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Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. Rewind. This is Rob Lamb.

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Speaker 2: And this is Joe McCormick. And today we're bringing you

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Speaker 2: an older episode of Weird House Cinema. This was our

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Speaker 2: feature on the nineteen seventy seven horror film House. Oh boy,

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Speaker 2: what a good time this was.

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Speaker 1: Oh this is one of the towering giants of weird Cinema.

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Speaker 2: I don't think there's anything else to say. Let's listen

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Speaker 2: to House.

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Speaker 3: Welcome to Stuff to Blow your mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hey you, welcome to Weird House Cinema.

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Speaker 2: My name is Rob Lamb and I am Joe McCormick.

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Speaker 1: Today on Weird House Cinema, we're tackling what might be

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Speaker 1: by many measures, I think by my measure, the ultimate

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Speaker 1: Haunted house movie. In another Haunted House property, nineteen seventy

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Speaker 1: one's Hell House, a novel by Richard Mavison. This was

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Speaker 1: later made into the Legend of Hell House in seventy three.

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Speaker 1: There's a description of the Belasco House, this haunted house

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Speaker 1: that's key to the plot, and it's described as quote

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Speaker 1: the mount everest of haunted houses due to the intense

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Speaker 1: sanity warping powers that it holds over anyone who attempts

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Speaker 1: to make it through the night there to complete the journey. Now,

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Speaker 1: there are various great haunted House films out there, and

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Speaker 1: I feel like the best of them excel in connecting

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Speaker 1: with something very ancient in the human psyche, right, the

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Speaker 1: essence of the damned place, a location that is so

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Speaker 1: just fundamentally physically or spiritually polluted that to venture into it,

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Speaker 1: to be there, to take place there, is to just

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Speaker 1: absolutely warp your identity and connection to reality. So there

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Speaker 1: are haunted House movies that tackle this in a very

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Speaker 1: serious fashion, and you might argue that they tackle it

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Speaker 1: more seriously than the movie we're talking about here today,

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven's House. But when the chips are down

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Speaker 1: and House is firing on all cylinders, I think it

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Speaker 1: absolutely delivers on all the goods. It absolutely checks off

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Speaker 1: all the boxes. For my money. Right now, I'm going

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Speaker 1: to say that House is the Mount Everest of Haunted

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Speaker 1: house movies.

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Speaker 2: It's got to be up there, and like Mount Everest,

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Speaker 2: it may cause a kind of altitude sickness, maybe a

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Speaker 2: sense of dizziness, a visions of other figures climbing up

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Speaker 2: the mountain with you that may or may not be there.

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Speaker 2: It is a weird, baffling, life changing experience. House is

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Speaker 2: one of the weirdest movies I've ever seen, but that's

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Speaker 2: not an observation unique to me. It is widely regarded

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Speaker 2: as like one of the great weird movies of all time,

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Speaker 2: And yeah, I think it also qualifies in the subgenre

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Speaker 2: of weirdest and most interesting haunted house movies. Though it's

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Speaker 2: different than than a lot of haunted house movies because

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Speaker 2: a lot of haunted house movies, like you're pointing out,

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Speaker 2: are about a house that's been pollute, a house that

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Speaker 2: has been sort of like made into a place of

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Speaker 2: evil because of something evil that happened there, you know,

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Speaker 2: like a person, an evil person does something wicked inside

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Speaker 2: the house, and then that evil infects the house and

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Speaker 2: so forth. But the difference I would point out is

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Speaker 2: that the evil in those cases seems to be spurred

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Speaker 2: by human wrongdoing, and in House nineteen seventy seven, I

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Speaker 2: don't know if I'd say that's the case. Instead, it's

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Speaker 2: hard to say where the evil comes from. The person

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Speaker 2: who occupies the evil. Haunted House doesn't seem to have

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Speaker 2: initially been an evil or bad person, but someone who

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Speaker 2: suffers a kind of unfortunate fate and is transformed by

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Speaker 2: forces unnamed into a type of monster. And in that transformation,

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Speaker 2: it's like the house comes with her, you know, like

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Speaker 2: she in the house urge into one being that is

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Speaker 2: fully just an expression of monstrousness and magical predation.

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Speaker 1: It's like tragedy plus time equals house. That's like, you know,

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Speaker 1: like you're saying, she's not an evil person, and she had,

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Speaker 1: she went through a great tragedy, but it's like over

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Speaker 1: time that is like spiritually fermented into this new shape,

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Speaker 1: and that shape is is hungry and in many respects evil.

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Speaker 2: Maybe it's a tragedy plus time plus cat equals house

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Speaker 2: because the cat? What is the role of the cat

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Speaker 2: in this movie? Could we last October? Did an episode

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Speaker 2: or a series of episodes about monster cats of Japan

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Speaker 2: that was October, wasn't it?

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Speaker 1: I believe it was?

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Speaker 2: Yes, Yeah, like the Bakin echo and stuff. There there

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Speaker 2: are a number of different sort of cat ghosts or

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Speaker 2: evil cat monster entities cat yo kai in Japanese lore,

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Speaker 2: and we talked about a few of them, shape shifting cats,

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Speaker 2: cats that the cats that might lurk out in the

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Speaker 2: wilderness and be some kind of monster. I don't know

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Speaker 2: if the cat in this movie is exactly supposed to

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Speaker 2: be supposed to correspond to one of these cat monster archetypes,

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Speaker 2: but what a presence it is. It feels kind of

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Speaker 2: like maybe all of the evil in the movie comes

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Speaker 2: from the cat. And it's not clear where the cat

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Speaker 2: comes from.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, the cat is somehow key to it is like

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Speaker 1: a nexus point or a physical incarnation. It's uncertain. I

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Speaker 1: mean as as I feel, like, you know, scary supernatural

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Speaker 1: things should be, they're difficult for us mortals to fathom.

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Speaker 1: But we Yeah, we have this fabulous cat at the

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Speaker 1: center of everything here. And I think it also this

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Speaker 1: is what serves to make House not only a great

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Speaker 1: haunted house movie, but also a great cat movie. Like

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Speaker 1: all the cat stuff is completely on point and very cute,

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Speaker 1: very cute cat, very cute flu fere.

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Speaker 2: This movie got me thinking about what it what it

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Speaker 2: is meant to say about a character when a character

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Speaker 2: often has a cat in their lap. So this is

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Speaker 2: the thing. Actually I mostly associate with villains in films

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Speaker 2: like Blowfeld and the James Bond movies. Is this villain

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Speaker 2: who In the early James Bond movies, I think you

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Speaker 2: don't even ever see his face. You just see the

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Speaker 2: lower half of his body. He's a man who's presiding

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Speaker 2: over this evil, shadowy criminal empire known as Specter, and

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Speaker 2: he has all these henchmen going out and doing things

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Speaker 2: for him. But when you see the lower half of

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Speaker 2: his body, he has a fluffy, very flufy white cat

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Speaker 2: in his lap and he pets the cat while you know,

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Speaker 2: demanding updates from his assassins. And then later in the

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Speaker 2: James Bond movies, you do actually see the face of

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Speaker 2: blofeld So. And he's played by various different actors, but

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Speaker 2: in one movie, for example, he's played by Donald Pleasance.

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Speaker 2: And so you know we were sharing before coming in here,

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Speaker 2: like images of Donald Pleasants holding a white cat, much

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Speaker 2: like blanch the cat in house. What does the cat mean?

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Speaker 2: Why is the cat in the villain's lap, and what

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Speaker 2: what associations are we supposed to make from seeing that image?

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Speaker 1: I mean, in the case of Blowfeld, I guess kind

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Speaker 1: of you know, it's the idea of like a regal

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Speaker 1: sort of lap creature, but also maybe a commentary on

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Speaker 1: the nature of the cat. You know, the cat has

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Speaker 1: its own air about it. Though it's weird that owning

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Speaker 1: the cat is villainous in these Bond movies, and yet

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Speaker 1: James Bond kicks a cat. I would think that that

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Speaker 1: is me and that's the And also like the forgot

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Speaker 1: was this? I forget which one this was? This may

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Speaker 1: be the one that actually takes place in Japan part

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Speaker 1: in the time anyway, but there's a whole bit where

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Speaker 1: it's like, oh, Blowfeld has a double, which one is

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Speaker 1: a real Blowfeld? Better kick the cat to find out

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Speaker 1: which master it scurries to, And it's like, I don't

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Speaker 1: even know if that would work, Like is that really

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Speaker 1: going to be the cat's number one? Moved like to

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Speaker 1: go back to a safe lap. I think the cat

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Speaker 1: may just go hide under something.

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Speaker 2: I think there is something to be signaled about a

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Speaker 2: villain with the cat that it makes them seem more

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Speaker 2: threatening and sinister, the fact that they are ordering up

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Speaker 2: murder of humans at the same time that they're being

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Speaker 2: very gentle and stroking a cat. You know, It's like

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Speaker 2: that contrast of of delicate gentleness and friendliness with one

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Speaker 2: creature but cruelty to another.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think that I think that probably sums it up.

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Speaker 2: Now. We've talked about House as a as a widely

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Speaker 2: reputed ultimate weird movie. We've talked about it as the

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Speaker 2: mount Everest of haunted house movies. But there's another thing

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Speaker 2: that we haven't really mentioned about it yet, which I

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Speaker 2: think is key to understanding what it is, which is

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Speaker 2: the childlike logic that operates in House. It is different

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Speaker 2: from a lot of horror movies. And I somehow connect

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Speaker 2: this to the fact that, say, the House doesn't have

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Speaker 2: a standard backstory of like human evil drawing in demons

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Speaker 2: and wicked spirits. Instead, it feels like the the evil

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Speaker 2: that infects the house just sort of totally unexplainable and random,

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Speaker 2: something that comes in and strikes and infects the house

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Speaker 2: and the occupant of the house from outside.

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Speaker 1: Uh.

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Speaker 2: That seems much more in line with the way that

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Speaker 2: children imagine evil spirits. You know, you don't need that

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Speaker 2: like backstory of it being caused by someone's human wicked choices. Instead,

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Speaker 2: it's just it comes out of nowhere and it's scary

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Speaker 2: and it doesn't even need to be explained.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, this is a very important aspect of House, and

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Speaker 1: we're going to be talking about Nubuhiko Obayashi, the director,

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Speaker 1: who is also an actor in it and a producer

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Speaker 1: and director of special effects. But famously this like the

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Speaker 1: key aspects of this film were inspired by conversations he

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Speaker 1: had with his daughter, who I believe was ten at

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Speaker 1: the age, Chigumi Obayashi, where he would come to her

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Speaker 1: and like, well, what what what do you find scary?

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Speaker 2: What?

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Speaker 1: Tell me what fry? What would be I think he

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Speaker 1: also said like, hey, if daddy were to make a movie,

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Speaker 1: what kind of things would you want to be in it?

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Speaker 1: And so she came up with these various ideas that

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Speaker 1: were all based on just this child's eye view of

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Speaker 1: the world, like, for instance, so one particular thing. We'll

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Speaker 1: probably run through most of them. But there's a scary

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Speaker 1: clock in the movie, and according to her on the

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Speaker 1: Criterion collection disc of this film, there's an interview with

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Speaker 1: her and her father from several years back, and she

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Speaker 1: says that there was this there was this point where

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Speaker 1: they were staying at this house in the country, you know,

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Speaker 1: a family house, and there was a big clock in

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Speaker 1: the hallway and she would have to cross by it

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Speaker 1: in the night in order to go to the bathroom

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Speaker 1: and she was frightened by the clock, you know. And

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Speaker 1: so it's the kind of thing like humans are generally

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Speaker 1: not frightened by big, dusty clocks and houses, but children

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Speaker 1: can be. And so the beauty of this film, One

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Speaker 1: of the beautiful things about this film is that he

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Speaker 1: took these ideas from his daughter and then you know,

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Speaker 1: added a little more traditional ghost story structure to it

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Speaker 1: and handed it off to the screenwriter. But yet it

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Speaker 1: still retains these very childlike views of fear and threat

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Speaker 1: and then sort of translates them to a certain extent

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Speaker 1: into a wider understanding for you know, any viewer, they

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Speaker 1: may watch it. You don't have to be a child

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Speaker 1: to feel the fear of this clock.

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Speaker 2: There is a young person's creativity in the way some

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Speaker 2: of the scary images in the movie are conjured, so

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Speaker 2: like making connections that an adult might not normally make,

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Speaker 2: but then also a kind of a young person's fearlessness

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Speaker 2: in deciding what is scary. So there is a scene

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Speaker 2: in the movie where a character is fatally attacked by

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Speaker 2: pillows and mattresses that fall from the ceiling. I think

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Speaker 2: that is an image that if an adult were to

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Speaker 2: come up with it, they might think, no, that's silly,

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Speaker 2: that's not scary. That doesn't work. It just doesn't fit

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Speaker 2: the language of what is a threat in horror movies.

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Speaker 2: But I think I read this idea also came from

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Speaker 2: from the director's daughter. You know, she was afraid of

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Speaker 2: like being attacked by mattresses from the sky, and in

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Speaker 2: the movie it they just they just do it. That's

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Speaker 2: a scene.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think she mentioned in the interview

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Speaker 1: that it came from or maybe your father did that.

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Speaker 1: It came in part from going out to the countryside

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Speaker 1: and having to sleep on futons and then fold them

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Speaker 1: up during the day, and as a child, like the

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Speaker 1: futon is so big and it's kind of heavy, and

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Speaker 1: it's kind of falling on you, so it kind of

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Speaker 1: feeds into this idea.

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Speaker 2: I never would have thought of that, but yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's that's really the beauty of it. Like,

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Speaker 1: these are all things that grown ups would not have

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Speaker 1: thought of. They come from the mind of children, and

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Speaker 1: the child's mind is capable of such wonders and such horrors.

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Speaker 1: You know that. It's one of the joys of parenthood

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Speaker 1: is getting to to be on the receiving end of

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Speaker 1: so many wild and creative ideas that they just come

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Speaker 1: up with on their own, you know, because they have

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Speaker 1: to this innate creativity.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, to see to see the wild mental leaps and

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Speaker 2: the strange connections that a young brain makes that you

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Speaker 2: just you're seeing into something that your brain may once

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Speaker 2: have been capable of but is no longer like the

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Speaker 2: pruning has cut you off from from that kind of

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Speaker 2: connection across mental distance.

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Speaker 1: So this, again, this is a huge part of the film.

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Speaker 1: We'll keep coming back to this as we discuss the

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Speaker 1: making of the film and also get into the plot.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, I'm glad that we're finally covering House. It's

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Speaker 1: a film that has been on the Weird House Cinema

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Speaker 1: list for I mean really since the beginning. I mean

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Speaker 1: that's just if when you think of weird films and

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Speaker 1: you get into listings of weird films, it's always up there.

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Speaker 1: There's a poster or or a recreation of the poster

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Speaker 1: for this film in the the front window of Videodrome,

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Speaker 1: the movie rental place here in Atlanta. So you know,

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Speaker 1: it's always been on the list, and today we're finally

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Speaker 1: talking about it. I guess I'm gonna stick with the

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Speaker 1: Mount everest of Hunted House Films for my elevator pitch.

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Speaker 1: Do you have any anything to add to that?

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Speaker 2: Joe Worst Summer vacation ever. Seven high school friends go

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Speaker 2: out for a leisurely visit to a countryside manor somewhere

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Speaker 2: in Japan and get eaten by various household appliances.

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Speaker 1: All right, well, let's go ahead and listen to at

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Speaker 1: least part of the trailer audio here. I'm not sure

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Speaker 1: it necessarily makes sense to listen to the whole thing,

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Speaker 1: but we definitely want to get just a little taste

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Speaker 1: of that music, a little taste, especially of the title.

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Speaker 1: So let's have a listen. See that squin I see

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Speaker 1: in your Rise where tomorrow as Hi, my heart as

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Speaker 1: a bell, ringing blow at the touch of the leans

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Speaker 1: down the.

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Speaker 2: Rainbow, come slide with loud row, skateball and as they

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Speaker 2: got clo.

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Speaker 1: Cocaaia cosa. Oh all right now, if you want to

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Speaker 1: run out and watch House before we get into any

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Speaker 1: further discussion here, well, lucky for you, House is widely

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Speaker 1: available in pretty much any format you might desire here

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Speaker 1: in the States. You can currently stream it on Max

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Speaker 1: unless I think it's still there It's also available on

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Speaker 1: Blu Ray and DVD from the Criterion Collection. And that's

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Speaker 1: how I watched it. I rented it from Videodrome and

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Speaker 1: watched it on Blu Ray. And I'll refer back to

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Speaker 1: some of the special features as we perceive. All Right, Well,

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Speaker 1: let's get into the people who made this film, starting

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Speaker 1: once more at the top with Nuwahiko Obayashi again director.

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Speaker 1: He also plays husband in this producer, director of special effects.

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Speaker 1: He lived nineteen thirty eight through twenty twenty. He was

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Speaker 1: a Japanese director, screenwriter, and editor known for his work

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Speaker 1: in experimental cinema of the nineteen sixties TV commercials, reportedly

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Speaker 1: by the thousands and often involving the sort of Western

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Speaker 1: celebrity appearances that were parodied in two thousand and threes

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Speaker 1: lost in translation.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so where you might have like a celebrity famous

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Speaker 2: in English language movies and TV come in and kind

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Speaker 2: of deliver some strange, out of context lines for a

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Speaker 2: soda commercial in Japan or something exactly.

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Speaker 1: And if you look up at images of him, you'll

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Speaker 1: find a lot of old images of him, like standing

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Speaker 1: around with various celebrities from the West. Now, this film

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy Seven's House was his first feature film and

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Speaker 1: intentionally off kilter, highly weird, experimental horror comedy. I guess

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Speaker 1: you might call it, but you can describe it many

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Speaker 1: other ways as well. Initially didn't land all that well

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Speaker 1: with especially the Japanese critics and in the industry, but

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Speaker 1: it's going developed a cult following in Japan and abroad,

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Speaker 1: and today it's celebrated as just a complete cinematic freak

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Speaker 1: out and stands tall amid the pantheon of global psychatronics cinema.

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Speaker 2: As long as you're sticking to coherent narrative films, it

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Speaker 2: is one of the weirdest ever made.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and I do want to stress that it. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it does have a plot that you can follow. It's

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Speaker 1: not one of these You can definitely describe it as

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Speaker 1: art house to a certain extent. Ty West the horror director,

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Speaker 1: has a little bit on the Criterion collection disc where

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Speaker 1: he talks about it being an art horror film, which

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Speaker 1: he says, you see little of these days, in part

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Speaker 1: because studios want to bring ironically someone in from the

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Speaker 1: commercial world to direct a very cookie cutter horror film

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Speaker 1: that kind of matches up with the style of everything

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Speaker 1: else and doesn't stand out. But you do still see

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Speaker 1: some art horror films like Slip Through, and there's some

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Speaker 1: great examples of that for sure, But yeah, this is

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Speaker 1: a very artistic vision here. Well.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think horror films are often thought of as

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Speaker 2: a cash grab, and in many cases they are because

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Speaker 2: horror films are, for the most part, relatively cheap to make,

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Speaker 2: and they tend to gross a lot more than their budgets.

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Speaker 2: But you know, something that might be true of a

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Speaker 2: lot of entries in a genre is of course never

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Speaker 2: true of all right.

