House



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.

DISC 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

Available on DVD and Blu-ray.

I said it in the "Forthcoming" thread, but I'll reiterate it here: "Emotion" is amazing. They could not have picked a better short to add on to this release. If you haven't seen it yet, you're in for a treat.

Thanks mteller, I was wondering if the short would be any good..
Hope it's 1080p too!

That's good to know. I could take or leave the movie itself, but will probably buy the Blu at some point anyway, so I'm glad to have something to look forward to when I do.

I'm off to go see this at the Music Hall in August. To those who have seen it already, what do you think of it? Does it live up to its rep of insanity or no?

...and then some.

I'm really pleased that Emotion is included in the package. This has become an automatic double-dip with the MOC for me (and in Blu no less).

Hot damn, I'm sold!

Seeing this in a crowded theater was one of my favorite movie-going experiences of the last couple of years.

Just depends. I was surprised, given its advance reputation, that it's not more insane than it actually is. It certainly pushes the envelope stylistically, but despite the content I thought it was kind of goofy and even innocent, in the sense that it feels like something an over-imaginitive child would come up with (which, I hasten to add, I say without critical judgment).

It's ten times crazier than anything you're imagining, I assure you. You might enjoy reading through the MOC thread for the film.


One did! Obayashi credits the story to his seven-year-old daughter.

Ah well, there you go. Although now that you mention it, I think I remember reading that.

NOOOOO!!!! They didn't include any of Obayashi's commercial work with this release. I was so looking forward to a complete set of the Charles Bronson-starring commercials for Mandom, after seeing the reel that they screened before the film at last year's New York Asian Film Festival.

On a separate note, can anyway compare the documentary on the M.O.C. disc to the one included here (same or different commentators, running time, etc...)? Just curious.

-BJ

Enjoy watching tv commercials?

I got the MoC version, which came with a wonderfull booklet, and i loved it. I was surprised how well the special effects stood up considering when and where it was made. If you want to watch something different then this is the movie.

I, too, got the MoC. Damned music from this movie was stuck in my head for weeks. Definitely looking forward to the uncompressed soundtrack on the Blu.

When the commercial is something like this; then hell's yeah.

-BJ

The MoC documentary was taken from the Japanese DVD from 2000. This one for Criterion is all new. So double-dippers will have new and different extras. Still surprised Toho let Criterion do this on Blu-ray before they did. I guess they just don't see this being a big seller in Japan...

If you're going to do that silly sign off thing I suggest you don't go for the initials

I'm at work, so there's no way I'm clicking on that link for blowjob commercials

I just saw the trailer again. I think it's time to talk about the kind of narcotics to view this film with.

I-doser, of course

1.33:1? MoC is 1.55:1.

Well that's very useful information, i might go for the bluray version if that's the case. I hope the Criterion documentary has a bit more production value then the one on MoC. It was interesting hearing what everyone had to say but watching only a head shot for an hour isn't my thing.

I never knew that it was possible to buy a display rack for your large collection of pipes. Why does Bronson have so many pipes? Different ones for different times of day or moods, perhaps?

I hope he got a good supply of Mandom masculine grooming products for appearing, since he was certainly splashing it around liberally in that ad! (And I'm not sure whether having Bronson lovingly caress his craggy face really works that well to promote an aftershave!)

Sorry for the repetition, but the announced aspect ratio can't be right. Should be 1.55:1.

MoC's transfer is 1.55 because that is what was on the ten year old master that Toho supplied them with. They weren't sure why Toho did that, but it looks fine. Janus did their own new high-def master of the original elements (which are 1.37, of course) and elected not to mask it at all. Their 1.37 print is what played recently in U.S. theaters, and that is what will be on the Criterion Blu-ray and DVD.