE which I highly recommend if you are intrigued by Hausu. There's a strong review from Dvdbeaver here.

Cold Bishop wrote:

CSM126 wrote:Is "Hausu" even a word? It comes across as a phony "Japanization" of the title ala The Ring magically becoming "Ringu" when it reached the US. I never understood why, if the title is already English, Western distributors feel the need to render it into some mangled, vaguely "Asian-sounding" butchering of a word. It irks me (for no real good reason, I admit). Admittedly, it's only in brackets so it's not an end-all issue (though you can expect my head to explode if Criterion's cover just says "HAUSU" in giant letters and has no mention of the actual title).

It is a lovely cover, though. I'm just a nit-picker.

I'm no expert on the language, or the subject of languages, but I'm guessing its a matter of orthography. House and Ring, when translated from Latin alphabet into, I assume, Katakana, pick up the added syllable. In which case, if one wanted to render the Japanese word back into Latin alphabet, the u's would be a part of the pronunciation.

So I assume its not a phony move on the West's part. Perhaps completely unnecessary and redundant, but not phony.

True, but it's a huge pet-peeve of mine, and it's something we would try not to perpetuate in The MoC Series.

Imagine if there were a supreme film masterpiece in Japan called "Eat • At • McDonald's", but (as wouldn't be an out-of-the-ordinary scenario) that the entire English phrase (used for style) were rendered on the title-cards and one-sheets wholly in katakana (for style again, though "McDonald's" would be presented in katakana anyway — and uniquely, the word has a katakana rendering that does not exactly follow the English, at least in the final syllable) — it would come out like this, were the katakana-syllablism were retained for reproducing the title in English:

IITO • ATO • MAKUDONARUDO

Ridiculous — no? Constrained to the katakana 'phoneme-abet', and without bringing in Roman characters, this is the only way English words can be rendered in Japanese; — with the English phrase/words essentially "latent" underneath.

With regard to HOUSE, the decision to go ahead with a Roman-rendering was made that much easier by virtue of the fact that the word appears in English on all the graphics, cards, etc., with "HAUSU" in katakana showing up tinily overhead.

ck.

Peacock wrote:Yes this Hausu thing is intriguing, has anyone here seen it?

Well, I have seen Hausu and am actually holding a German DVD in my hands. I have to admit that I am really surprised that Criterion is printing shirts, Moc is releasing it on DVD and so many people not only on this forum are eagerly awaiting its release.

I may write some more words on it when there will be a special thread, but: I thought the movie to be rather disappointing. bigP surely is right the movie is visually dazzling, rather fast paced and - as many 'Asian' films of that time - 'different', but I got the impression that that's all. To paraphrase Paul Rotha, it's all shiny surface without any deeper meaning - though I admit it may be possible to take pleasure and interest in its gender politics. Furthermore, I thought the movie to be rather silly and over the top at many points. I think it will definitively have a lot of appeal to fans of horror movies but it lacks the social dimension that the best genre films especially in the 60s and 70s had.

And, in any way, the movie pales in comparison with all of Wakamatsu's pink movies that I have seen or read about yet. But see yourself. Maybe I am all wrong.

Wu.Qinghua wrote:

Peacock wrote:Yes this Hausu thing is intriguing, has anyone here seen it?

Well, I have seen Hausu and am actually holding a German DVD in my hands. I have to admit that I am really surprised that Criterion is printing shirts, Moc is releasing it on DVD and so many people not only on this forum are eagerly awaiting its release.

I may write some more words on it when there will be a special thread, but: I thought the movie to be rather disappointing. bigP surely is right the movie is visually dazzling, rather fast paced and - as many 'Asian' films of that time - 'different', but I got the impression that that's all. To paraphrase Paul Rotha, it's all shiny surface without any deeper meaning - though I admit it may be possible to take pleasure and interest in its gender politics. Furthermore, I thought the movie to be rather silly and over the top at many points. I think it will definitively have a lot of appeal to fans of horror movies but it lacks the social dimension that the best genre films especially in the 60s and 70s had.