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Speaker 1: Right, So again, there's a great interview with Obayashi and

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Speaker 1: his daughter on the Criterion collection disc and I highly

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Speaker 1: recommend folks to check that out. But because it also

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Speaker 1: has a lot of interesting stills, behind the scenes photos

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Speaker 1: and so forth, And they run through several aspects of

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Speaker 1: the making of and the reception of the film, and

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Speaker 1: I just want to go through a few things that

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Speaker 1: really stood out to me and I think are important

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Speaker 1: for understanding how this film came together and then how

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Speaker 1: it was interpreted. So he says that at the time,

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Speaker 1: so we would be dealing with I think at the time,

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Speaker 1: like mid seventies Japan. He said that cinema was pretty

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Speaker 1: much in decline, in that young people did not go

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Speaker 1: to them movies. TV was what was really in and

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Speaker 1: even his daughter, who would apparently go with him to

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Speaker 1: the theater all the time, would comment that Japanese films

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Speaker 1: were boring, Like when he asked her what kind of

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Speaker 1: film Shouldaddy make, she would be like, Oh, don't make

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Speaker 1: a movie, Daddy, Japanese films are boring. So a lot

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Speaker 1: of what he's doing is definitely trying to create something different,

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Speaker 1: something new.

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Speaker 2: Bummer shut down by your child.

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Speaker 1: But he says that a lot of aspiring filmmakers at

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Speaker 1: the time, like himself, didn't want to do commercials, but

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Speaker 1: he thought differently. He seems to have thought differently about

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Speaker 1: a lot of things. He points out that the big

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Speaker 1: thing is there was money in commercials, and the key

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Speaker 1: here is not that you would make a lot of money,

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Speaker 1: and I think that may have also been true, but

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Speaker 1: more to the point, you could actually work with a budget.

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Speaker 1: So again, like the Japanese cinematic world, according to him,

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Speaker 1: was sort of shrinking at the time. You couldn't get

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Speaker 1: these big budgets, but you could go into doing these

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Speaker 1: commercials and there was money there. He says that ultimately

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Speaker 1: the content might be meaningless, but you could experiment, you

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Speaker 1: could chase the visual expression of the thing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and you see a lot of directors who eventually

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Speaker 2: end up making movies in all cultures. It's an American

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Speaker 2: cinema two that you know, they start in commercials and

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Speaker 2: also music videos. That used to be a big thing

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Speaker 2: because it was a place to just like work on techniques.

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Speaker 2: You know, whatever the actual content is, you're just experimenting

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Speaker 2: with ways of showing things and learning the craft that way. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, He speaks in the interview of turning experimentation into expression,

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Speaker 1: and that really seems to have been a big part

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Speaker 1: of his IMO at the time. Certainly in the production

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Speaker 1: of House, which didn't even have any storyboards. They intentionally

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Speaker 1: they did not do storyboards for it. They would just

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Speaker 1: try things out and just like throw everything against the

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Speaker 1: wall and see what they could get. I believe it's

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Speaker 1: Tie West and the extra that points out that, like

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Speaker 1: they use just basically every in camera technique imaginable film.

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Speaker 2: That makes sense because I would say that the visual

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Speaker 2: style of the finished product is incredibly chaotic. There are

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Speaker 2: just tons of different techniques on display, sometimes seemingly at random.

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Speaker 2: I want to talk about this later when we get

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Speaker 2: into discussing the plot, the sometimes the violation of cinematic

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Speaker 2: norms that takes place throughout the movie, but also in

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Speaker 2: terms of special effects, in terms of editing techniques, like

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Speaker 2: it all just is just crazy different visual stuff happening

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Speaker 2: all the time that does not feel part of an

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Speaker 2: attempt to select a particular visual texture that like a

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Speaker 2: lot of films do, Like they just have totally different

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Speaker 2: looking effects and styles happening back to back.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. He mentions like having great admiration for filmmakers like Krosawa,

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Speaker 1: but then also wondering what would irritate Carrossow, pursuing that

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Speaker 1: line of thinking, that's great. So anyway, Toho Studios famously

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Speaker 1: was inspired by Jaws for this one. This is often

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Speaker 1: just thrown out there. It's like this was this was

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Speaker 1: an attempt to catch it on Jows. Well sort of

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Speaker 1: kind of, at least from Toho's position. Established studio again

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Speaker 1: realizes they need to they need to do something fresh,

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Speaker 1: and they look over and they say, oh, well, this

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Speaker 1: Steven Spielberg guy just made like this enormously successful shark movie,

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Speaker 1: huge hit from the mind of a young emerging talent.

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Speaker 1: Let's get one of those young emerging talents and get

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Speaker 1: them to make us a Jaws.

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Speaker 2: And of course, Jaws did lead to numerous ripoffs and

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Speaker 2: copycats in the American market and all around the world.

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Speaker 2: I mean, you can find the Italian Jaws ripoffs, American

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Speaker 2: Jaws ripoffs, they're they're popping off all over the place.

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Speaker 2: Jaws made a lot of money, and much like when

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Speaker 2: Star Wars made a lot of money, it spawned an

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Speaker 2: endless series of copycats. So did Jaws. So you would

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Speaker 2: get Jaws with a bear Jaws. Other people would just

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Speaker 2: do shark you know, shark copycat movies, Jaws with a

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Speaker 2: killer whale. Uh, there are so many of these.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And Obiasci points out that that's how the grown

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Speaker 1: up mind works, especially like the corporate mind is. Like

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Speaker 1: shark attack films are in, let's do a bear attack.

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Speaker 1: Let's do it, you know whatever, animal attack. And that's

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Speaker 1: the reason he turned to his ten year old daughter

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Speaker 1: for this fresh inspiration, like what what does she want

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Speaker 1: me to make a movie about? And so she gives

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Speaker 1: him this list of ideas. He adds this, you know,

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Speaker 1: basic ghost story premise because he says, you can't have

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Speaker 1: the house eating people for no reason. It's got to

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Speaker 1: be a story reason. And then he hands this off

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Speaker 1: to the screenwriter and they have a script.

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Speaker 2: In a way, it's so beautiful just to imagine taking

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Speaker 2: all of your, like your kid's weirdest, most messed up

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Speaker 2: ideas and just saying that's gonna it's in the movie.

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Speaker 2: In the style of the Key and Peel sketch for

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Speaker 2: Gremlins too, It's just very much it's in the movie.

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00:24:41,800 --> 00:24:45,880
Speaker 1: Yeah. So it's impressive that the screenplay was green lit

435
00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:48,119
Speaker 1: by Toho. They're like, all right, let's do it. But

436
00:24:48,160 --> 00:24:50,240
Speaker 1: there was still apparently a long run up to actually

437
00:24:50,240 --> 00:24:51,640
Speaker 1: shooting the movie. I think it was like a couple

438
00:24:51,680 --> 00:24:56,200
Speaker 1: of years. And so during this time they produced and

439
00:24:56,240 --> 00:25:01,200
Speaker 1: sold the soundtrack, They produced and sold a novelation, there

440
00:25:01,240 --> 00:25:03,800
Speaker 1: was a radio play of it. I was really surprised

441
00:25:03,800 --> 00:25:06,720
Speaker 1: by all of this. I'm often not cute into all

442
00:25:06,760 --> 00:25:10,880
Speaker 1: of the gears of getting you know, the film from

443
00:25:10,920 --> 00:25:14,560
Speaker 1: the screenplay stage to the production and release stage, but

444
00:25:14,880 --> 00:25:17,240
Speaker 1: you know, it sounds like Obyashi put a lot of

445
00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:19,360
Speaker 1: effort in just like all right, let's do all these things.

446
00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:23,719
Speaker 1: Sort of to ensure that Toho keeps it greenlit and

447
00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:25,760
Speaker 1: and knows that it's coming. He talks about like printing

448
00:25:25,840 --> 00:25:29,080
Speaker 1: up business cards with the movie poster on it and

449
00:25:29,119 --> 00:25:31,160
Speaker 1: handing them out and saying Toho is making this movie,

450
00:25:31,160 --> 00:25:34,359
Speaker 1: TOAs making this movie, and so forth. And I also

451
00:25:34,400 --> 00:25:37,240
Speaker 1: have to to say that, like in the interview and

452
00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:39,919
Speaker 1: the various photos, it's like it's very clear that Obyashi

453
00:25:40,080 --> 00:25:44,040
Speaker 1: was a very flashy, very creative, you know again it's

454
00:25:44,280 --> 00:25:47,879
Speaker 1: experimental and establishment bucking young director, but also one who

455
00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:51,199
Speaker 1: seemed to be very personable with cast and crew, to

456
00:25:51,280 --> 00:25:53,640
Speaker 1: the point that he has shares this story about how

457
00:25:54,040 --> 00:25:57,960
Speaker 1: the lighting team ends up really coming around to him

458
00:25:58,280 --> 00:26:01,240
Speaker 1: because he addressed them by their names, and they this

459
00:26:01,320 --> 00:26:04,720
Speaker 1: had never happened before in the production of Toho films.

460
00:26:04,720 --> 00:26:06,800
Speaker 1: They were just they were never addressed by name, and like,

461
00:26:06,920 --> 00:26:09,280
Speaker 1: so he brought an entirely different vibe to the production.

462
00:26:09,880 --> 00:26:12,119
Speaker 1: And he also says that he made a point of

463
00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:14,920
Speaker 1: wearing a different outfit every day in order to sort

464
00:26:14,920 --> 00:26:16,960
Speaker 1: of keep the vibe up. So there are all these

465
00:26:17,080 --> 00:26:19,960
Speaker 1: interesting photos of him in various flashy outfits. He's often

466
00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:22,160
Speaker 1: got sunglasses on, very hip hoocking dude.

467
00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:26,040
Speaker 2: I think I read something about how in order to

468
00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:29,840
Speaker 2: get people in the feeling of a scene in the movie,

469
00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:32,440
Speaker 2: he would like play music while they were shooting.

470
00:26:32,720 --> 00:26:34,960
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it would kind of like, I think, dance

471
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:38,520
Speaker 1: with everyone, that sort of thing. Now. Obyashi was born

472
00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:41,720
Speaker 1: in Hiroshima, and all of his childhood friends, he says,

473
00:26:41,760 --> 00:26:45,080
Speaker 1: died as a result of the bombing, and he also

474
00:26:45,160 --> 00:26:47,280
Speaker 1: makes a point of of, you know, pointing out that

475
00:26:47,560 --> 00:26:51,440
Speaker 1: he incorporates elements of this into this picture as well

476
00:26:51,440 --> 00:26:55,080
Speaker 1: into the anti war themes and other movies that he

477
00:26:55,080 --> 00:26:58,520
Speaker 1: would go on to direct. So he speaks of the

478
00:26:59,000 --> 00:27:01,879
Speaker 1: in this interview, he talked about the youth in this film.

479
00:27:02,440 --> 00:27:04,760
Speaker 1: The Seven Girls, as we'll get into that are a key.

480
00:27:05,600 --> 00:27:08,040
Speaker 1: So he was about forty at the time, and he

481
00:27:08,119 --> 00:27:10,840
Speaker 1: talks about like the young people being too young to

482
00:27:11,280 --> 00:27:13,720
Speaker 1: really know what war is and as a result to

483
00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:17,600
Speaker 1: fully appreciate the joy of peace. And I thought this

484
00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:20,720
Speaker 1: was really interesting. I have to hear this after watching

485
00:27:20,720 --> 00:27:24,719
Speaker 1: the film, because yeah, you think about the tension in

486
00:27:24,760 --> 00:27:27,199
Speaker 1: this movie that's president most harror movies, like the space

487
00:27:27,240 --> 00:27:31,720
Speaker 1: between and leading up to the horrible things, and there

488
00:27:31,800 --> 00:27:37,240
Speaker 1: is like this unnatural, almost sickeningly sweet aspect to the sweetness,

489
00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:42,000
Speaker 1: like it's artificial sweetener leading up to those moments that

490
00:27:42,080 --> 00:27:46,200
Speaker 1: you know were coming. And it absolutely works in house

491
00:27:46,320 --> 00:27:49,480
Speaker 1: like it like I felt myself, you know, you know,

492
00:27:49,520 --> 00:27:52,040
Speaker 1: getting chill bumps because I knew something terrible was going

493
00:27:52,080 --> 00:27:54,320
Speaker 1: to happen, which I have to say wasn't what I

494
00:27:54,440 --> 00:27:56,800
Speaker 1: quite expected from the movie. Like I was expecting you know,

495
00:27:57,000 --> 00:28:01,280
Speaker 1: psychotronic weirdness and craziness and and all that, and I

496
00:28:01,440 --> 00:28:04,719
Speaker 1: didn't really expect the scary parts to be scary or

497
00:28:04,760 --> 00:28:06,480
Speaker 1: to feel that the tension leading.

498
00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:09,800
Speaker 2: Up to them. Yeah, well, there is a I would

499
00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:13,280
Speaker 2: say this movie is almost always in some ways trying

500
00:28:13,280 --> 00:28:16,560
Speaker 2: to subvert its own tone. So there are scenes that

501
00:28:17,320 --> 00:28:21,719
Speaker 2: are very ominous in what's happening, or they're conveying dark

502
00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:26,040
Speaker 2: or sad or scary information. And a lot of these

503
00:28:26,080 --> 00:28:29,000
Speaker 2: scenes will have things about like the sights and sounds

504
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:31,640
Speaker 2: of the scene that are lighthearted and funny, like it'll

505
00:28:31,680 --> 00:28:36,080
Speaker 2: play jolly, sort of happy music while something really sad

506
00:28:36,240 --> 00:28:40,880
Speaker 2: or scary is happening. And then it'll do the opposite too,

507
00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:43,680
Speaker 2: something very light hearted is happening on screen, but there

508
00:28:43,720 --> 00:28:46,320
Speaker 2: will be things about it that make it very ominous

509
00:28:46,680 --> 00:28:47,720
Speaker 2: and unsettling.

510
00:28:48,120 --> 00:28:52,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Now, as mentioned earlier, critics hated it

511
00:28:52,440 --> 00:28:55,120
Speaker 1: at the time, many didn't even review it, and those

512
00:28:55,160 --> 00:28:58,080
Speaker 1: that did often were just very savage about it all.

513
00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:01,200
Speaker 1: But is he stressed in the interview, young people loved it.

514
00:29:01,520 --> 00:29:04,560
Speaker 1: He says like, like ten through thirteen were the ages

515
00:29:04,600 --> 00:29:07,120
Speaker 1: of people that were going out and seeing this movie.

516
00:29:07,080 --> 00:29:09,080
Speaker 2: And too young for this movie. I don't know, I

517
00:29:09,120 --> 00:29:09,400
Speaker 2: don't know.

518
00:29:09,440 --> 00:29:11,960
Speaker 1: We had an off mike discussion like when is the

519
00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:16,520
Speaker 1: appropriate age to see House? And I I haven't no answers,

520
00:29:16,600 --> 00:29:19,680
Speaker 1: but hard to say ten to thirteen. I guess at

521
00:29:19,760 --> 00:29:23,000
Speaker 1: least in the late seventies in Japan. But anyway, Yeah,

522
00:29:23,040 --> 00:29:26,720
Speaker 1: young people loved it, made it a success in a way,

523
00:29:26,880 --> 00:29:31,360
Speaker 1: kind of to the disappointment of the studio establishment. And

524
00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:33,920
Speaker 1: then ultimately some of the people who loved it were

525
00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:37,680
Speaker 1: future filmmakers. The people who loved it were future film critics,

526
00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:40,560
Speaker 1: and so it would eventually be held up as one

527
00:29:40,600 --> 00:29:45,000
Speaker 1: of the great Japanese horror movies and ultimately, like we've

528
00:29:45,040 --> 00:29:49,720
Speaker 1: been saying, one of the great weird films of global cinema. So, Obiyoshi,

529
00:29:49,720 --> 00:29:53,320
Speaker 1: you've followed up House with a long filmography that ultimately

530
00:29:53,360 --> 00:29:57,480
Speaker 1: broadened his mainstream appeal, including several less nutty coming of

531
00:29:57,520 --> 00:30:00,920
Speaker 1: age movies, but he didn't abandon horror. His subsequent movies

532
00:30:00,960 --> 00:30:04,280
Speaker 1: also include nineteen eighty two's Cute Devil, nineteen eighty three's

533
00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:08,480
Speaker 1: Legend of the Cat Monster, nineteen eighty sevens The Forbidden Classroom,

534
00:30:08,800 --> 00:30:13,800
Speaker 1: and nineteen eighty eight's The Discarnates. The same year as House,

535
00:30:14,000 --> 00:30:16,360
Speaker 1: in seventy seventy, also made The Visitor in the Eye.

536
00:30:16,400 --> 00:30:21,280
Speaker 1: This was a live action manga adaptation, and his twenty

537
00:30:21,320 --> 00:30:25,760
Speaker 1: seventeen anti war film Hanagatami was actually forty years in

538
00:30:25,800 --> 00:30:28,240
Speaker 1: the making. He was actually working on the script for

539
00:30:28,320 --> 00:30:33,040
Speaker 1: that film with the screenwriter Katsura right before House. His

540
00:30:33,160 --> 00:30:36,680
Speaker 1: last film was twenty nineteen's Labyrinth of Cinema, and again.

541
00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:42,040
Speaker 1: He died in twenty twenty. Now his daughter is Chigumi Ogashi.

542
00:30:42,760 --> 00:30:45,640
Speaker 1: She actually appears in the movie. She's the shoe store girl.

543
00:30:46,400 --> 00:30:49,840
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah. There's a scene outside like a cobbler's shop,

544
00:30:49,880 --> 00:30:53,120
Speaker 2: shoemaker shop, and there is an old man and the

545
00:30:53,160 --> 00:30:56,320
Speaker 2: girl like hammering on some shoe soles. I think, I

546
00:30:56,320 --> 00:30:59,640
Speaker 2: think this is where mister Togo, the teacher in the

547
00:30:59,680 --> 00:31:02,120
Speaker 2: movie it's a bucket stuck on his butt and has

548
00:31:02,160 --> 00:31:03,160
Speaker 2: to go to the hospital.

549
00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:06,320
Speaker 1: Yeah, in one of the goof here, just like Monty

550
00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:10,400
Speaker 1: python S sequences that occur in the film. Yeah, it's

551
00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:17,720
Speaker 1: just complete nuttiness, complete slapstick Charlie Chaplin esque and then

552
00:31:17,800 --> 00:31:20,800
Speaker 1: some I guess ye, but yeah, keep a lookout for her.

553
00:31:21,240 --> 00:31:24,080
Speaker 2: And bucket butt scene is Yeah, it's powerful.

554
00:31:25,200 --> 00:31:27,720
Speaker 1: Almost as good as the banana scene. Later on, we'll

555
00:31:27,760 --> 00:31:30,920
Speaker 1: get to that, okay, and then the screenplay proper I

556
00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:34,160
Speaker 1: mentioned Katsura. This is Chiho Katsura, who lived nineteen twenty

557
00:31:34,240 --> 00:31:39,400
Speaker 1: nine through twenty twenty so. He was a Japanese screenwriter, novelist, translator,

558
00:31:39,440 --> 00:31:42,600
Speaker 1: and film critic whose work, based on what I could

559
00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:45,400
Speaker 1: see of his available filmography, included a great deal of

560
00:31:45,600 --> 00:31:48,240
Speaker 1: Japanese pink he erotic films, but he also worked in

561
00:31:48,280 --> 00:31:51,520
Speaker 1: other genres, including at least a couple of family films.

