Happiness of the Katakuris 2001 R, 113 min. Genre: Foreign / Comedy
Director: Takashi Miike Cast: Kenji Sawada, Naomi Nishida, Keiko Matsuzaka, Shinji Takeda, Tetsuro Tamba, Naoto Takenaka, Kiyoshiro Imawano, Moeko Ezawa, Tamaki Miyazaki, Takashi Matsuzaki, Kenichi Endo, Yoshiyuki Morishita, Yoshiki Arizono, Chihiro Asakawa, Yumeki Kanazawa
This dark musical comedy concerns the dysfunctional Katakuri family as they renovate and then open a lodge in a remote part of Japan. It is expected that tourism will boom when the projected highway is built. But the problems start with the first guest, a sickly man, who commits suicide. Not wanting bad publicity, they bury the body in the backyard. The next guest, likewise, dies–of a heart attack, and so it goes with guest after guest, and the ground fills with bodies. Still no highway, but the nearby volcano adds to their problems.
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Ichi the Killer 2001 R, 117 min. Genre: Drama / Comedy / Action / Thriller
Director: Takashi Miike Cast: Tadanobu Asano, Nao Omori, Shinya Tsukamoto, Paulyn Sun, Hiroyuki Tanaka, Susumu Terajima, Shun Sugata, Toru Tezuka, Yoshiki Arizono, Kiyohiko Shibakawa, Jun Kunimura, Houka Kinoshita, Satoshi Nizuma, Suzuki Matsuo, Moro Morooka
Their gang boss, Anjo, is missing along with 300 million yen, and his gang members, led by Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano), use violent methods of torture on a rival gang member to get answers. But then, after realizing that they have the wrong man, they search for Jijii (Shinya Tsukamoto) for information on finding psychotic Ichi (Nao Omori) and head for a final showdown with the butchering Ichi. This film had major cuts to get down to an "R" rating.
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| 1. Happiness of the Katakuris (2001)
2. Ichi the Killer (2001)
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