And, in any way, the movie pales in comparison with all of Wakamatsu's pink movies that I have seen or read about yet. But see yourself. Maybe I am all wrong.

I watched Hausu recently. Already a cult film, with an MOC and Criterion release, there will be much discussion about what it all means. I do hope Nick and co don't opt for an 'academic' reading of the film. It's cult trash, very silly, and a whole lot of fun. If MOC really want to make a splash with this film, they should include the soundtrack. (I can only imagine the nightmare of gaining rights to the music) The soundtrack is an almost continuous stream of bad-but-catchy pop songs. The special effects are crude (I'd love to see a blu-ray edition!), but very inventive.

Certainly a different type of film for MOC to release, but I'm sure it will sell well, as it has the crossover appeal for the cult/trash/comedy-horror/Japanese cinema market.

I give this film four floating fingers! (It will make sense when you see the film)

My impression is that Obayashi is one of Japan's most steadfastly kitschy directors (in general).

I belive it is the correct word, there are a lot of Japanese words with similar sounds.

Everyone is forgetting that right in the beginning of the picture, you clearly hear an evil sounding voice say "Hausu" (you hear this same voice in the trailer). I'm sure that adds to the addition of putting Hausu on the cover.

The katakana version of 'house' is less common than the kanji-derived words, but I think because this film was targeted toward a younger audience (who likely thought katakana was cool or were at least perceived as thinking as such) the filmmakers opted for that version. They're actually quite a bit of uncommon katakana in the film, like 'mama' and 'papa' being used instead of the more common Japanese words, and one of the characters even says 'kiss of fire!' in katakanago when the film image burns up. The crazy watermelon dude also uses the katakana version of 'house' when the girls ask him for directions, so it actually appears in the film.

It's also possible that there's a tradition of haunted house films and novels using the katakana version of 'house' to distinguish themselves from other genres, but I'm not aware of it.

So pleased for Hausu! The criterion gang showed it at ATP New York last year and the little i saw of it was superbly fun stuff.

dvdtimes:

Eureka Entertainment have announced the UK DVD release of Nobuhiko Obayashi’s House [Hausu] as part of their Masters of Cinema Series on 25th January 2010 priced at £17.99 RRP. Distressed by her widowed father's plans to remarry, Angel sets off with six of her schoolgirl friends in tow for a summer getaway in her aunt's isolated mansion. But all is not well - in this house of dormant secrets, long-held emotional traumas have terrifyingly physical embodiments and the girls will have to use all their individual talents if any are to survive.

This deranged fairytale from 1977 makes its UK DVD premiere in January with the following features:
New digital anamorphic widescreen transfer
Japanese with optional English subtitles
An extensive 90-minute selection of interviews with director Nobuhiko Obayashi, co-screenwriter Chigumi Obayashi, actress Kumiko Oba and Toho promotional executive Shoho Tomiyama
Theatrical trailer
A luxurious booklet, with new writing, stills, promotional material and more.

Anamorphic widescreen transfer? I thought this film was academy ratio?

We've gone with the Toho restoration, which Toho released on DVD recently in Japan. The AR looks like 1.66:1 but is roughly 1.55:1 -- no idea why, but it looks good - and our DVD is pillarboxed anamorphic.

Good enough. As long as I have a tangible copy with a great transfer, I'll be pleased. I've been buying the most recent MoC releases (I just got the new Mabuse set and Sunrise on Blu and quickly fell in love with both), so I'm pretty sure I won't be disappointed! Thank you so much for this release!

peerpee wrote:We've gone with the Toho restoration, which Toho released on DVD recently in Japan. The AR looks like 1.66:1 but is roughly 1.55:1 -- no idea why, but it looks good - and our DVD is pillarboxed anamorphic.

The only Japanese DVD release I know about was the old 2001 Toho DVD, which still came in a CD-size case when Japan was still doing those. Is this MoC disc going to have the same transfer as the 2001 DVD?

It won't be the 'same transfer', as we're doing our own encode, but it's the same film restoration.