562
00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:55,640
Speaker 1: He worked with Obashi on several mainstream films, including again

563
00:31:55,720 --> 00:32:00,160
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen's Hanaga Tommy. All right, but now we should

564
00:32:00,200 --> 00:32:04,360
Speaker 1: mentioned that really on the acting front, we have seven

565
00:32:04,800 --> 00:32:09,520
Speaker 1: core characters. These are the seven girls. Their names are

566
00:32:09,800 --> 00:32:17,560
Speaker 1: gorgeous kung Fu Fantasy prof or Professor Mac, which is

567
00:32:17,560 --> 00:32:19,480
Speaker 1: short for stomach because she likes food.

568
00:32:19,680 --> 00:32:21,840
Speaker 2: Oh I didn't, I didn't get Mac.

569
00:32:22,080 --> 00:32:25,920
Speaker 1: It took a while for me to put that together. Okay, Mac, Melody,

570
00:32:26,400 --> 00:32:30,120
Speaker 1: and sweet, and they are all exactly what their names imply.

571
00:32:30,840 --> 00:32:34,280
Speaker 2: Right, So they're named after their trades. So Gorgeous is

572
00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:37,240
Speaker 2: supposed to be beautiful. Kung Fu is the jock of

573
00:32:37,280 --> 00:32:39,920
Speaker 2: the group. She can like she can do sports and

574
00:32:40,120 --> 00:32:44,200
Speaker 2: kung fu, and she's very decisive and active. Fantasy is

575
00:32:44,200 --> 00:32:47,800
Speaker 2: a day dreamer. She's Gorgeous's best friend, and she likes

576
00:32:47,840 --> 00:32:51,480
Speaker 2: to I don't know, she's often daydreaming, though most of

577
00:32:51,520 --> 00:32:54,840
Speaker 2: the things in the movie where it's like is she daydreaming? No,

578
00:32:54,920 --> 00:33:00,720
Speaker 2: they're actually happening. Prof is very smart and logical, and

579
00:33:00,760 --> 00:33:03,479
Speaker 2: she often has a book in her hand. Mac is

580
00:33:03,520 --> 00:33:07,120
Speaker 2: always hungry to a ridiculous extent, Like I think literally

581
00:33:07,160 --> 00:33:09,800
Speaker 2: every single line she says in the movie is like

582
00:33:09,960 --> 00:33:12,440
Speaker 2: I am eating now, yummy, you know, I want I

583
00:33:12,480 --> 00:33:13,320
Speaker 2: want a watermelon.

584
00:33:14,480 --> 00:33:17,040
Speaker 1: She just has a great metabolism, though I have to stress, like,

585
00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:20,000
Speaker 1: it's not like she's overweight or depicted as such, Like

586
00:33:20,040 --> 00:33:21,360
Speaker 1: she just is hungry all the time.

587
00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:25,880
Speaker 2: Mac Mac loves food and Melody loves music. She plays

588
00:33:25,920 --> 00:33:28,440
Speaker 2: the guitar. I think we see her with a violin case,

589
00:33:28,480 --> 00:33:32,080
Speaker 2: and she plays the piano. There's a there's a very

590
00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:35,400
Speaker 2: unfortunate piano scene where she gets her fingers bitten off.

591
00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:38,960
Speaker 2: And then there is Sweet, who is You might think

592
00:33:38,960 --> 00:33:41,360
Speaker 2: Sweet is the one who is into desserts, but no,

593
00:33:41,480 --> 00:33:44,440
Speaker 2: that's Mac. Sweet is named so because she is friendly

594
00:33:44,560 --> 00:33:46,200
Speaker 2: and like gentle and kind.

595
00:33:46,680 --> 00:33:49,040
Speaker 1: But yeah, still, it's kind of like the Seven Dwarfs, right,

596
00:33:49,280 --> 00:33:52,240
Speaker 1: Like their names, yeah tell you who they are for

597
00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:58,560
Speaker 1: the most part, except what is Doc. Yeah, I don't

598
00:33:58,560 --> 00:34:01,840
Speaker 1: know what Doc Steal is, But yeah, these these gals

599
00:34:01,960 --> 00:34:04,880
Speaker 1: names all make sense. And and apparently the number seven

600
00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:08,040
Speaker 1: was was important Togo actually because like teams of seven

601
00:34:08,520 --> 00:34:14,120
Speaker 1: are or were common in Japan. Now. In casting the

602
00:34:14,160 --> 00:34:17,760
Speaker 1: Seven Girls, he says that, like he pretty much depended

603
00:34:17,800 --> 00:34:20,200
Speaker 1: on just casting girls that he'd worked with in his

604
00:34:20,239 --> 00:34:23,600
Speaker 1: commercial work, so a lot of them were, you know,

605
00:34:23,719 --> 00:34:30,080
Speaker 1: models with very limited acting experience. There's basically basically gorgeous.

606
00:34:30,120 --> 00:34:33,279
Speaker 1: I think it's the only one who had had an

607
00:34:33,280 --> 00:34:35,759
Speaker 1: acting career that was already like emotion, but it was

608
00:34:35,800 --> 00:34:40,279
Speaker 1: still still very early. So he but he says, like

609
00:34:40,320 --> 00:34:42,160
Speaker 1: this is also an important part of the vibe, Like

610
00:34:42,200 --> 00:34:46,040
Speaker 1: the acting from these girls is kind of amateurish and

611
00:34:46,239 --> 00:34:51,120
Speaker 1: it doesn't feel polished or professional, but that, like other

612
00:34:51,160 --> 00:34:54,279
Speaker 1: aspects of the film are intentional, Like that's part of

613
00:34:54,320 --> 00:34:55,600
Speaker 1: the intended fabric of the thing.

614
00:34:56,080 --> 00:34:57,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, there are scenes in the movie that have an

615
00:34:57,960 --> 00:35:00,960
Speaker 2: almost sketch comedy kind to feel, if you know what

616
00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:05,359
Speaker 2: I mean, Like characters kind of like stumbling over each

617
00:35:05,360 --> 00:35:08,480
Speaker 2: other with their lines, talking over other people's lines, and

618
00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:13,600
Speaker 2: like sometimes maybe it seems like they're improvising, but it

619
00:35:14,640 --> 00:35:17,160
Speaker 2: is clearly part of the fabric of the movie. It's

620
00:35:16,960 --> 00:35:21,600
Speaker 2: what they're trying to create. I think somehow it simultaneously

621
00:35:21,680 --> 00:35:25,680
Speaker 2: makes the movie funnier but also makes the characters somehow

622
00:35:25,680 --> 00:35:29,000
Speaker 2: feel more vulnerable when they are threatened by the evil

623
00:35:29,040 --> 00:35:30,000
Speaker 2: magic of the house.

624
00:35:30,680 --> 00:35:34,319
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, and in a way that maybe comparable to

625
00:35:34,520 --> 00:35:39,719
Speaker 1: how sometimes your b horror movies are more terrifying, in

626
00:35:39,840 --> 00:35:42,840
Speaker 1: that they feel more like it's documentary footage, you know,

627
00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:46,640
Speaker 1: like they're not actors, and it can, Yeah, it can

628
00:35:46,680 --> 00:35:50,080
Speaker 1: sort of warp your expectations and experience of watching it.

629
00:35:50,719 --> 00:35:55,080
Speaker 1: So anyway, I'm not going to list all seven actresses

630
00:35:55,120 --> 00:35:57,920
Speaker 1: who play the seven Girls. A lot of them again

631
00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:00,719
Speaker 1: were new to acting and didn't necessary, you know, stick

632
00:36:00,760 --> 00:36:03,440
Speaker 1: around for more acting or maybe only have a handful

633
00:36:03,440 --> 00:36:07,200
Speaker 1: of credits. But the key exception is the actor who

634
00:36:07,200 --> 00:36:12,160
Speaker 1: plays Gorgeous. This is Kamiko Ikigami born nineteen fifty nine,

635
00:36:12,400 --> 00:36:15,359
Speaker 1: American born Japanese actress. She'd been acting for a few

636
00:36:15,440 --> 00:36:17,920
Speaker 1: years at this point, having made her TV and film

637
00:36:17,920 --> 00:36:22,080
Speaker 1: debuts in seventy five. Her subsequent films include nineteen seventy

638
00:36:22,160 --> 00:36:25,360
Speaker 1: nine's The Man Who Stole the Sun, The Acclaim, nineteen

639
00:36:25,400 --> 00:36:29,040
Speaker 1: eighty three drama Yokiro, for which she was nominated for

640
00:36:29,080 --> 00:36:32,680
Speaker 1: a Japanese Academy Award, and nineteen ninety three's Lone Wolf

641
00:36:32,719 --> 00:36:34,400
Speaker 1: and Cub The Final Conflict.

642
00:36:34,920 --> 00:36:37,920
Speaker 2: Now, the seven main girls are sort of an ensemble

643
00:36:38,120 --> 00:36:40,799
Speaker 2: of heroes, but I'd say there I'd also say there

644
00:36:40,800 --> 00:36:43,360
Speaker 2: are sort of two main protagonists of the movie, and

645
00:36:43,360 --> 00:36:46,080
Speaker 2: that is Gorgeous, but also her best friend Fantasy.

646
00:36:46,719 --> 00:36:51,120
Speaker 1: Fantasy, Yeah, Fantasy is very key. Komiko Oba born nineteen

647
00:36:51,160 --> 00:36:54,160
Speaker 1: sixty plays this role. I'm also a huge fan of

648
00:36:54,239 --> 00:36:58,759
Speaker 1: kung Fu. I thought Mickey Jimbo born nineteen sixty was

649
00:36:58,800 --> 00:36:59,440
Speaker 1: great in this.

650
00:37:01,520 --> 00:37:02,520
Speaker 2: Ooh, you're so cool.

651
00:37:02,880 --> 00:37:06,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, she is so cool, and she can kick ghosts.

652
00:37:06,400 --> 00:37:09,320
Speaker 2: She can, she does. In fact, she can kick ghosts

653
00:37:09,320 --> 00:37:11,280
Speaker 2: even without her head attached to her body.

654
00:37:12,680 --> 00:37:15,560
Speaker 1: But ultimately, yeah, it's an ensemble and all the girls

655
00:37:15,560 --> 00:37:23,120
Speaker 1: are great. They're all wonderful. I love their caricatures. It's fabulous. Yeah,

656
00:37:23,160 --> 00:37:24,719
Speaker 1: but again, most of them didn't have a lot of

657
00:37:24,760 --> 00:37:25,560
Speaker 1: acting experience.

658
00:37:25,640 --> 00:37:25,879
Speaker 2: Really.

659
00:37:25,920 --> 00:37:29,080
Speaker 1: The most established actor in the whole mix is the

660
00:37:29,120 --> 00:37:33,560
Speaker 1: actor playing the Auntie who they are visiting. Often credit

661
00:37:33,719 --> 00:37:39,719
Speaker 1: is Auntie Carrie House, so I guess her last name

662
00:37:39,760 --> 00:37:44,880
Speaker 1: is House anyway, played by Yoko Minamita. She lived nineteen

663
00:37:44,920 --> 00:37:47,920
Speaker 1: thirty three through two thousand and nine, a Japanese actress,

664
00:37:47,960 --> 00:37:51,440
Speaker 1: best known for this film, at least internationally, but with

665
00:37:51,480 --> 00:37:54,279
Speaker 1: credits going back to nineteen fifty two. So she was

666
00:37:54,320 --> 00:37:57,600
Speaker 1: a very established actor, but at the time, according to

667
00:37:57,640 --> 00:38:00,600
Speaker 1: the director, had trouble getting work in cinema, befitting her

668
00:38:00,600 --> 00:38:03,360
Speaker 1: status and her talent. Again, so like cinema seemed to

669
00:38:03,400 --> 00:38:07,279
Speaker 1: be down at the time in Japan, so but it

670
00:38:07,320 --> 00:38:08,840
Speaker 1: was it was still it was a big deal that

671
00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:11,919
Speaker 1: she took this role, not only because she had such

672
00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:14,839
Speaker 1: she was an established star, but Also, it was key

673
00:38:14,920 --> 00:38:16,800
Speaker 1: that she took the role of an older woman, according

674
00:38:16,800 --> 00:38:19,719
Speaker 1: to Obyashi, because in Japanese cinema, certainly at the time

675
00:38:20,080 --> 00:38:22,400
Speaker 1: and maybe still this is still the case, there was

676
00:38:22,440 --> 00:38:25,160
Speaker 1: no going back for an actor or actress once you

677
00:38:25,280 --> 00:38:28,759
Speaker 1: took an older person's role. Apparently it wasn't this wasn't

678
00:38:28,760 --> 00:38:31,759
Speaker 1: even necessarily like a double standard for women, as men

679
00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:36,120
Speaker 1: also couldn't keep playing younger characters as they aged.

680
00:38:36,160 --> 00:38:39,120
Speaker 2: If like they had taken a role previously in which

681
00:38:39,120 --> 00:38:41,280
Speaker 2: it was acknowledged they were playing an older character.

682
00:38:41,640 --> 00:38:44,919
Speaker 1: Yeah, like, once you take that older lady role, it's

683
00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:48,560
Speaker 1: like that's it. Now, now you play old ladies. There's

684
00:38:48,560 --> 00:38:50,160
Speaker 1: no sort of like midpoint where you can kind of

685
00:38:50,160 --> 00:38:53,160
Speaker 1: play both roles. But I have to say, she's tremendous

686
00:38:53,160 --> 00:38:53,360
Speaker 1: in this.

687
00:38:53,680 --> 00:38:58,080
Speaker 2: Oh, she's so good. She's so crazy. Yes, there's a

688
00:38:58,120 --> 00:39:01,560
Speaker 2: really great scene where she's eating some food I don't

689
00:39:01,560 --> 00:39:04,120
Speaker 2: remember what she's she's munching on something and then just

690
00:39:04,200 --> 00:39:06,200
Speaker 2: kind of like pops her mouth open and yeah, she

691
00:39:06,239 --> 00:39:08,319
Speaker 2: has an eyeball that lives in her mouth and she

692
00:39:08,560 --> 00:39:10,399
Speaker 2: kind of looks around at people with it and then

693
00:39:10,400 --> 00:39:12,600
Speaker 2: closes her mouth like te.

694
00:39:13,480 --> 00:39:15,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, there are times where she breaks the fourth wall,

695
00:39:15,880 --> 00:39:17,719
Speaker 1: and I mean you just kind of expect her to

696
00:39:17,760 --> 00:39:19,600
Speaker 1: craw out of the television at you at that point.

697
00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:21,040
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's great.

698
00:39:21,600 --> 00:39:24,080
Speaker 1: And really the only other main actor I would want

699
00:39:24,120 --> 00:39:27,160
Speaker 1: to mention is the cat and or cats. We don't

700
00:39:27,200 --> 00:39:30,840
Speaker 1: know how many cats played Blanche. You know, often you

701
00:39:30,880 --> 00:39:34,080
Speaker 1: have multiple cats in a role. But really, for the

702
00:39:34,080 --> 00:39:36,560
Speaker 1: most part, I was just struck by what a great

703
00:39:36,800 --> 00:39:42,239
Speaker 1: feline performance this is. Feline actors are notoriously difficult to

704
00:39:42,280 --> 00:39:45,920
Speaker 1: work with, and even in the best of cat related movies,

705
00:39:45,960 --> 00:39:48,520
Speaker 1: often look like they really would prefer to be out

706
00:39:49,000 --> 00:39:52,000
Speaker 1: of the shot and are more interested in like scurrying

707
00:39:52,040 --> 00:39:52,560
Speaker 1: off screen.

708
00:39:53,360 --> 00:39:55,560
Speaker 2: We were looking at some of those Blowfeld shots where

709
00:39:55,600 --> 00:39:58,000
Speaker 2: the cat looks like it's trying to be somewhere else.

710
00:39:58,239 --> 00:40:00,960
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's a lot of that obvious working with

711
00:40:01,000 --> 00:40:03,759
Speaker 1: cats is difficult, but there are plenty of shots in

712
00:40:03,800 --> 00:40:06,440
Speaker 1: this film where yeah, it's like Blanche just looks like

713
00:40:06,960 --> 00:40:08,160
Speaker 1: she's completely at ease.

714
00:40:08,200 --> 00:40:08,359
Speaker 2: Here.

715
00:40:08,880 --> 00:40:11,600
Speaker 1: Beautiful cat too, absolutely beautiful white cat, very.

716
00:40:11,560 --> 00:40:15,000
Speaker 2: Fluffy love Blanche. Hey, you didn't mention him, but there.

717
00:40:15,040 --> 00:40:17,239
Speaker 2: You also had a credit note for the guy who

718
00:40:17,320 --> 00:40:18,920
Speaker 2: like operates the Ramen stand.

719
00:40:19,560 --> 00:40:22,560
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, the guy credited as Ramen Trucker is a

720
00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:26,680
Speaker 1: Sraman trucker trucker. I yeah, okay, so maybe I don't

721
00:40:26,680 --> 00:40:28,520
Speaker 1: know if this is the I'm not sure exactly where

722
00:40:28,520 --> 00:40:31,680
Speaker 1: he shows up. But this is a guy named Shiochi

723
00:40:31,680 --> 00:40:36,319
Speaker 1: Heroes who lived nineteen Eighteeneen through nineteen ninety. Just a

724
00:40:36,320 --> 00:40:38,840
Speaker 1: bit player in a one time stunt man. But he

725
00:40:38,880 --> 00:40:41,279
Speaker 1: played King Kong in nineteen sixty three. He's King Kong

726
00:40:41,400 --> 00:40:42,200
Speaker 1: versus Godzilla.

727
00:40:42,360 --> 00:40:45,640
Speaker 2: So he's the guy, you don't there's a scene where

728
00:40:45,680 --> 00:40:49,360
Speaker 2: mister Togo, he's supposed to be coming to He doesn't

729
00:40:49,400 --> 00:40:51,719
Speaker 2: know that they're in trouble, but he they're waiting, the

730
00:40:51,760 --> 00:40:53,800
Speaker 2: girls are waiting for him to come to the rescue

731
00:40:53,840 --> 00:40:56,279
Speaker 2: at the house. And then we cut away to him

732
00:40:56,320 --> 00:40:58,640
Speaker 2: and he's like at a Ramen card eating Ramen. And

733
00:40:58,680 --> 00:41:01,080
Speaker 2: this is the guy I guess operating the Ramen cart.

734
00:41:01,280 --> 00:41:04,000
Speaker 2: I believe, so yeah, And we see him like stuff

735
00:41:04,040 --> 00:41:06,560
Speaker 2: a huge mass of noodles into his mouth and then

736
00:41:06,640 --> 00:41:09,120
Speaker 2: grin at the camera with the noodles in his mouth.

737
00:41:09,360 --> 00:41:20,400
Speaker 1: Yes, all right, now come into the music. The music

738
00:41:20,480 --> 00:41:26,480
Speaker 1: is important in house. A's say. Kobyashi has the composer credit.

739
00:41:26,560 --> 00:41:30,000
Speaker 1: He lived nineteen thirty three through twenty twenty one Japanese

740
00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:33,000
Speaker 1: composer in and occasional actor, and in fact he is

741
00:41:33,040 --> 00:41:36,640
Speaker 1: in this acting as well as the watermelon salesman.

