‘House’ a Japanese Movie Cult Horror Classic

So last night we decided to watch ‘House’ a Japanese horror / comedy movie made in 1977. I knew nothing previously about this film other than it was on the British Film Institute’s playlist and so came with a good pedigree as I haven’t found many films on the BFI PLAYER that are bad films. I don’t like them all but even the ones I don’t like I can see that they are well made in one way or another.

I’m a fan of Japanese movies including Japanese horror movies but nothing could have prepared me for ‘House’. Right from the start it’s ‘not right’ in ways that make it ‘so right’. Two teenage girls in regulation Japanese schoolgirl uniforms discus what they will do in the summer holidays. The feel is kawaii seventies kitsch with an undertow of Lolita leanings that are sustained and build through the whole film.

The score too is radical for its time using the fast edits of advertising and partly performed by popular Japanese J-Rock group Godiego with the music being written by Asei Kobayashi and Mickie Yoshino. The group even appear briefly in the film to flirt with the girls at the railway station.

Here’s the trailer for the film:

References abound throughout the film including to the Second World War and the futility and pain that war brings to the world and left behind lovers. These serious themes are somehow lodged within the surreal psychedelic pop horror framework of this unique piece of cinema.

The two friends, Angel and Fantasy along with five other schoolgirl friends eventually go off together for a summer holiday at the house of Angel’s aunt, the sister of her dead mother who lost her only love in World War II. It is this woman’s heartbreak and sorrow in the wake of the war and losing her beloved fiancé that drives the narrative horror of this film forward.

After being greeted by Angel’s aunt in a wheelchair, which she subsequently ditches, one by one the House itself dispatches each girl in increasingly bizarre ways. Later we find out that the Aunt has been dead for years and with the house has been eating any girls of mariageable age that enter the house thus our schoolgirls’ fate is sealed.

Despite a spirited physical defence by Kung Fu, the schoolgirl with, yes you’ve guessed correctly, excellent martial art skills, the house proves to strong an opponent for our schoolgirl heroes. To be honest the schoolgirls are a little annoying and I’m sorry to say that at points I couldn’t wait for the house to finish each one off.

At one point, the grand piano literally eats the musically talented Melody up in a sea of blood emanating from the portrait of a white cat that makes real life appearances at crucial points in the movie. I’ll say no more on that white feline other than I won’t be getting a white cat anytime soon! To be truthful I’d say this film has to be in the Top Ten Cat Films ever to be made. Here’s that very cat:

The film’s absurdities, like when for instance the girls’ school teacher is transformed into a man shaped sculpture of bananas, don’t make one want to stop watching but draw you in further wondering what on earth is going to happen next and yes despite the gore and horror you will also find yourself laughing out loud.

Most of the girls in the cast were unknown amateur actors. A notable exception was Kimiko Ikegami who played the lead role of Gorgeous (or Angel depending on the translation). Kimiko was in fact born in New York and moved with her family to Kyoto aged three. She had appeared in several other films before House.

Who would make such a film? Well it was no other than the cult Japanese film director, Nobuhiko Obayashi, who died in April this year aged 82.

Obayashi had had a long career in making quirky TV ads before making House and it shows. His style embraces high art experimental film techniques mixed with the pulp sensibilities of seventies pop TV via the eye of surrealism.

He achieved great critical acclaim and his powerful anti-war trilogy, Casting Blossoms to the Sky (2012), Seven Weeks (2014) and Hanagatami (2017) are must see films.

Other films by Obayashi worth checking out include The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (1983), and Lonely Heart (1985).

Obayashi often referred to himself as a “life-long amateur filmmaker,” but he was in fact a consummate professional.

In common with many of his other films the dialogue of House includes elements of wordplay. In an interview with Mubi, Obayashi said:

It’s not so much wordplay but playing with sound. It’s very interesting to me that when you deconstruct words into sounds and then rebuild them you get a different word. They’re different words but they share the same roots. They become different meanings. Punning is a linguistic practice in lateral thinking, even though humans often think longitudinally. When you think longitudinally, you are in pursuit of meaning. When you think laterally, you remove meaning and use sounds. When you do that you, in fact, see the details better. The words begin to reveal themselves.

Despite his wonderful later work he is still thought of first and foremost as the director of ‘House’ a slice of weirdness that everyone (including you) ought to watch at least once and possibly more.

Nobohiko Obayashi died in Tokyo on the 10th of April 2020 at the age of 82, from lung cancer.

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