742
00:41:36,880 --> 00:41:39,400
Speaker 2: That is an insanely weird role to go to somebody

743
00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:42,400
Speaker 2: who's not primarily an actor, like that is a weird,

744
00:41:42,760 --> 00:41:43,560
Speaker 2: weird role.

745
00:41:43,960 --> 00:41:47,880
Speaker 1: It is very memorable. Apparently it took some convincing to

746
00:41:47,880 --> 00:41:51,040
Speaker 1: bring him onto the project, but Obyashi was insistent that look,

747
00:41:51,320 --> 00:41:55,000
Speaker 1: a ghost story needs the sweetest, most beautiful music in

748
00:41:55,120 --> 00:41:57,360
Speaker 1: order to land properly, and that's why I need you

749
00:41:57,400 --> 00:41:59,839
Speaker 1: on the picture. And he was like, okay, okay, I'll

750
00:41:59,880 --> 00:42:01,560
Speaker 1: do but I also want to act in it. I'll

751
00:42:01,560 --> 00:42:04,239
Speaker 1: do it. But then he was like, you know, you

752
00:42:04,320 --> 00:42:07,239
Speaker 1: really need some youthful energy in this as well. So

753
00:42:07,280 --> 00:42:09,480
Speaker 1: it's like, I'll work on these themes and all, but

754
00:42:09,680 --> 00:42:12,879
Speaker 1: I think you should also bring in this Japanese rock

755
00:42:12,960 --> 00:42:17,000
Speaker 1: band so that they can like recreate some of these

756
00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:21,440
Speaker 1: themes and breathe additional life into the picture. And that

757
00:42:21,560 --> 00:42:25,600
Speaker 1: is where the rock band Godaigo comes into the picture here.

758
00:42:26,280 --> 00:42:29,000
Speaker 1: So this is a Japanese rock band, I believe named

759
00:42:29,040 --> 00:42:32,400
Speaker 1: after the ninety sixth Emperor of Japan. They were mostly

760
00:42:32,440 --> 00:42:34,879
Speaker 1: active in the seventies and eighties, but I think are

761
00:42:35,160 --> 00:42:37,520
Speaker 1: still around to varying degrees, like I see him doing

762
00:42:37,560 --> 00:42:40,760
Speaker 1: press and all. They were notable for supplying the music

763
00:42:40,800 --> 00:42:45,839
Speaker 1: for the Japanese TV series Monkey and This, by the way,

764
00:42:45,880 --> 00:42:48,200
Speaker 1: is the Japanese TV adaptation of the Chinese novel of

765
00:42:48,280 --> 00:42:51,080
Speaker 1: Journey into the West that I think. Actually, it also

766
00:42:51,160 --> 00:42:55,040
Speaker 1: got some air outside of Japan, like I think I've

767
00:42:55,040 --> 00:42:57,440
Speaker 1: read that it aired in Australia, for example, so a

768
00:42:57,960 --> 00:43:00,000
Speaker 1: lot of people even outside of Japan have fun memory

769
00:43:00,200 --> 00:43:03,719
Speaker 1: of this show. And also I believe there is a

770
00:43:03,719 --> 00:43:05,880
Speaker 1: scene in the movie where we see the band just

771
00:43:05,920 --> 00:43:10,120
Speaker 1: hanging around. There's like five of them, and two of

772
00:43:10,160 --> 00:43:12,319
Speaker 1: them I think two of them are Americans.

773
00:43:12,920 --> 00:43:16,600
Speaker 2: Hmmm. Okay, I vaguely recalled this happening, but I don't

774
00:43:16,600 --> 00:43:18,360
Speaker 2: remember when in the movie it is. Maybe it'll be

775
00:43:18,400 --> 00:43:19,399
Speaker 2: in my plot notes here.

776
00:43:19,760 --> 00:43:21,200
Speaker 1: I think it might be in one of those sort

777
00:43:21,200 --> 00:43:25,000
Speaker 1: of Sesame Street esque sequences where we see this kind

778
00:43:25,000 --> 00:43:30,239
Speaker 1: of like idealistic town. Okay, yeah, but anyway, these are

779
00:43:30,280 --> 00:43:32,840
Speaker 1: the folks involved in the music, and the music in

780
00:43:33,040 --> 00:43:38,080
Speaker 1: house is absolutely bonkers, bordering on and seemingly just intentionally

781
00:43:38,120 --> 00:43:43,360
Speaker 1: irritating at times even bordering on madness and yeah, and

782
00:43:43,440 --> 00:43:46,840
Speaker 1: other times just super sweet or happy, go lucky or

783
00:43:46,920 --> 00:43:50,279
Speaker 1: loaded with this kind of resilient seventies hippie vibes, you know,

784
00:43:50,400 --> 00:43:54,560
Speaker 1: like the hippie dream is degraded, but the music is

785
00:43:54,600 --> 00:43:56,200
Speaker 1: really insistent that it's still going.

786
00:43:56,760 --> 00:44:00,520
Speaker 2: There are like pop rock anthems that feel very strange

787
00:44:00,560 --> 00:44:03,680
Speaker 2: for the for what's going on with the scene. There

788
00:44:03,840 --> 00:44:07,759
Speaker 2: is a main theme that I assume was composed by

789
00:44:08,320 --> 00:44:10,919
Speaker 2: by Kobayashi. I don't know for sure, but the main

790
00:44:11,080 --> 00:44:14,240
Speaker 2: house theme that just plays over and over and over

791
00:44:14,320 --> 00:44:17,080
Speaker 2: in all these different ways, and that you know, the

792
00:44:17,160 --> 00:44:19,960
Speaker 2: dun Dun dundune, it like takes on a kind of

793
00:44:20,000 --> 00:44:22,880
Speaker 2: evil magic of its own. It's like the it's like

794
00:44:22,960 --> 00:44:26,720
Speaker 2: the music is in some way responsible for the wicked

795
00:44:26,760 --> 00:44:28,880
Speaker 2: magic that is taking place on screen.

796
00:44:29,640 --> 00:44:32,680
Speaker 1: Absolutely, and on that note, let's get into the wicked

797
00:44:32,719 --> 00:44:33,880
Speaker 1: magic of House.

798
00:44:34,640 --> 00:44:37,759
Speaker 2: I love the animated title at the beginning, so there's like,

799
00:44:37,960 --> 00:44:40,479
Speaker 2: of course we get the Toho logo, but then there's

800
00:44:40,520 --> 00:44:43,200
Speaker 2: like a blue box on a black background with pink

801
00:44:43,239 --> 00:44:47,840
Speaker 2: and green text inside it that says a movie.

802
00:44:48,320 --> 00:44:52,279
Speaker 1: Yeah. Ob Yashi says that this was key because he

803
00:44:52,320 --> 00:44:54,800
Speaker 1: had to remind everyone, this is the essence of cinema.

804
00:44:54,840 --> 00:44:57,080
Speaker 1: You can't dismiss it. This is a movie.

805
00:44:57,880 --> 00:44:59,400
Speaker 2: I admit it. I admit it.

806
00:44:59,400 --> 00:45:02,799
Speaker 1: It's a movie. But it's kind of telling because I think,

807
00:45:02,880 --> 00:45:04,319
Speaker 1: like some of the critics were like, this is not

808
00:45:04,360 --> 00:45:06,960
Speaker 1: a movie, this is just a series of commercials, this

809
00:45:07,120 --> 00:45:10,200
Speaker 1: is excrement, and so like even from the get go,

810
00:45:10,280 --> 00:45:13,360
Speaker 1: he's like, this is a movie. I believe in the vision.

811
00:45:13,840 --> 00:45:16,040
Speaker 2: So after it says a movie, we see some like

812
00:45:16,120 --> 00:45:19,839
Speaker 2: little white blobs jiggling like jello in space, and then

813
00:45:19,920 --> 00:45:24,040
Speaker 2: the little white jello smudges turn into letters that spell

814
00:45:24,280 --> 00:45:27,799
Speaker 2: house in English, and then the letters pop and a

815
00:45:27,920 --> 00:45:29,759
Speaker 2: voice comes on and says.

816
00:45:29,880 --> 00:45:34,839
Speaker 1: Howse Obayashi also stresses that giving a Japanese film a

817
00:45:34,920 --> 00:45:38,000
Speaker 1: foreign language title, which is the case here, like the

818
00:45:38,080 --> 00:45:41,880
Speaker 1: Japanese title for House is house. He says, this simply

819
00:45:41,960 --> 00:45:43,560
Speaker 1: was not done at the time. It was really kind

820
00:45:43,560 --> 00:45:45,719
Speaker 1: of taboo, and so he had to do it.

821
00:45:46,320 --> 00:45:49,960
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was wondering what the cultural significance is of

822
00:45:50,120 --> 00:45:53,839
Speaker 2: using English specifically. Now I know, in say, if it's

823
00:45:53,840 --> 00:45:57,080
Speaker 2: an English language movie, you might have a title in

824
00:45:57,120 --> 00:46:01,680
Speaker 2: another language that signals some thing For example, I think

825
00:46:01,719 --> 00:46:04,880
Speaker 2: of a horror movie called Oculus. You know, that's like

826
00:46:04,960 --> 00:46:09,560
Speaker 2: a Latin title that I don't know. Something about using

827
00:46:09,680 --> 00:46:12,880
Speaker 2: Latin in your title suggests kind of antiquity, something that

828
00:46:13,000 --> 00:46:17,040
Speaker 2: is ancient and maybe kind of foreign and scary. I

829
00:46:17,080 --> 00:46:20,560
Speaker 2: don't know what the connotations of using English specifically in

830
00:46:20,600 --> 00:46:23,600
Speaker 2: your title would be here. But when I first saw

831
00:46:23,600 --> 00:46:25,080
Speaker 2: the movie, I didn't even think about it.

832
00:46:25,480 --> 00:46:28,279
Speaker 1: I didn't either, But yeah, he points out that, yeah,

833
00:46:28,360 --> 00:46:31,640
Speaker 1: people hated this idea, so you shouldn't do it. This

834
00:46:31,680 --> 00:46:34,920
Speaker 1: isn't done. But like I say, he bucks those trends.

835
00:46:35,000 --> 00:46:37,440
Speaker 1: So he's like, yeah, I'm gonna call it house, but

836
00:46:37,480 --> 00:46:39,600
Speaker 1: we're not done with the credit sequence. Credit sequence gets

837
00:46:39,719 --> 00:46:40,720
Speaker 1: keeps getting more amazing.

838
00:46:40,800 --> 00:46:43,920
Speaker 2: So yeah, then you've got like the white Jello house.

839
00:46:44,080 --> 00:46:47,080
Speaker 2: And then the O in house grows teeth and turns red,

840
00:46:47,440 --> 00:46:50,480
Speaker 2: and then a woman screams. Then the teeth turn into

841
00:46:50,920 --> 00:46:54,960
Speaker 2: red lipstick lips, and then the lipstick lips open to

842
00:46:55,000 --> 00:46:58,160
Speaker 2: reveal shark teeth and an eyeball in the back of

843
00:46:58,160 --> 00:47:01,239
Speaker 2: the throat, and then a piano starts linking on the soundtrack,

844
00:47:01,360 --> 00:47:05,120
Speaker 2: and then the O lips bite down on they bite

845
00:47:05,160 --> 00:47:07,400
Speaker 2: down on something and then they spit out a severed

846
00:47:07,440 --> 00:47:10,160
Speaker 2: human hand, and then we finally cut to the action,

847
00:47:10,280 --> 00:47:13,680
Speaker 2: and what we see at first is a woman filmed

848
00:47:13,719 --> 00:47:16,640
Speaker 2: behind what looks like a green filter, and she's wearing

849
00:47:16,640 --> 00:47:19,719
Speaker 2: a white sheet like a hooded cloak, and she is

850
00:47:19,760 --> 00:47:23,560
Speaker 2: surrounded by what looks like beakers and glass chemistry equipment,

851
00:47:23,680 --> 00:47:26,799
Speaker 2: but also candles in ornate holders, so it's a very

852
00:47:26,880 --> 00:47:30,200
Speaker 2: weird shot. And then in a reverse shot, we see

853
00:47:30,200 --> 00:47:33,640
Speaker 2: a girl in school uniform taking her photo. She gives

854
00:47:33,680 --> 00:47:35,799
Speaker 2: a thumbs up, she says okay, and then the girl

855
00:47:35,840 --> 00:47:38,120
Speaker 2: in the photo throws off her cloak and walks to

856
00:47:38,200 --> 00:47:40,880
Speaker 2: the window of the room and we sort of zoom

857
00:47:40,920 --> 00:47:43,640
Speaker 2: out of the frame within the picture to just be

858
00:47:43,960 --> 00:47:46,759
Speaker 2: to just see one picture now. And this other girl

859
00:47:46,840 --> 00:47:48,840
Speaker 2: is also in a school uniform, so she had like

860
00:47:48,880 --> 00:47:52,080
Speaker 2: a costume on. And these are our two of our

861
00:47:52,120 --> 00:47:54,200
Speaker 2: main characters, I would say the two most important of

862
00:47:54,239 --> 00:47:58,040
Speaker 2: our characters, Gorgeous and Fantasy. Gorgeous was the one who

863
00:47:58,080 --> 00:48:00,400
Speaker 2: was posing in the photo with the cloak over head,

864
00:48:00,640 --> 00:48:03,719
Speaker 2: and Fantasy was the one taking the photo. And they're

865
00:48:03,760 --> 00:48:07,200
Speaker 2: talking about how summer vacation is coming up, and Gorgeous

866
00:48:07,320 --> 00:48:10,840
Speaker 2: is going to spend summer vacation at the Fabulous Villa

867
00:48:10,960 --> 00:48:16,080
Speaker 2: owned by her fabulous dad, which is in Karuizawa. And

868
00:48:16,360 --> 00:48:18,719
Speaker 2: I looked this up because I didn't know. Karuizawa is

869
00:48:18,800 --> 00:48:22,280
Speaker 2: a mountain resort town that has long been a popular

870
00:48:22,320 --> 00:48:27,200
Speaker 2: summer travel destination in Japan and for international visitors as well.

871
00:48:27,719 --> 00:48:30,800
Speaker 2: It seems like it's kind of a beautiful forested mountain

872
00:48:30,920 --> 00:48:33,800
Speaker 2: environment that gets like a nice cool weather in the summer,

873
00:48:33,840 --> 00:48:36,239
Speaker 2: and like people travel from all over to go there.

874
00:48:36,600 --> 00:48:39,279
Speaker 2: We also learned that Gorgeous's father has been away in

875
00:48:39,440 --> 00:48:43,120
Speaker 2: Italy and he is supposed to be coming back tomorrow.

876
00:48:44,000 --> 00:48:49,680
Speaker 2: A later scene reveals that Gorgeous's father is a film composer,

877
00:48:50,160 --> 00:48:53,120
Speaker 2: and that he is a rich and successful film composer,

878
00:48:53,480 --> 00:48:57,919
Speaker 2: and he's been away working for somebody named Leoni, who

879
00:48:57,960 --> 00:49:01,080
Speaker 2: says that her father's music is better than Morricone's. So

880
00:49:01,120 --> 00:49:04,080
Speaker 2: I guess he they they're saying he's working for Sergio Leoni.

881
00:49:04,600 --> 00:49:07,200
Speaker 1: All right, sounds good, I'll buy it.

882
00:49:07,680 --> 00:49:12,919
Speaker 2: I wonder what went into that decision. Why anyway, let's see. Oh,

883
00:49:12,920 --> 00:49:15,400
Speaker 2: but we also learned that so Gorgeous is going to

884
00:49:15,440 --> 00:49:19,200
Speaker 2: the villa and Fantasy and their other five friends. The

885
00:49:19,239 --> 00:49:22,719
Speaker 2: six girls together are going to go to some kind

886
00:49:22,719 --> 00:49:26,480
Speaker 2: of camp for the summer. They're going to a camp

887
00:49:26,560 --> 00:49:31,080
Speaker 2: by the seaside that is run by the sister of

888
00:49:31,239 --> 00:49:35,239
Speaker 2: their teacher, mister Togo. So it's mister Togo's sisters in

889
00:49:35,960 --> 00:49:39,640
Speaker 2: kind of complicated yeah, but ultimately unimportant, right because they

890
00:49:39,640 --> 00:49:43,880
Speaker 2: don't go there. So Gorgeous and Fantasy are best friends

891
00:49:43,880 --> 00:49:47,520
Speaker 2: and they kind of tease each other. Fantasy Gorgeous teases

892
00:49:47,560 --> 00:49:51,440
Speaker 2: Fantasy for having a crush on mister Togo. Fantasy teases

893
00:49:51,520 --> 00:49:53,959
Speaker 2: Gorgeous for looking like a witch in a horror movie

894
00:49:54,040 --> 00:49:56,000
Speaker 2: when she was dressed up in the in the cloak

895
00:49:56,040 --> 00:49:59,560
Speaker 2: in the picture. They have a conversation with their Jim teacher,

896
00:49:59,560 --> 00:50:04,040
Speaker 2: who is a currently getting married to mister Togo. I think, yes, yes, Okay.

897
00:50:04,719 --> 00:50:07,400
Speaker 2: Then there's kind of a montage of Fantasy and Gorgeous

898
00:50:07,440 --> 00:50:10,040
Speaker 2: being best friends. There are a lot of montages in

899
00:50:10,040 --> 00:50:13,360
Speaker 2: this movie. Now, while this movie represents a lot of

900
00:50:13,480 --> 00:50:17,799
Speaker 2: kind of lighthearted scenes of you know, just like teenagers

901
00:50:17,800 --> 00:50:21,080
Speaker 2: being friends, there it also represents I think a lot

902
00:50:21,120 --> 00:50:24,920
Speaker 2: of the dark side and frustration of being a young person.

903
00:50:25,640 --> 00:50:27,919
Speaker 2: And so there's a scene where, like Gorgeous goes home

904
00:50:27,960 --> 00:50:30,680
Speaker 2: to meet her father and he's home earlier than expected,

905
00:50:30,680 --> 00:50:32,400
Speaker 2: so at first she's very happy to see him. It

906
00:50:32,440 --> 00:50:36,120
Speaker 2: seems they have a good relationship, but we learn that Gorgeous'

907
00:50:36,239 --> 00:50:40,399
Speaker 2: mom died eight years ago and today her father has

908
00:50:40,400 --> 00:50:43,880
Speaker 2: some news he needs to share. A woman enters the

909
00:50:43,880 --> 00:50:46,440
Speaker 2: frame at the house in a flowing white dress with

910
00:50:46,480 --> 00:50:49,480
Speaker 2: a silk scarf blowing in the breeze, and her presence

911
00:50:49,520 --> 00:50:53,600
Speaker 2: feels very almost ethereal. There's kind of a diaphanous quality

912
00:50:53,680 --> 00:50:56,040
Speaker 2: to the way she's represented on film whenever we see her.

913
00:50:56,040 --> 00:50:59,919
Speaker 2: And this character is named Rioko Emma, and the father

914
00:51:00,280 --> 00:51:03,439
Speaker 2: informs Gorgeous that she is going to be your mom now,

915
00:51:04,280 --> 00:51:06,799
Speaker 2: and he says several things to kind of try to

916
00:51:06,840 --> 00:51:09,480
Speaker 2: soften the news. I guess he's like, she's surprisingly good

917
00:51:09,520 --> 00:51:11,719
Speaker 2: at cooking and other things too. You won't have to

918
00:51:11,760 --> 00:51:14,360
Speaker 2: mend my shirts anymore. But we can just see that

919
00:51:14,480 --> 00:51:16,879
Speaker 2: is like not the kind of appeal that Gorgeous wants

920
00:51:16,880 --> 00:51:20,640
Speaker 2: to hear. Gorgeous is hurt by this because it seems

921
00:51:20,680 --> 00:51:24,640
Speaker 2: that she hasn't really properly grieved for her mother's death,

922
00:51:24,680 --> 00:51:26,959
Speaker 2: even though it was a long time ago, and she's

923
00:51:27,000 --> 00:51:29,760
Speaker 2: not ready to accept a new member of the family.

924
00:51:30,640 --> 00:51:33,239
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, this portion of the film reminds me a

925
00:51:33,280 --> 00:51:37,000
Speaker 1: little bit of what we'd get later in Jim Henson's Labyrinth,

926
00:51:37,040 --> 00:51:38,960
Speaker 1: you know, with Sarah and sort of you know, the

927
00:51:40,280 --> 00:51:42,600
Speaker 1: young woman's angst and so forth, and I imagine you

928
00:51:42,600 --> 00:51:44,160
Speaker 1: see that in a lot of other movies as well.

929
00:51:44,719 --> 00:51:46,680
Speaker 1: But the other thing, the main thing I want to

930
00:51:46,680 --> 00:51:49,520
Speaker 1: stress is that I think it's essential to note that

931
00:51:49,680 --> 00:51:51,960
Speaker 1: this is, in many respects the most normal part of

932
00:51:51,960 --> 00:51:54,040
Speaker 1: the film. Right, this is the real world set up

933
00:51:54,080 --> 00:51:56,759
Speaker 1: to the speculative elements to come. So it would be

934
00:51:56,800 --> 00:52:00,120
Speaker 1: the most boring part of your average cookie cutter horror movie.

935
00:52:00,280 --> 00:52:05,760
Speaker 1: And yet in house it's full of experimentals and varied

936
00:52:05,800 --> 00:52:08,879
Speaker 1: film techniques. I especially love the shooting through a kind

937
00:52:08,920 --> 00:52:11,320
Speaker 1: of what is it like a glass mirror lattice work?

938
00:52:11,680 --> 00:52:14,239
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, very weird. And also I would say it

939
00:52:14,320 --> 00:52:17,879
Speaker 2: is strange in how fearless it is in depicting the

940
00:52:17,960 --> 00:52:22,400
Speaker 2: intense emotions of a teenager. So like after this interaction

941
00:52:22,440 --> 00:52:25,480
Speaker 2: where she has she has this bad reaction to meeting Rioko,

942
00:52:26,360 --> 00:52:28,560
Speaker 2: gorgeous goes back to her room, which is crazy, by

943
00:52:28,560 --> 00:52:31,200
Speaker 2: the way, it has like purple walls with huge flowers

944
00:52:31,239 --> 00:52:33,799
Speaker 2: painted all over them, and she like, you know, she's

945
00:52:33,800 --> 00:52:37,279
Speaker 2: got a piano in her room. Uh, and she and

946
00:52:37,360 --> 00:52:40,400
Speaker 2: she weirdly like suddenly seems very at peace in her

947
00:52:40,480 --> 00:52:43,359
Speaker 2: room despite having just run away from this family news

948
00:52:43,360 --> 00:52:46,719
Speaker 2: that caused her so much distress. But then she is

949
00:52:47,120 --> 00:52:50,160
Speaker 2: acting kind of like silly and dreamy, and she speaks

950
00:52:50,160 --> 00:52:52,960
Speaker 2: to a framed portrait of her mom and goes through

951
00:52:52,960 --> 00:52:56,600
Speaker 2: a box of old family photos, remembering like good times

952
00:52:56,640 --> 00:52:58,600
Speaker 2: with her father, when he was proud of her, when

953
00:52:58,600 --> 00:53:01,960
Speaker 2: she wanted a sports competition. And then she's just shown

954
00:53:02,080 --> 00:53:05,400
Speaker 2: drawing x's over her dad's face in the photos and saying,

955
00:53:05,480 --> 00:53:07,200
Speaker 2: I'll bully dad. I hate him.

956
00:53:07,480 --> 00:53:10,880
Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah, it's a time of intense emotions.

957
00:53:11,160 --> 00:53:14,560
Speaker 2: But also in the sequence she remembers her mom, she

958
00:53:14,640 --> 00:53:18,279
Speaker 2: remembers her in a bridal costume, similar to how she

959
00:53:18,360 --> 00:53:21,840
Speaker 2: cloaked herself in the in the Chemistry Lab photo earlier. Actually,

960
00:53:22,520 --> 00:53:25,520
Speaker 2: and in she sees sort of a picture of her

961
00:53:25,560 --> 00:53:28,960
Speaker 2: mother with her auntie, and she says, I wonder how

962
00:53:29,000 --> 00:53:32,680
Speaker 2: auntie is. The auntie in the photo is somehow kind

963
00:53:32,680 --> 00:53:35,520
Speaker 2: of animated, even though she's in a still photograph, and

964
00:53:35,640 --> 00:53:37,400
Speaker 2: she is holding a white cat.

965
00:53:37,640 --> 00:53:38,880
Speaker 1: Oh, that'll be important.

966
00:53:39,160 --> 00:53:43,640
Speaker 2: Also here we should mention just that the presence of

967
00:53:43,800 --> 00:53:46,800
Speaker 2: music in this movie does not feel like no, I

968
00:53:46,800 --> 00:53:49,840
Speaker 2: mean all movie. Most movies have music, but the presence

969
00:53:49,880 --> 00:53:52,960
Speaker 2: of music in this movie does not feel normal. There's

970
00:53:53,040 --> 00:53:57,280
Speaker 2: kind of a constant soundtrack playing running under nearly every

971
00:53:57,360 --> 00:54:00,520
Speaker 2: scene that makes everything feel like a monta or a

972
00:54:00,560 --> 00:54:02,080
Speaker 2: flashback or something.

973
00:54:02,280 --> 00:54:04,719
Speaker 1: That's a great point. And then there are choices made

974
00:54:04,800 --> 00:54:09,080
Speaker 1: later on, like visually stylistically that also give you that feel.

975
00:54:09,600 --> 00:54:12,160
Speaker 1: Is this the present? Is this the past? What's going on?

976
00:54:12,480 --> 00:54:15,440
Speaker 2: Yeah? Now, next, at school, we meet our gang of

977
00:54:15,440 --> 00:54:19,520
Speaker 2: student heroines, and again they're each named for something about them. Again,

978
00:54:19,520 --> 00:54:23,160
Speaker 2: they are gorgeous, her best friend Fantasy, who's always daydreaming.

979
00:54:23,400 --> 00:54:26,560
Speaker 2: Prof who wears glasses, is a nerd. She's logical, she

980
00:54:26,560 --> 00:54:30,280
Speaker 2: has a book, Melody who's holding a guitar and loves music,

981
00:54:30,840 --> 00:54:33,840
Speaker 2: Mac who loves food and is shown with a donut,

982
00:54:34,680 --> 00:54:37,960
Speaker 2: Sweet who is very nice and friendly. And Kung Fu,

983
00:54:38,120 --> 00:54:41,400
Speaker 2: who is the jock and does martial arts. When we

984
00:54:41,440 --> 00:54:44,680
Speaker 2: first meet her, she jumps up and karate chops of

985
00:54:44,760 --> 00:54:47,879
Speaker 2: volleyball that is flying toward the group, and everybody says

986
00:54:47,920 --> 00:54:52,799
Speaker 2: you're so cool, kung Fu. Also, when we first meet them,

987
00:54:52,880 --> 00:54:54,920
Speaker 2: it's just a weird scene. They're like they're in a

988
00:54:54,960 --> 00:54:59,120
Speaker 2: school courtyard and there are just bubbles floating through the air. Also,

989
00:54:59,280 --> 00:55:02,440
Speaker 2: there is a in the school courtyard with a copy

990
00:55:02,560 --> 00:55:04,560
Speaker 2: of the Venus de Milo in the middle of it,

991
00:55:04,600 --> 00:55:06,879
Speaker 2: like the armless you know venus just there.

992
00:55:07,360 --> 00:55:08,520
Speaker 1: Yeah.

993
00:55:08,680 --> 00:55:10,759
Speaker 2: So they're talking about how they're all about to go

994
00:55:10,800 --> 00:55:13,440
Speaker 2: on vacation to the you know, the seaside inn of

995
00:55:13,800 --> 00:55:17,800
Speaker 2: mister Togo's sister for ten days, and they're bummed because

996
00:55:17,840 --> 00:55:20,000
Speaker 2: Gorgeous can't go with them. She's going to the country

997
00:55:20,000 --> 00:55:24,000
Speaker 2: with her dad instead. But mister Togo shows up in

998
00:55:24,080 --> 00:55:27,680
Speaker 2: this weird tiny car and he's like, bad news, my

999
00:55:27,760 --> 00:55:30,600
Speaker 2: sister's gonna have a baby. We cannot go vacationing by

1000
00:55:30,600 --> 00:55:32,799
Speaker 2: the sea. But I was just thinking, did he not

1001
00:55:32,960 --> 00:55:34,320
Speaker 2: know this was going to happen?

1002
00:55:34,640 --> 00:55:38,800
Speaker 1: I know she didn't get a lot of advanced notice

1003
00:55:38,800 --> 00:55:40,319
Speaker 1: from the sister. I guess yeah.

1004
00:55:40,360 --> 00:55:44,120
Speaker 2: And the girls bully mister Togo for this. I think

1005
00:55:44,120 --> 00:55:47,000
Speaker 2: he says, don't bully me. But there's a new plan.

1006
00:55:47,120 --> 00:55:50,640
Speaker 2: Gorgeous suggests that they all come to her Auntie's house

1007
00:55:50,719 --> 00:55:53,600
Speaker 2: in her mom's old hometown. And so we see Gorgeous

1008
00:55:53,640 --> 00:55:56,080
Speaker 2: writing a letter to her aunt informing her that all

1009
00:55:56,080 --> 00:55:58,279
Speaker 2: of her friends are coming, and she says, I know

1010
00:55:58,400 --> 00:56:02,440
Speaker 2: we've only met once. Please don't think I'm strange. Is

1011
00:56:02,880 --> 00:56:04,919
Speaker 2: the aunt going to think you're strange? Gorgeous, I don't

1012
00:56:04,920 --> 00:56:10,560
Speaker 2: know this aunt. Yeah, but she says, you know, she

1013
00:56:11,200 --> 00:56:13,520
Speaker 2: wants to spend time with her aunt like she used

1014
00:56:13,520 --> 00:56:16,680
Speaker 2: to spend with her mom. Somewhere around here, she just

1015
00:56:16,719 --> 00:56:20,520
Speaker 2: happens to run into a fluffy white cat, and she says,

1016
00:56:20,560 --> 00:56:23,480
Speaker 2: cute kitty, where are you from?

1017
00:56:23,800 --> 00:56:25,160
Speaker 1: And instantly adopts the cat.

1018
00:56:25,360 --> 00:56:28,439
Speaker 2: Yaw. The cat is part of the yes and named

1019
00:56:28,440 --> 00:56:30,960
Speaker 2: it Blanche. So Blanche is the name of the white cat.

1020
00:56:31,239 --> 00:56:33,880
Speaker 2: We see it sitting on top of the mailbox outside

1021
00:56:33,920 --> 00:56:36,560
Speaker 2: Gorgeous's apartment, and she gets a letter back from her

1022
00:56:36,600 --> 00:56:39,480
Speaker 2: aunt saying, oh, yes, come see me and bring all

1023
00:56:39,560 --> 00:56:42,120
Speaker 2: your friends. So we know Gorgeous is going to go

1024
00:56:42,239 --> 00:56:44,359
Speaker 2: visit her aunt and take all her friends with her.

1025
00:56:44,400 --> 00:56:47,640
Speaker 2: And we also here get a scene of Rioko, Gorgeous's

1026
00:56:47,719 --> 00:56:51,600
Speaker 2: dad's new wife, announcing her plan to go later go

1027
00:56:51,680 --> 00:56:53,799
Speaker 2: after Gorgeous and her friends go to the aunt's house

1028
00:56:54,080 --> 00:56:56,360
Speaker 2: she's going to go there and meet her so that

1029
00:56:56,440 --> 00:56:58,160
Speaker 2: she can get to know her and talk to her

1030
00:56:58,160 --> 00:57:00,960
Speaker 2: one on one. She says, this is my first trial

1031
00:57:01,000 --> 00:57:03,880
Speaker 2: in becoming her mother. And again she's got this scarf

1032
00:57:03,920 --> 00:57:05,919
Speaker 2: on her neck blowing in the wind in a way

1033
00:57:05,960 --> 00:57:07,839
Speaker 2: that makes it I don't know, it just looks kind

1034
00:57:07,880 --> 00:57:11,759
Speaker 2: of doomed or vulnerable somehow, like someone it's suggesting like

1035
00:57:11,800 --> 00:57:15,520
Speaker 2: a grabbing of her by the neck or something. Yeah. Yeah, Oh,

1036
00:57:15,560 --> 00:57:17,400
Speaker 2: And then the very next scene we get is so

1037
00:57:18,680 --> 00:57:22,000
Speaker 2: off the wall. It's this crazy musical number outside a

1038
00:57:22,040 --> 00:57:25,200
Speaker 2: cobbler's workshop. There's a guy working on shoes with a

1039
00:57:25,240 --> 00:57:27,160
Speaker 2: pipe and a cap. There's a young lady in the

1040
00:57:27,240 --> 00:57:30,520
Speaker 2: leather apron. This is the director's daughter. There's a donkey

1041
00:57:30,560 --> 00:57:35,280
Speaker 2: in the background or maybe a miniature pony. Uh, and yeah,

1042
00:57:35,360 --> 00:57:38,000
Speaker 2: it's just nuts. So like mister Togo comes down to

1043
00:57:38,120 --> 00:57:40,720
Speaker 2: this scene but like falls down the stairs and gets

1044
00:57:40,760 --> 00:57:44,440
Speaker 2: a metal bucket stuck on his butt and announces he

1045
00:57:44,480 --> 00:57:46,800
Speaker 2: will have to go to the hospital for his butt bucket.

1046
00:57:47,240 --> 00:57:50,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, this scene is yeah, it has strong sesame street vibes.

1047
00:57:50,640 --> 00:57:54,400
Speaker 1: And then it goes into just utter ridiculous slapstick territory.

1048
00:57:55,440 --> 00:57:58,480
Speaker 1: It's in many ways, yeah, out of keeping with the

1049
00:57:58,560 --> 00:58:01,560
Speaker 1: tone so far, but also perfectly in line with the

1050
00:58:01,600 --> 00:58:04,680
Speaker 1: tone of house. Yep, it's hard to describe.

1051
00:58:05,000 --> 00:58:08,320
Speaker 2: There's a child drumming on mister Togo's bucket while he's

1052
00:58:08,320 --> 00:58:09,120
Speaker 2: on the phone.

1053
00:58:09,400 --> 00:58:12,080
Speaker 1: This would seem to be aggravating the condition, or I

1054
00:58:12,120 --> 00:58:13,840
Speaker 1: don't know, I'm relieving it. I'm not sure.

1055
00:58:14,280 --> 00:58:17,840
Speaker 2: So without mister I guess mister Togo was going to

1056
00:58:18,000 --> 00:58:20,640
Speaker 2: accompany them somehow, I didn't fully understand this.

1057
00:58:21,200 --> 00:58:22,240
Speaker 1: He was gonna be chaperone.

1058
00:58:22,280 --> 00:58:24,520
Speaker 2: I okay, he's going to chaperone this trip to the

1059
00:58:24,560 --> 00:58:28,120
Speaker 2: ant's house, I guess. But so instead they have to

1060
00:58:28,160 --> 00:58:30,440
Speaker 2: go without him. So the girls are at a train

1061
00:58:30,560 --> 00:58:34,600
Speaker 2: station and they're getting on the train and they're like, oh,

1062
00:58:34,640 --> 00:58:37,800
Speaker 2: who are all these cowboys and rock stars? Or actually no,

1063
00:58:37,960 --> 00:58:40,520
Speaker 2: they don't comment on it. I'm just wondering. There's Yeah,

1064
00:58:40,760 --> 00:58:43,760
Speaker 2: the train is full of Oh maybe this is where

1065
00:58:43,800 --> 00:58:47,080
Speaker 2: we see Godaigo. I don't know. But there are cowboys,

1066
00:58:47,160 --> 00:58:50,680
Speaker 2: there are nuns, there are sailors. The train is full

1067
00:58:50,840 --> 00:58:53,840
Speaker 2: of all different kinds. Oh, el Topo's on there, I think.

1068
00:58:53,920 --> 00:58:58,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's like this vision of I don't know,

1069
00:58:58,400 --> 00:59:02,360
Speaker 1: like a very non conformist Japanese society. I don't know

1070
00:59:02,360 --> 00:59:06,320
Speaker 1: what it is, like why they're cowboys getting off these trains.

1071
00:59:06,320 --> 00:59:08,400
Speaker 2: And blanches on the train too. They let cats on

1072
00:59:08,440 --> 00:59:13,440
Speaker 2: this train. Somebody while they're traveling with the cats just

1073
00:59:13,520 --> 00:59:16,040
Speaker 2: happens to say, any old cat can open a door,

1074
00:59:16,520 --> 00:59:18,720
Speaker 2: only a witch cat can close a door.

1075
00:59:19,240 --> 00:59:22,480
Speaker 1: Ah, that'll be key. And also, if you haven't guessed already,

1076
00:59:22,520 --> 00:59:28,160
Speaker 1: this is definitely a witch cat.

1077
00:59:32,520 --> 00:59:35,520
Speaker 2: Now Here, we get some backstory that's very important to

1078
00:59:35,560 --> 00:59:38,360
Speaker 2: the film, but I want to stress how strange the

1079
00:59:38,480 --> 00:59:44,640
Speaker 2: delivery of this character information is so Gorgeous starts explaining

1080
00:59:44,680 --> 00:59:46,920
Speaker 2: to her friends that her aunt and her mother they

1081
00:59:46,920 --> 00:59:49,680
Speaker 2: were sisters and they loved each other very much, and

1082
00:59:49,720 --> 00:59:52,880
Speaker 2: Gorgeous once traveled with her mother to meet her aunt

1083
00:59:52,920 --> 00:59:55,400
Speaker 2: when she was six, but she hasn't seen her since.

1084
00:59:56,160 --> 01:00:00,800
Speaker 2: And then like a film strip starts and again I

1085
01:00:00,800 --> 01:00:03,720
Speaker 2: want to say, there's no way I could identify that

1086
01:00:03,760 --> 01:00:06,720
Speaker 2: they could be watching a film strip on the train.

1087
01:00:07,200 --> 01:00:10,160
Speaker 2: But we're watching a film strip with like CPA tones,

1088
01:00:10,680 --> 01:00:13,360
Speaker 2: and it's like the girls are watching it too, and

1089
01:00:13,400 --> 01:00:17,360
Speaker 2: they're sort of riffing on what happens in the film.

1090
01:00:17,600 --> 01:00:22,320
Speaker 2: So as we see this stuff. I guess gorgeous narrates,

1091
01:00:22,320 --> 01:00:25,560
Speaker 2: I think, or somebody narrates A long time ago, Japan

1092
01:00:25,720 --> 01:00:28,560
Speaker 2: was in a big war. This is Auntie's house. Her

1093
01:00:28,640 --> 01:00:31,480
Speaker 2: late father was a doctor. This is my grandma, this

1094
01:00:31,560 --> 01:00:34,320
Speaker 2: is my mom. Isn't she cute? And then one says

1095
01:00:34,400 --> 01:00:37,840
Speaker 2: she looks like you? And then we see the ant

1096
01:00:37,960 --> 01:00:40,960
Speaker 2: and her fiance, and her fiance is a very dashing

1097
01:00:41,000 --> 01:00:44,200
Speaker 2: young man. One of the friends calls out, he's so handsome.

1098
01:00:44,720 --> 01:00:46,480
Speaker 2: They say he was a doctor and he was going

1099
01:00:46,480 --> 01:00:49,640
Speaker 2: to run the local hospital. And the friends asked, you

1100
01:00:49,720 --> 01:00:51,880
Speaker 2: mean they didn't get married, and she says, no, they

1101
01:00:51,880 --> 01:00:55,280
Speaker 2: couldn't get married because of the war. So we learned

1102
01:00:55,320 --> 01:00:58,919
Speaker 2: that her auntie's fiance gets drafted to serve in World

1103
01:00:59,000 --> 01:01:01,800
Speaker 2: War two, but he makes a pinky promise that he

1104
01:01:01,840 --> 01:01:04,720
Speaker 2: will come back, and she promises to wait for him,

1105
01:01:04,800 --> 01:01:08,440
Speaker 2: and we see the auntie and her fiance kiss, and

1106
01:01:08,480 --> 01:01:10,680
Speaker 2: then he has to go away to war, and then

1107
01:01:10,720 --> 01:01:13,760
Speaker 2: the film burns up and someone shouts a kiss of fire.

1108
01:01:14,560 --> 01:01:16,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's such a strange and wonderful energy to this

1109
01:01:16,680 --> 01:01:20,960
Speaker 1: part of the film, with the optimistic and youthful responses

1110
01:01:21,040 --> 01:01:24,040
Speaker 1: to this story. They're being presented with and the way

1111
01:01:24,040 --> 01:01:27,440
Speaker 1: they're riffing on it, So you know, they're amazing and

1112
01:01:27,440 --> 01:01:31,280
Speaker 1: they're to be envied because they see mostly the beauty

1113
01:01:31,320 --> 01:01:34,120
Speaker 1: and the romance in this story and they feel it intensely,

1114
01:01:35,080 --> 01:01:37,720
Speaker 1: and they're not you know, it's not like they don't

1115
01:01:38,160 --> 01:01:41,280
Speaker 1: understand the tragedy, but and they're not getting the tragedy,

1116
01:01:41,320 --> 01:01:45,240
Speaker 1: but they can't fully understand it, and or their understanding

1117
01:01:45,320 --> 01:01:48,920
Speaker 1: of the tragedy is overpowered by their youthful enthusiasm for

1118
01:01:49,000 --> 01:01:50,720
Speaker 1: the romantic elements of the tale.

1119
01:01:50,880 --> 01:01:54,040
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, that's exactly right. But then the backstory

1120
01:01:54,080 --> 01:01:56,960
Speaker 2: goes on. So after the Kiss of Fire, we learned

1121
01:01:57,000 --> 01:02:00,800
Speaker 2: that her fiance never returns from the war. We see

1122
01:02:00,840 --> 01:02:05,160
Speaker 2: him revealed sitting in an almost comical looking in how

1123
01:02:05,200 --> 01:02:08,400
Speaker 2: strange it is. He's like shown sitting in the cockpit

1124
01:02:08,440 --> 01:02:12,280
Speaker 2: of a crashing airplane, just expressionless as the airplane goes down.

1125
01:02:13,440 --> 01:02:16,640
Speaker 2: And then we later see after the war, Gorgeous's mom

1126
01:02:16,760 --> 01:02:20,240
Speaker 2: marrying her father, posing for the photo that we saw earlier.

1127
01:02:20,320 --> 01:02:23,120
Speaker 2: So she's in her wedding garments and the auntie is

1128
01:02:23,280 --> 01:02:27,600
Speaker 2: beside her holding her white cat, looking unhappy and unfulfilled.

1129
01:02:28,280 --> 01:02:31,120
Speaker 2: After this gorgeous, explains that her aunt has been living

1130
01:02:31,160 --> 01:02:33,440
Speaker 2: alone in the house for many years and that she

1131
01:02:33,560 --> 01:02:37,680
Speaker 2: gives piano lessons to the neighbors for money. And then

1132
01:02:37,760 --> 01:02:40,440
Speaker 2: somehow suddenly they are on a bus instead of a train.

1133
01:02:41,880 --> 01:02:45,640
Speaker 2: Just a abrupt transition, the bus stops, the girls get off,

1134
01:02:45,720 --> 01:02:48,680
Speaker 2: and they are in a cartoon landscape. So they cross

1135
01:02:48,760 --> 01:02:53,720
Speaker 2: these different types of backgrounds, a valley with mountains, a

1136
01:02:53,760 --> 01:02:58,479
Speaker 2: cable bridge spanning a wide rocky stream. There's a path

1137
01:02:58,480 --> 01:03:02,040
Speaker 2: through a forest where sweets. She's afraid of ghosts. Prof

1138
01:03:02,160 --> 01:03:05,360
Speaker 2: says ghosts don't exist, and Kung Fu implies that she

1139
01:03:05,400 --> 01:03:08,720
Speaker 2: will use martial arts on any ghosts that appear. Perfect.

1140
01:03:09,280 --> 01:03:12,920
Speaker 2: Also through this whole track, Mac is just relentlessly announcing

1141
01:03:12,960 --> 01:03:16,040
Speaker 2: the consumption of food, just yelling like, yummy, this tastes good.

1142
01:03:17,800 --> 01:03:19,760
Speaker 2: One of the last things before they get to the

1143
01:03:19,840 --> 01:03:24,800
Speaker 2: house is the watermelon vendor scene, which is tremendous. They

1144
01:03:24,880 --> 01:03:27,840
Speaker 2: come across like a watermelon stand and they remove a

1145
01:03:27,880 --> 01:03:31,480
Speaker 2: watermelon from the shelf of the stand, and then behind

1146
01:03:31,720 --> 01:03:35,360
Speaker 2: the watermelon is the face of the vendor which is shaped,

1147
01:03:35,400 --> 01:03:38,880
Speaker 2: which is very round and shaped like a watermelon, making

1148
01:03:38,920 --> 01:03:42,160
Speaker 2: this bizarre expression, and then he comes out and acts

1149
01:03:42,200 --> 01:03:44,080
Speaker 2: bizarre at them. I don't know how to Rob, how

1150
01:03:44,080 --> 01:03:45,480
Speaker 2: would you describe this encounter.

1151
01:03:46,160 --> 01:03:49,960
Speaker 1: It's mad cap for sure, yea. And I guess it

1152
01:03:50,040 --> 01:03:52,640
Speaker 1: is worth noting that at heart, this is a very

1153
01:03:53,480 --> 01:03:55,680
Speaker 1: that this is certainly a hard trope, like this is

1154
01:03:55,760 --> 01:03:58,760
Speaker 1: the guy that on the way to the haunted place,

1155
01:03:59,200 --> 01:04:01,200
Speaker 1: whose role is to either say, don't you go to

1156
01:04:01,240 --> 01:04:05,439
Speaker 1: that haunted place, or as we see here commenting after

1157
01:04:05,440 --> 01:04:07,600
Speaker 1: the kids have gone, I can't believe they're going to

1158
01:04:07,600 --> 01:04:10,800
Speaker 1: that haunted place. He fulfills that role while also being

1159
01:04:10,800 --> 01:04:14,160
Speaker 1: this wacky character who is selling watermelons.

1160
01:04:14,680 --> 01:04:17,600
Speaker 2: So the girls go on up to the house and

1161
01:04:17,640 --> 01:04:20,040
Speaker 2: it's on top of a hill with walls grown over

1162
01:04:20,120 --> 01:04:23,160
Speaker 2: by vines. They're owls diving around in the middle of

1163
01:04:23,200 --> 01:04:26,880
Speaker 2: the day, and the gates creak open for them. Blanche

1164
01:04:26,960 --> 01:04:31,600
Speaker 2: runs inside and Gorgeous's aunt greets them. She is seated

1165
01:04:31,680 --> 01:04:34,840
Speaker 2: in a wheelchair, her hair has turned white, and she

1166
01:04:34,920 --> 01:04:38,560
Speaker 2: wears these cool Ringo Star sunglasses and she's holding the

1167
01:04:38,600 --> 01:04:40,840
Speaker 2: cat now. And I just want to point out it's

1168
01:04:40,880 --> 01:04:42,680
Speaker 2: like the girls, as far as I could tell, there

1169
01:04:42,720 --> 01:04:45,360
Speaker 2: was no point at which they question this cat magic.

1170
01:04:45,640 --> 01:04:49,800
Speaker 2: Oh Blanche, the cat was Auntie's cat, and it came

1171
01:04:50,000 --> 01:04:53,400
Speaker 2: to fetch gorgeous in the city. And now they're all here,

1172
01:04:53,560 --> 01:04:55,439
Speaker 2: and that's just not remarked upon.

1173
01:04:55,840 --> 01:04:58,160
Speaker 1: No, they just roll with it completely. This is the

1174
01:04:58,200 --> 01:04:59,920
Speaker 1: cat who lives here. I don't know where the ca

1175
01:05:00,440 --> 01:05:03,200
Speaker 1: that traveled with us went. This is this is Blanche.

1176
01:05:03,560 --> 01:05:05,760
Speaker 2: Also, one of them tries to take a picture and

1177
01:05:05,920 --> 01:05:08,560
Speaker 2: Blanch the cat shoots green rays out of her eyes.

1178
01:05:08,600 --> 01:05:10,560
Speaker 2: This will not be the last time Blanche shoots green

1179
01:05:10,640 --> 01:05:13,080
Speaker 2: laser laser beams out of her eyes. But it makes

1180
01:05:13,120 --> 01:05:15,760
Speaker 2: the camera fly in the air and smash on the ground,

1181
01:05:15,840 --> 01:05:17,720
Speaker 2: and one of the girls yells sexy.

1182
01:05:19,080 --> 01:05:21,520
Speaker 1: I need to point out that even when Blanche is

1183
01:05:21,560 --> 01:05:25,240
Speaker 1: not necessarily on screen, even when Blanche is not necessarily

1184
01:05:25,280 --> 01:05:29,120
Speaker 1: doing that creepy green eye sparkle thing, we often just

1185
01:05:29,160 --> 01:05:34,360
Speaker 1: get random meals in the soundtrack of the film, which

1186
01:05:34,400 --> 01:05:36,600
Speaker 1: just keeps you on edge and like somehow keeps the

1187
01:05:36,640 --> 01:05:40,280
Speaker 1: weirdness level up. No matter what's happening, you're just gonna

1188
01:05:40,320 --> 01:05:44,240
Speaker 1: get some randomyows in there and eventually musical meals.

1189
01:05:44,680 --> 01:05:47,800
Speaker 2: That's all right, Like now mix the thing.

1190
01:05:48,560 --> 01:05:48,760
Speaker 1: Yeah.

1191
01:05:48,920 --> 01:05:52,560
Speaker 2: Yeah. Also, I should mention even though they didn't buy

1192
01:05:52,560 --> 01:05:55,120
Speaker 2: a watermelon from the watermelon stand in the previous scene.

1193
01:05:55,280 --> 01:05:58,080
Speaker 2: Suddenly Max shows up with a huge watermelon and her

1194
01:05:58,080 --> 01:06:00,880
Speaker 2: friends accuse her of stealing it, which he's like.

1195
01:06:00,840 --> 01:06:02,640
Speaker 1: I paid for it, and I trust Mac. I don't

1196
01:06:02,640 --> 01:06:03,760
Speaker 1: think Mac would steal.

1197
01:06:03,680 --> 01:06:05,600
Speaker 2: I don't think Mac would steel. She paid for it.

1198
01:06:06,200 --> 01:06:09,520
Speaker 2: She's got some watermelon money in her wallet specifically for

1199
01:06:09,560 --> 01:06:12,720
Speaker 2: an occasion like this. So they go inside the house

1200
01:06:12,760 --> 01:06:14,760
Speaker 2: and they learned that Antie can make her lights come

1201
01:06:14,800 --> 01:06:17,760
Speaker 2: on by talking to them. That's cool, m h. And

1202
01:06:17,800 --> 01:06:19,720
Speaker 2: they're like sort of having a they're getting a tour

1203
01:06:19,760 --> 01:06:22,960
Speaker 2: of the place, and the chandelier attacks them. It drops

1204
01:06:23,040 --> 01:06:26,920
Speaker 2: crystal shards that impale a lizard on the floor, and

1205
01:06:26,960 --> 01:06:29,680
Speaker 2: then it starts dropping more crystal shards, but Kung Fu

1206
01:06:29,840 --> 01:06:32,200
Speaker 2: flies in the air and attacks the shards.

1207
01:06:32,520 --> 01:06:34,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then Blanche eats one of the lizards.

1208
01:06:35,000 --> 01:06:39,800
Speaker 2: Okay, And then Melody the musical friend is told about

1209
01:06:39,800 --> 01:06:42,240
Speaker 2: a grand piano in the house and she goes to play,

1210
01:06:42,840 --> 01:06:45,520
Speaker 2: but like when she gets to it's strapped with cobwebs.

1211
01:06:46,240 --> 01:06:48,560
Speaker 2: They remark that there are so many pictures of the

1212
01:06:48,600 --> 01:06:49,959
Speaker 2: cat in the house.

1213
01:06:50,040 --> 01:06:52,600
Speaker 1: And there are indeed so many pictures of the cat

1214
01:06:52,680 --> 01:06:55,680
Speaker 1: it's a constant delight to see all of the Blanche

1215
01:06:55,720 --> 01:06:59,920
Speaker 1: are the Blanche iconography, as well as the various incarnation

1216
01:07:00,320 --> 01:07:01,680
Speaker 1: of this cat in this house.

1217
01:07:02,400 --> 01:07:04,400
Speaker 2: There's so many weird things in the house that we

1218
01:07:04,440 --> 01:07:06,880
Speaker 2: can't even We're going to reach a point where we're

1219
01:07:06,880 --> 01:07:09,880
Speaker 2: going to have to stop doing a sort of one

1220
01:07:09,920 --> 01:07:12,480
Speaker 2: of this minute plot recap and get just focus on

1221
01:07:12,520 --> 01:07:15,760
Speaker 2: some specific things. But like one thing is they find

1222
01:07:15,760 --> 01:07:18,040
Speaker 2: a skeleton in the house, and they're like, oh, yeah,

1223
01:07:18,120 --> 01:07:20,320
Speaker 2: grandfather used to treat patients in this room.

1224
01:07:20,920 --> 01:07:24,280
Speaker 1: Will this skeleton eventually dance randomly of its own power?

1225
01:07:24,360 --> 01:07:28,000
Speaker 2: Yes, it will perhaps, Yeah, And Auntie explains how she

1226
01:07:28,080 --> 01:07:30,200
Speaker 2: used to give piano lessons, but you know, nobody comes

1227
01:07:30,200 --> 01:07:32,960
Speaker 2: here anymore. So she's been very lonely all these years.

1228
01:07:33,000 --> 01:07:35,280
Speaker 2: But now that she has all these girls in the house,

1229
01:07:35,440 --> 01:07:38,760
Speaker 2: she is very glad. Something a little ominous about the

1230
01:07:38,760 --> 01:07:42,520
Speaker 2: way in which she expresses her gladness. So they decide

1231
01:07:42,560 --> 01:07:45,000
Speaker 2: to help Antie out around the house, and they split

1232
01:07:45,080 --> 01:07:46,840
Speaker 2: up the jobs. Of course, Mac is going to do

1233
01:07:46,880 --> 01:07:50,479
Speaker 2: the cooking and Sweet offers to do the cleaning. There

1234
01:07:50,560 --> 01:07:53,360
Speaker 2: is a moment in here where they're like moving around

1235
01:07:53,360 --> 01:07:55,640
Speaker 2: the house and somebody gets a cat thrown at them

1236
01:07:55,680 --> 01:07:57,360
Speaker 2: from off screen. I think it's Anti.

1237
01:07:57,640 --> 01:08:01,360
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the cat quote unquote umps into Anti's lap,

1238
01:08:01,400 --> 01:08:03,240
Speaker 1: but clearly if there was somebody just out of the

1239
01:08:03,240 --> 01:08:06,280
Speaker 1: shot gently throwing the cat into her lap.

1240
01:08:06,200 --> 01:08:08,720
Speaker 2: Just riding around getting cats thrown at her, talking to

1241
01:08:08,800 --> 01:08:12,600
Speaker 2: her appliances and furniture. At some point, we learn that

1242
01:08:12,640 --> 01:08:15,320
Speaker 2: Mac wants to chill the watermelon in the fridge, but

1243
01:08:15,400 --> 01:08:18,120
Speaker 2: the fridge doesn't work, so Anti suggests they put it

1244
01:08:18,160 --> 01:08:22,360
Speaker 2: down the well, which they do and just randomly somewhere

1245
01:08:22,400 --> 01:08:24,720
Speaker 2: around here, Anti looks at Mac and says, Mac, you

1246
01:08:24,760 --> 01:08:29,720
Speaker 2: sure look tasty. Now, this is just one place to mention.

1247
01:08:29,800 --> 01:08:31,479
Speaker 2: I could have said it earlier. I could have said

1248
01:08:31,520 --> 01:08:36,519
Speaker 2: it at any point. There is a very chaotic editing

1249
01:08:36,600 --> 01:08:41,040
Speaker 2: and transition style to this movie. The rhythm of cuts

1250
01:08:41,080 --> 01:08:45,360
Speaker 2: and the way one shot transitions to another. These things

1251
01:08:45,400 --> 01:08:48,719
Speaker 2: do not feel normal for Japanese cinema, or for any

1252
01:08:48,760 --> 01:08:51,040
Speaker 2: cinema that I know of, So I don't think it's

1253
01:08:51,080 --> 01:08:53,479
Speaker 2: a cultural thing. I think it is a unique, too

1254
01:08:53,640 --> 01:08:58,840
Speaker 2: house thing, just one example among many many weird things.

1255
01:08:59,040 --> 01:09:01,960
Speaker 2: There are sudden cross dissolves, you know where like so

1256
01:09:02,040 --> 01:09:04,280
Speaker 2: it'll kind of like fade out and then fade back

1257
01:09:04,320 --> 01:09:08,400
Speaker 2: in on something on the screen, and normally in a

1258
01:09:08,400 --> 01:09:12,679
Speaker 2: movie that indicates a transition forward in time, but here

1259
01:09:12,920 --> 01:09:16,040
Speaker 2: the movie uses cross dissolves when the action seems to

1260
01:09:16,080 --> 01:09:18,400
Speaker 2: be totally continuous, same time in place.

1261
01:09:19,080 --> 01:09:20,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's one of the many things that makes viewing

1262
01:09:20,920 --> 01:09:23,840
Speaker 1: this film feel very psychedelic. It feels like some sort

1263
01:09:23,880 --> 01:09:25,520
Speaker 1: of sort of an altered experience.

1264
01:09:26,040 --> 01:09:29,840
Speaker 2: It's violating like norms of cinematic storytelling that you don't

1265
01:09:29,880 --> 01:09:34,240
Speaker 2: even normally think of, that you wouldn't usually notice our norms,

1266
01:09:34,280 --> 01:09:36,720
Speaker 2: and like you only notice them once somebody does them

1267
01:09:36,760 --> 01:09:38,360
Speaker 2: differently than they're usually done.

1268
01:09:38,720 --> 01:09:42,360
Speaker 1: Yeah. Like I say, he's all about bucking the trends

1269
01:09:42,400 --> 01:09:44,760
Speaker 1: and same way he can do to irritate Kirosawa.

1270
01:09:46,520 --> 01:09:50,559
Speaker 2: Okay, So, so we're about to get to a scene,

1271
01:09:50,560 --> 01:09:53,680
Speaker 2: the watermelon Head scene, which I think a lot of

1272
01:09:53,720 --> 01:09:56,479
Speaker 2: critics and film historians people who celebrate this movie have

1273
01:09:56,560 --> 01:10:00,200
Speaker 2: sort of noted as a transition point in the film

1274
01:10:01,200 --> 01:10:04,120
Speaker 2: that like things take on, just that things just get

1275
01:10:04,240 --> 01:10:07,720
Speaker 2: different starting at what's about to happen. And so I

1276
01:10:07,720 --> 01:10:10,360
Speaker 2: think this should also be the point where we stop

1277
01:10:10,439 --> 01:10:13,639
Speaker 2: trying to recount what happens, just moment by moment, because

1278
01:10:13,680 --> 01:10:17,559
Speaker 2: it would be crazy and impossible to do here. But

1279
01:10:18,040 --> 01:10:21,040
Speaker 2: to begin, we're going to talk about the watermelon head scene.

1280
01:10:21,479 --> 01:10:24,760
Speaker 2: So after supper Mac disappears, she says she's going to

1281
01:10:24,800 --> 01:10:28,040
Speaker 2: go get the watermelon out of the well, and she

1282
01:10:28,280 --> 01:10:31,200
Speaker 2: doesn't come back after a while, and so Fantasy goes

1283
01:10:31,240 --> 01:10:33,920
Speaker 2: to look for her, and out in the garden by

1284
01:10:33,960 --> 01:10:37,559
Speaker 2: the well, there's a beautiful multicolor sunset. There's soft focus

1285
01:10:37,600 --> 01:10:39,760
Speaker 2: on the camera, like we are within a day dream,

1286
01:10:39,800 --> 01:10:42,160
Speaker 2: which kind of makes sense because this is Fantasy going

1287
01:10:42,160 --> 01:10:44,599
Speaker 2: to do this. She daydreams a lot, though it's strange

1288
01:10:44,640 --> 01:10:48,120
Speaker 2: because this is definitely really happening. So it's almost like

1289
01:10:48,800 --> 01:10:52,200
Speaker 2: even Fantasy's regular life is like a day dream. You know,

1290
01:10:52,240 --> 01:10:56,080
Speaker 2: it's using the cinematic conventions of showing a dream.

1291
01:10:56,360 --> 01:10:58,519
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like we're in a really nice yogurt commercial

1292
01:10:58,600 --> 01:10:59,160
Speaker 1: or something, you know.

1293
01:11:00,439 --> 01:11:05,360
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. And so Fantasy starts pulling up the watermelon

1294
01:11:05,439 --> 01:11:08,120
Speaker 2: from the well. It's tied to a rope and she

1295
01:11:08,280 --> 01:11:11,760
Speaker 2: retrieves it and it's, you know, it's a round thing.

1296
01:11:11,800 --> 01:11:14,160
Speaker 2: But then she turns it over and realizes, oh, this

1297
01:11:14,320 --> 01:11:17,439
Speaker 2: is not a watermelon. It's Max's head and mac now

1298
01:11:17,600 --> 01:11:20,640
Speaker 2: has sort of blue skin like a vampire and I

1299
01:11:20,640 --> 01:11:21,880
Speaker 2: think fangs.

1300
01:11:22,320 --> 01:11:26,559
Speaker 1: Oh my god, and it's alive or undead or something,

1301
01:11:26,600 --> 01:11:30,519
Speaker 1: and it's it's horrifying. It's quite frightening. And the build

1302
01:11:30,600 --> 01:11:33,439
Speaker 1: up to it has been exceptional, like everything's just super

1303
01:11:33,479 --> 01:11:38,320
Speaker 1: sweet again, yogurt commercial, yogurt commercial, and then just absolute horror.

1304
01:11:38,479 --> 01:11:41,360
Speaker 2: The head talks and then it starts flying around in

1305
01:11:41,360 --> 01:11:44,000
Speaker 2: the air, and then it bites Fantasy on the butt,

1306
01:11:44,320 --> 01:11:47,160
Speaker 2: and then it vomits blood and then it goes back

1307
01:11:47,200 --> 01:11:52,040
Speaker 2: down in the well. Excellent, what a roller coaster. Yeah,

1308
01:11:52,080 --> 01:11:54,680
Speaker 2: So Fantasy goes back and reports what happened, and her

1309
01:11:54,720 --> 01:11:57,280
Speaker 2: friends go to see the head, but when they get there,

1310
01:11:57,360 --> 01:11:59,479
Speaker 2: there is no head to be found. It's only a

1311
01:11:59,520 --> 01:12:04,200
Speaker 2: regular old watermelon, which they decide to eat. Also, Auntie

1312
01:12:04,240 --> 01:12:06,519
Speaker 2: is here, and she like she stands up right out

1313
01:12:06,520 --> 01:12:09,360
Speaker 2: of her wheelchair and explains, you girls gave me energy,

1314
01:12:09,439 --> 01:12:12,880
Speaker 2: and then grins into the camera while eating a slice

1315
01:12:12,880 --> 01:12:16,880
Speaker 2: of watermelon. Also, this is the scene where she sort

1316
01:12:16,880 --> 01:12:19,400
Speaker 2: of shows off to Fantasy and I think nobody else

1317
01:12:19,439 --> 01:12:21,920
Speaker 2: that she does have a third eyeball inside her mouth.

1318
01:12:22,280 --> 01:12:25,280
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, all's a wonderfully creepy sequence.

1319
01:12:25,920 --> 01:12:29,280
Speaker 2: So there's all kinds of just like little little vignettes

1320
01:12:29,320 --> 01:12:32,920
Speaker 2: of the various characters getting freaked out by stuff. So

1321
01:12:32,960 --> 01:12:36,360
Speaker 2: like Sweet is cleaning the floors as she gets lured

1322
01:12:36,360 --> 01:12:38,839
Speaker 2: to a room with a doll that has green laser

1323
01:12:38,880 --> 01:12:43,320
Speaker 2: eyes like blanch does, and it whispers her name. Gorgeous

1324
01:12:43,400 --> 01:12:46,360
Speaker 2: is taking a bath and she gets creeped on by

1325
01:12:46,400 --> 01:12:49,639
Speaker 2: like wet black hair that comes up from some unknown

1326
01:12:49,680 --> 01:12:54,120
Speaker 2: creature out of the waters, horrifying kung Fu in a

1327
01:12:54,160 --> 01:12:57,400
Speaker 2: much funnier sequence, is attacked by flying wooden logs like

1328
01:12:57,439 --> 01:13:00,439
Speaker 2: she's splitting wood, and then the logs start attack her

1329
01:13:00,600 --> 01:13:04,360
Speaker 2: and she defeats them with karate chops. Yeah, there's one

1330
01:13:04,360 --> 01:13:07,760
Speaker 2: point here where Auntie says She's like, one time I

1331
01:13:07,800 --> 01:13:10,479
Speaker 2: was excited to go to a restaurant in town, and

1332
01:13:10,520 --> 01:13:14,919
Speaker 2: now I'm excited like that again. And then she climbs

1333
01:13:14,960 --> 01:13:17,440
Speaker 2: inside the refrigerator and disappears.

1334
01:13:17,720 --> 01:13:20,559
Speaker 1: Oh my god, this sequence is so creepy. It's shot

1335
01:13:20,600 --> 01:13:22,360
Speaker 1: in a way in such a way that the other

1336
01:13:22,439 --> 01:13:25,639
Speaker 1: characters in the room with her don't see her suddenly

1337
01:13:25,680 --> 01:13:28,479
Speaker 1: go into the refrigerator, but we do. And then I

1338
01:13:28,520 --> 01:13:32,679
Speaker 1: think she re emerges in the foreground of the shot

1339
01:13:32,920 --> 01:13:36,560
Speaker 1: and may break the fourth wall here. I can't recall specifically,

1340
01:13:36,600 --> 01:13:38,960
Speaker 1: but she does break the fourth wall at various points,

1341
01:13:39,600 --> 01:13:42,400
Speaker 1: as if to say, like, yeah, it's me, Auntie, I'm

1342
01:13:42,400 --> 01:13:43,400
Speaker 1: gonna eat these kids.

1343
01:13:43,600 --> 01:13:47,080
Speaker 2: Yep, yep, dancing with the skeleton, eating a severed hand,

1344
01:13:48,360 --> 01:13:50,920
Speaker 2: dropping a fried fish into a fish bowl and it

1345
01:13:50,960 --> 01:13:53,559
Speaker 2: comes back to life. I think we see her dancing

1346
01:13:53,560 --> 01:13:54,880
Speaker 2: in the rafters of the house.

1347
01:13:55,160 --> 01:13:56,520
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.

1348
01:13:56,560 --> 01:13:59,479
Speaker 2: There's also a sequence where Melody the musical friend goes

1349
01:13:59,520 --> 01:14:02,439
Speaker 2: to play the piano again, and she of course plays

1350
01:14:02,439 --> 01:14:05,080
Speaker 2: the house theme, you know, the Maybe we can get

1351
01:14:05,080 --> 01:14:06,479
Speaker 2: a little sample of that, because you got to know

1352
01:14:06,520 --> 01:14:15,559
Speaker 2: what it sounds like. Sometime around here, while like you know,

1353
01:14:15,640 --> 01:14:20,280
Speaker 2: Melody's playing the piano and stuff, gorgeous sort of what

1354
01:14:20,320 --> 01:14:21,920
Speaker 2: would you say happens to her. She kind of gets

1355
01:14:21,960 --> 01:14:25,959
Speaker 2: possessed by the house. She's like looking in the mirror

1356
01:14:26,120 --> 01:14:28,880
Speaker 2: and she starts putting on her aunt's makeup, and she

1357
01:14:29,000 --> 01:14:35,920
Speaker 2: sees herself as her aunt with fangs and like like

1358
01:14:36,080 --> 01:14:38,720
Speaker 2: she's looking in a mirror and the mirror shatters, and

1359
01:14:38,720 --> 01:14:43,760
Speaker 2: then Gorgeous's actual face shatters, revealing animated fire inside. I

1360
01:14:43,800 --> 01:14:46,200
Speaker 2: think the ghosts have taken her over.

1361
01:14:46,680 --> 01:14:49,720
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a It's another fabulous sequence. This one I

1362
01:14:49,760 --> 01:14:53,720
Speaker 1: think was inspired by just the director's daughter saying, hey,

1363
01:14:53,720 --> 01:14:57,040
Speaker 1: what if my reflection attacked me, wouldn't that be scary?

1364
01:14:57,400 --> 01:15:00,840
Speaker 1: And of course they've taken that in a applied you know,

1365
01:15:00,960 --> 01:15:04,200
Speaker 1: the ghost story logic to it, and yeah, absolutely wonderful.

1366
01:15:04,439 --> 01:15:06,559
Speaker 2: Somewhere around here is also the scene we talked about

1367
01:15:06,600 --> 01:15:11,280
Speaker 2: earlier where their friend's sweet she's been cleaning the house up.

1368
01:15:11,360 --> 01:15:15,040
Speaker 2: She gets attacked by falling pillows and sentient mattresses from

1369
01:15:15,080 --> 01:15:19,880
Speaker 2: heaven and seemingly killed and then also maybe transformed into

1370
01:15:19,960 --> 01:15:25,920
Speaker 2: a large doll by the evil possessed mattresses. There's one

1371
01:15:25,960 --> 01:15:30,559
Speaker 2: part around here where somebody imagines Togo, a mister Togo,

1372
01:15:30,760 --> 01:15:33,200
Speaker 2: their teacher, as like a prince on a white horse.

1373
01:15:33,240 --> 01:15:36,000
Speaker 2: They're like, he's coming, he'll be here, He's gonna save us.

1374
01:15:36,760 --> 01:15:40,000
Speaker 2: But it's so funny every time they're like these repeated

1375
01:15:40,040 --> 01:15:43,320
Speaker 2: cuts back to whatever mister Togo is doing. I think

1376
01:15:43,360 --> 01:15:45,840
Speaker 2: he is trying to find them, but he never does.

1377
01:15:47,200 --> 01:15:50,440
Speaker 2: They show him like stuck in traffic in this incredibly

1378
01:15:50,560 --> 01:15:54,080
Speaker 2: tiny like what is this car of his? Is it

1379
01:15:54,120 --> 01:15:55,760
Speaker 2: like some kind of dune buggy or.

1380
01:15:56,160 --> 01:15:59,000
Speaker 1: I don't know, but yeah, he's he's trying to find them.

1381
01:15:59,040 --> 01:16:02,599
Speaker 1: He's having no luck, and spoiler is eventually turned into

1382
01:16:02,600 --> 01:16:03,480
Speaker 1: a pile of bananas.

1383
01:16:03,840 --> 01:16:05,720
Speaker 2: God, that's a crazy seat. Well, okay, we should just

1384
01:16:05,760 --> 01:16:08,240
Speaker 2: say what happens in that scene. Then this is a

1385
01:16:08,240 --> 01:16:10,600
Speaker 2: little bit later, so we're jumping around in time. But

1386
01:16:11,040 --> 01:16:15,599
Speaker 2: eventually mister Togo he stops for rama and he eats ramen.

1387
01:16:15,640 --> 01:16:18,040
Speaker 2: At this Ramen card, we see him driving around in

1388
01:16:18,080 --> 01:16:20,640
Speaker 2: the woods at night like a complete bumpkin and just

1389
01:16:20,680 --> 01:16:22,760
Speaker 2: trying to like find the house and being like, there's

1390
01:16:22,800 --> 01:16:25,679
Speaker 2: no house here, And then I guess he eventually does

1391
01:16:25,720 --> 01:16:28,880
Speaker 2: get close because he meets the watermelon vendor, which we

1392
01:16:28,920 --> 01:16:31,599
Speaker 2: know is just down the hill from the house. Mister

1393
01:16:31,640 --> 01:16:34,080
Speaker 2: Togo goes up to the watermelon vendor and says, do

1394
01:16:34,160 --> 01:16:38,479
Speaker 2: you know where the house is? The house? Watermelon vendor says,

1395
01:16:38,520 --> 01:16:42,000
Speaker 2: the girls they were eaten. Do you like watermelons? Mister

1396
01:16:42,040 --> 01:16:47,880
Speaker 2: Togo says no, watermelon vendor says what. Then he says bananas.

1397
01:16:48,640 --> 01:16:52,080
Speaker 2: Watermelon vendor collapses into a pile of bones, his skull

1398
01:16:52,200 --> 01:16:55,479
Speaker 2: floats and then emids smoke, and then mister Togo runs

1399
01:16:55,520 --> 01:16:59,519
Speaker 2: away screaming banana banana, and then later it is revealed

1400
01:16:59,560 --> 01:17:02,400
Speaker 2: that by the morning he has transformed into a pile

1401
01:17:02,479 --> 01:17:04,240
Speaker 2: of ben in as inside his car.

1402
01:17:05,640 --> 01:17:09,000
Speaker 1: Yes, that is what happens, and I don't know what

1403
01:17:09,040 --> 01:17:12,200
Speaker 1: it means how it really factors into the rest of

1404
01:17:12,280 --> 01:17:15,880
Speaker 1: the plot, but I guess defies to say he was

1405
01:17:15,960 --> 01:17:19,479
Speaker 1: unsuccessful in being the white Night for the Smoothie.

1406
01:17:19,720 --> 01:17:21,960
Speaker 2: Now, all this while the girls are trapped in the house.

1407
01:17:22,000 --> 01:17:24,080
Speaker 2: They try to escape, but they've been like locked in.

1408
01:17:24,160 --> 01:17:26,080
Speaker 2: They try to call for help, but there's just like

1409
01:17:26,160 --> 01:17:30,280
Speaker 2: weird stuff going on on the phone. Melody is attacked

1410
01:17:30,320 --> 01:17:32,559
Speaker 2: by the piano while playing it, so she's like playing

1411
01:17:32,600 --> 01:17:34,920
Speaker 2: the house theme, and then the piano suddenly bites all

1412
01:17:34,960 --> 01:17:38,160
Speaker 2: of her fingers off, and then it proceeds to eat

1413
01:17:38,240 --> 01:17:42,800
Speaker 2: her whole body in this mind rending cartoon musical number

1414
01:17:42,800 --> 01:17:45,479
Speaker 2: where the piano is like chomping on her and there

1415
01:17:45,520 --> 01:17:48,839
Speaker 2: are like various human organs and body parts just sticking

1416
01:17:48,880 --> 01:17:51,360
Speaker 2: out all over it, like you know, like a leg

1417
01:17:51,520 --> 01:17:54,479
Speaker 2: hanging out of a monster's mouth. And then Melody is

1418
01:17:54,520 --> 01:17:58,800
Speaker 2: also still laughing as she's being devoured. Yeah, absolutely delirious,

1419
01:17:59,080 --> 01:18:03,240
Speaker 2: Yeah gorgeous. Now sort of possessed by the evil ghost

1420
01:18:03,280 --> 01:18:06,759
Speaker 2: magic of the house is dressed up like a pale bride.

1421
01:18:06,840 --> 01:18:09,000
Speaker 2: In fact, I think she's supposed to look like her mother.

1422
01:18:09,960 --> 01:18:11,880
Speaker 2: She's sort of become her mother in a way, but

1423
01:18:11,960 --> 01:18:16,479
Speaker 2: she's also become her aunt, and we see her sort

1424
01:18:16,479 --> 01:18:20,880
Speaker 2: of moving around accompanied by Prof and Kung Fu. At

1425
01:18:20,920 --> 01:18:23,759
Speaker 2: some point here, Prof gets absorbed by reading this book

1426
01:18:24,200 --> 01:18:26,280
Speaker 2: that I think is the aunt's diary. It's a book

1427
01:18:26,360 --> 01:18:30,080
Speaker 2: that contains lore, and through reading this book, Prof will

1428
01:18:30,080 --> 01:18:32,840
Speaker 2: get more of the backstory that explains what happened at

1429
01:18:32,840 --> 01:18:38,000
Speaker 2: the house. Oh but meanwhile she's Prof is like looking

1430
01:18:38,040 --> 01:18:42,559
Speaker 2: at this book and just yelling like unscientific, illogical. At

1431
01:18:42,560 --> 01:18:45,639
Speaker 2: the same time, Kung Fu is staring into this giant

1432
01:18:45,680 --> 01:18:50,520
Speaker 2: steampunk grandfather clock and sees an undead version of Sweet

1433
01:18:50,520 --> 01:18:53,960
Speaker 2: inside it, and the clock is reeking rivulets of blood

1434
01:18:54,000 --> 01:18:55,120
Speaker 2: down its glass front.

1435
01:18:56,200 --> 01:18:58,679
Speaker 1: This is probably a good point, is any to mention

1436
01:18:58,800 --> 01:19:02,559
Speaker 1: that Oh yash she again was the head of special

1437
01:19:02,560 --> 01:19:05,559
Speaker 1: effects on this film, and said in the interview that, like,

1438
01:19:05,600 --> 01:19:09,719
Speaker 1: they actually could have used Toho's in house special effects

1439
01:19:09,720 --> 01:19:12,559
Speaker 1: people who were quite good. You know, they'd worked on

1440
01:19:12,840 --> 01:19:16,120
Speaker 1: various pictures, Godzilla movies and so forth. But he said

1441
01:19:16,120 --> 01:19:18,080
Speaker 1: they didn't want to go that route because they didn't

1442
01:19:18,120 --> 01:19:20,800
Speaker 1: want the special effects to be too believable, like they

1443
01:19:20,880 --> 01:19:24,920
Speaker 1: needed to have a certain unreality to them, and I

1444
01:19:24,920 --> 01:19:27,240
Speaker 1: guess even an enhanced unreality.

1445
01:19:27,840 --> 01:19:30,960
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yes, I mean the clock scene looks very

1446
01:19:31,000 --> 01:19:35,559
Speaker 2: frightening and looks great. There are other parts that don't

1447
01:19:35,640 --> 01:19:38,320
Speaker 2: look realistic at all, but I love the style. There

1448
01:19:38,640 --> 01:19:42,160
Speaker 2: is one part where after Melody gets eaten by the piano,

1449
01:19:42,560 --> 01:19:46,639
Speaker 2: we just see severed, bloody, disembodied fingers playing the piano

1450
01:19:46,760 --> 01:19:48,520
Speaker 2: and still playing the house theme.

1451
01:19:48,439 --> 01:19:51,479
Speaker 1: Except meal style. Right, This is when it starts being

1452
01:19:51,479 --> 01:19:51,920
Speaker 1: like a meal.

1453
01:19:52,280 --> 01:19:57,479
Speaker 2: Oh, I think that's right. Yeah, yeah. We learn more

1454
01:19:57,479 --> 01:20:00,840
Speaker 2: from the Diary of gorgeouses on. We learned that, you know,

1455
01:20:00,920 --> 01:20:03,120
Speaker 2: she was waiting for her fiance to come home from

1456
01:20:03,120 --> 01:20:06,160
Speaker 2: the war in denial that he had died. And she

1457
01:20:06,360 --> 01:20:08,880
Speaker 2: mentions that all of the young girls in the town

1458
01:20:08,920 --> 01:20:13,040
Speaker 2: are gone now and she is all alone. Hmmm. And

1459
01:20:13,080 --> 01:20:15,920
Speaker 2: then suddenly, while they're like reading this learning about it,

1460
01:20:15,960 --> 01:20:18,880
Speaker 2: a giant head bursts into the room with them, and

1461
01:20:18,920 --> 01:20:21,160
Speaker 2: it is the head of Gorgeous and she says, I'm

1462
01:20:21,160 --> 01:20:24,439
Speaker 2: in my aunt's world now, and then she morphs into

1463
01:20:24,439 --> 01:20:26,880
Speaker 2: a giant pair of lips, and one of the girls

1464
01:20:26,960 --> 01:20:31,879
Speaker 2: yells huge lips, and the lips revealed that Auntie actually

1465
01:20:31,960 --> 01:20:36,240
Speaker 2: died many years ago, and she became after she died,

1466
01:20:36,320 --> 01:20:40,040
Speaker 2: and she became a jealous, vengeful ghost. I think the

1467
01:20:40,120 --> 01:20:43,559
Speaker 2: idea is she so longed for her fiance, she wanted

1468
01:20:43,600 --> 01:20:46,599
Speaker 2: to marry him and couldn't accept that he had died

1469
01:20:46,640 --> 01:20:49,799
Speaker 2: in the war. So now instead she is this vengeful

1470
01:20:49,840 --> 01:20:52,960
Speaker 2: ghost that eats all of the unmarried girls who come

1471
01:20:53,120 --> 01:20:57,320
Speaker 2: to her house. So I think the suggestion is this

1472
01:20:57,360 --> 01:20:59,160
Speaker 2: may have been what happened to all of the girls

1473
01:20:59,200 --> 01:21:03,640
Speaker 2: in town who are getting piano lessons, just one by one. Yeah,

1474
01:21:03,680 --> 01:21:05,960
Speaker 2: And she says that when she eats them is the

1475
01:21:05,960 --> 01:21:08,720
Speaker 2: only time that she can wear her bridle gown. And

1476
01:21:08,760 --> 01:21:11,160
Speaker 2: then she says, now it's your turn, just let me

1477
01:21:11,240 --> 01:21:11,680
Speaker 2: eat you.

1478
01:21:12,600 --> 01:21:14,760
Speaker 1: So yes, at this point that, like the poster art

1479
01:21:14,920 --> 01:21:18,680
Speaker 1: has come to get, the promise is fulfilled. House is

1480
01:21:18,680 --> 01:21:19,800
Speaker 1: a house that eats people.

1481
01:21:20,000 --> 01:21:22,240
Speaker 2: So there's a bunch more stuff that happens. The girls

1482
01:21:22,240 --> 01:21:26,160
Speaker 2: are attacked by various flying household objects. I do you

1483
01:21:26,200 --> 01:21:29,240
Speaker 2: want to emphasize the house theme and how much it

1484
01:21:29,320 --> 01:21:32,280
Speaker 2: is like just the objects one would find in a

1485
01:21:32,320 --> 01:21:35,599
Speaker 2: domestic residence are all turned evil in the movie. Everything

1486
01:21:35,920 --> 01:21:40,520
Speaker 2: that would be in a house, appliances, furniture, just household

1487
01:21:40,560 --> 01:21:43,479
Speaker 2: items are all now monsters that attack the girls.

1488
01:21:44,040 --> 01:21:45,760
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean we've talked about this un stuff to

1489
01:21:45,760 --> 01:21:47,840
Speaker 1: blow your mind before, some of these ideas about house

1490
01:21:48,760 --> 01:21:53,599
Speaker 1: significantly old household objects can kind of become animated and

1491
01:21:53,640 --> 01:21:54,639
Speaker 1: so forth. Yeah.

1492
01:21:54,760 --> 01:21:58,679
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, while they're being attacked by the house prof

1493
01:21:59,000 --> 01:22:02,479
Speaker 2: at some point that in order to escape they must

1494
01:22:02,520 --> 01:22:06,559
Speaker 2: destroy Blanch the Cat, or perhaps destroy an image of

1495
01:22:07,400 --> 01:22:10,080
Speaker 2: an image of Blanch the Cat which is on the wall,

1496
01:22:10,640 --> 01:22:13,040
Speaker 2: and so Kung Fu is like, right, got my orders,

1497
01:22:13,040 --> 01:22:14,920
Speaker 2: and she tries to carry out this attack on the

1498
01:22:14,960 --> 01:22:18,160
Speaker 2: image of the cat, but she is in turn attacked

1499
01:22:18,200 --> 01:22:20,800
Speaker 2: by an overhead lamp, which latches onto her skull and

1500
01:22:20,840 --> 01:22:27,320
Speaker 2: electrocutes her, and then like the lamp seems to suck

1501
01:22:27,439 --> 01:22:31,479
Speaker 2: Kung Fu into a psychic vortex where she perceives floating,

1502
01:22:31,960 --> 01:22:35,920
Speaker 2: rotating body parts and hears the voices of her dead friends.

1503
01:22:36,400 --> 01:22:40,040
Speaker 2: But somehow she snaps out of this vortex and the

1504
01:22:40,160 --> 01:22:42,920
Speaker 2: upper half of her body seems to have been destroyed,

1505
01:22:43,080 --> 01:22:46,360
Speaker 2: but her disembodied legs fly out of the lamp and

1506
01:22:46,439 --> 01:22:49,000
Speaker 2: kick the image of the cat on the wall, which

1507
01:22:49,080 --> 01:22:52,200
Speaker 2: vomits blood and freaks out and leaps up in pain,

1508
01:22:52,760 --> 01:22:55,879
Speaker 2: which in turn causes Gorgeous to gush blood and scream

1509
01:22:55,960 --> 01:22:57,719
Speaker 2: like a vampire dowsed in holy water.

1510
01:22:58,240 --> 01:22:59,840
Speaker 1: And when the cat leaps up, it's kind of like

1511
01:23:00,040 --> 01:23:03,840
Speaker 1: animated lightning cat. It's really all this has to be

1512
01:23:03,920 --> 01:23:06,800
Speaker 1: seen to be understood. We can describe it to you,

1513
01:23:07,280 --> 01:23:09,960
Speaker 1: but you just have to experience it. It's even crazier

1514
01:23:10,000 --> 01:23:13,040
Speaker 1: than we made it sound here. It's also like, yes,

1515
01:23:13,120 --> 01:23:15,920
Speaker 1: there's lots of blood going on here, but it's also

1516
01:23:16,560 --> 01:23:18,160
Speaker 1: and it is gory. But I don't want to like

1517
01:23:18,240 --> 01:23:20,120
Speaker 1: oversell that and say, like, oh, this is just a

1518
01:23:20,120 --> 01:23:23,680
Speaker 1: real gorefest. It's not. Because it's so weird and there

1519
01:23:23,760 --> 01:23:27,519
Speaker 1: is this unreality to the effects. It exists in its

1520
01:23:27,560 --> 01:23:28,160
Speaker 1: own dimension.

1521
01:23:28,560 --> 01:23:30,840
Speaker 2: It's hard to describe what comes next. There's a lot

1522
01:23:30,840 --> 01:23:34,360
Speaker 2: of like there's like cat images vomiting blood, lots of

1523
01:23:34,360 --> 01:23:41,839
Speaker 2: things vomiting blood. People drowning in blood, yeah, floating on blood, floating.

1524
01:23:42,080 --> 01:23:46,599
Speaker 2: There's all this blood. And then finally it seems that

1525
01:23:46,720 --> 01:23:49,720
Speaker 2: all of the girls are devoured by the house and

1526
01:23:49,800 --> 01:23:53,400
Speaker 2: that Gorgeous is something altered. She is somehow merged with

1527
01:23:53,520 --> 01:23:57,840
Speaker 2: Auntie and whatever comfort you know she offers to her

1528
01:23:57,880 --> 01:24:01,960
Speaker 2: friends is a prelude to eating yourself. So they weird

1529
01:24:01,960 --> 01:24:04,519
Speaker 2: to understand that all of the girls are have their

1530
01:24:04,520 --> 01:24:07,439
Speaker 2: souls eaten by the house. But then, oh man, the

1531
01:24:07,479 --> 01:24:11,799
Speaker 2: movie has such a stinger. The next day. Remember remember

1532
01:24:13,000 --> 01:24:15,040
Speaker 2: Gorgeous's new step mom Rioko.

1533
01:24:15,680 --> 01:24:17,080
Speaker 1: Yeah, she's scarf.

1534
01:24:17,439 --> 01:24:19,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, with the scarf she's driving through the country or

1535
01:24:19,880 --> 01:24:21,400
Speaker 2: scarf blowing in the wind. She said she was going

1536
01:24:21,439 --> 01:24:24,200
Speaker 2: to go to the house to uh, to catch up

1537
01:24:24,240 --> 01:24:25,559
Speaker 2: with Gorgeous, you know, to get.

1538
01:24:25,439 --> 01:24:25,960
Speaker 1: To know her.

1539
01:24:26,720 --> 01:24:30,000
Speaker 2: Uh. And she she comes to no, wait maybe she

1540
01:24:30,560 --> 01:24:33,320
Speaker 2: wait do we learn whether she and the father had

1541
01:24:33,320 --> 01:24:35,640
Speaker 2: actually gotten married yet? I think maybe they had not.

1542
01:24:35,800 --> 01:24:37,439
Speaker 2: I think they were going to get married.

1543
01:24:37,640 --> 01:24:39,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think this is still like she's like, I'm

1544
01:24:39,760 --> 01:24:42,680
Speaker 1: gonna go patch things up with her, you know beforehand.

1545
01:24:43,040 --> 01:24:46,680
Speaker 2: Yes. Uh. So she she's driving through the country, she

1546
01:24:46,760 --> 01:24:49,240
Speaker 2: finds the house. She walks by the watermelon stand where

1547
01:24:49,240 --> 01:24:52,920
Speaker 2: we see mister Togo has turned into bananas. Uh. And

1548
01:24:52,960 --> 01:24:57,960
Speaker 2: then she goes up to the ant's house. This bittersweet

1549
01:24:58,040 --> 01:25:01,840
Speaker 2: kind of beatlesy pop song is played. She wanders through

1550
01:25:01,880 --> 01:25:05,559
Speaker 2: the garden and it's very dreamlike and ethereal. And she

1551
01:25:05,640 --> 01:25:08,439
Speaker 2: meets Gorgeous at the house and is invited inside, and

1552
01:25:08,479 --> 01:25:11,599
Speaker 2: she asks, Gorgeous, where are your friends? And Gorgeous says,

1553
01:25:11,640 --> 01:25:15,000
Speaker 2: they're still sleeping, but they'll be up soon when they're hungry.

1554
01:25:15,680 --> 01:25:18,960
Speaker 2: They get up when they're hungry, and then Rioko bursts

1555
01:25:19,000 --> 01:25:19,840
Speaker 2: into flames.

1556
01:25:20,720 --> 01:25:25,040
Speaker 1: Amazing, just absolutely amazing, like legitimately creepy and amazing.

1557
01:25:25,400 --> 01:25:27,519
Speaker 2: Oh and then there's like a monologue at the end,

1558
01:25:27,560 --> 01:25:30,200
Speaker 2: which I feel like I should just relate. I don't

1559
01:25:30,200 --> 01:25:33,679
Speaker 2: see exactly how it connects, but it says, even after

1560
01:25:33,720 --> 01:25:36,679
Speaker 2: the flesh perishes, one can live in the hearts of others,

1561
01:25:36,720 --> 01:25:40,240
Speaker 2: together with the feelings one has for them. Therefore, the

1562
01:25:40,320 --> 01:25:43,600
Speaker 2: story of love must be told many times so that

1563
01:25:43,680 --> 01:25:47,200
Speaker 2: the spirits of lovers may live forever, forever, the one

1564
01:25:47,240 --> 01:25:50,240
Speaker 2: thing that never perishes. The only promise is love.

1565
01:25:50,520 --> 01:25:53,719
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't fully understand. It reminds me a little

1566
01:25:53,760 --> 01:25:56,920
Speaker 1: bit of the how on the nineties Outer Limits. You'll

1567
01:25:56,920 --> 01:25:59,080
Speaker 1: have the narration voice come on at the end, and

1568
01:25:59,520 --> 01:26:03,400
Speaker 1: something up in ways that sometimes feel a little disconnected

1569
01:26:03,400 --> 01:26:06,120
Speaker 1: from what you just watched. But I don't know, maybe

1570
01:26:06,120 --> 01:26:08,920
Speaker 1: something's lost in translation here. Or maybe it is, like

1571
01:26:09,040 --> 01:26:11,680
Speaker 1: so much of this film intended to be a bit

1572
01:26:11,760 --> 01:26:15,080
Speaker 1: off kilter and intended to make you scratch your head.

1573
01:26:15,160 --> 01:26:18,960
Speaker 2: So that's how again. Truly one of the weirdest films

1574
01:26:19,040 --> 01:26:22,120
Speaker 2: ever made, widely recognized as such, and I have to

1575
01:26:22,160 --> 01:26:26,120
Speaker 2: concur with that opinion. It is there's not really anything

1576
01:26:26,200 --> 01:26:26,519
Speaker 2: like it.

1577
01:26:26,880 --> 01:26:29,920
Speaker 1: Agreed, it is a masterpiece. This is a masterpiece of

1578
01:26:29,960 --> 01:26:34,840
Speaker 1: weird cinema. Highly recommend it again. Luckily, it's pretty easy

1579
01:26:34,880 --> 01:26:37,559
Speaker 1: to get your hands on if you're interested in watching it,

1580
01:26:37,840 --> 01:26:40,800
Speaker 1: and it's definitely worth watching it. I mean, have it

1581
01:26:40,800 --> 01:26:42,880
Speaker 1: on in the background if nothing else, but I think

1582
01:26:42,920 --> 01:26:47,320
Speaker 1: you'll be sucked in. It's hard to casually watch this movie.

1583
01:26:47,000 --> 01:26:51,280
Speaker 1: I watched it by myself and I kept catching myself

1584
01:26:51,360 --> 01:26:54,280
Speaker 1: like making faces, you know, like my jaw literally dropping

1585
01:26:54,600 --> 01:26:56,040
Speaker 1: at some of the sequences.

1586
01:26:56,479 --> 01:26:59,360
Speaker 2: It's like a dream that a cat had about being

1587
01:26:59,360 --> 01:26:59,800
Speaker 2: a human.

1588
01:27:00,560 --> 01:27:03,440
Speaker 1: Yeah, it might be. It's as good of an explanation

1589
01:27:03,479 --> 01:27:06,759
Speaker 1: as any Well, there you have a house. It's great

1590
01:27:06,800 --> 01:27:09,439
Speaker 1: to have finally discussed this film on Weird House Cinema.

1591
01:27:09,439 --> 01:27:11,760
Speaker 1: I felt like it was faded to happen at some

1592
01:27:11,840 --> 01:27:14,400
Speaker 1: point or another, and we hadn't covered a Japanese film

1593
01:27:14,479 --> 01:27:17,200
Speaker 1: and a spell there, so it was good to cover

1594
01:27:17,240 --> 01:27:19,960
Speaker 1: another one here. Obviously, we'd love to hear from everyone

1595
01:27:19,960 --> 01:27:23,160
Speaker 1: out there. Do you have thoughts on House, memories of

1596
01:27:23,200 --> 01:27:25,200
Speaker 1: seeing it for the first time, hearing about it for

1597
01:27:25,240 --> 01:27:28,280
Speaker 1: the first time? Writ in, We would love to hear

1598
01:27:28,320 --> 01:27:30,920
Speaker 1: from you. As always, will remind you that Stuff to

1599
01:27:30,920 --> 01:27:33,599
Speaker 1: Blow Your Mind is primarily a science podcast with core

1600
01:27:33,680 --> 01:27:35,920
Speaker 1: episodes and the Stuff to Blow your Mind podcast feed

1601
01:27:35,960 --> 01:27:38,719
Speaker 1: on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but on Fridays we set aside

1602
01:27:38,760 --> 01:27:40,759
Speaker 1: most serious concerns to just talk about a weird film

1603
01:27:40,960 --> 01:27:43,920
Speaker 1: on Weird House Cinema. Go to letterbox dot com. That's

1604
01:27:44,000 --> 01:27:46,160
Speaker 1: l E T T e r box d dot com.

1605
01:27:46,200 --> 01:27:48,680
Speaker 1: Look us up. Our username is weird House. We have

1606
01:27:48,880 --> 01:27:51,760
Speaker 1: all the movies we've covered listed there, and sometimes you

1607
01:27:51,760 --> 01:27:55,240
Speaker 1: can get a peek ahead at what's coming up next. Also, hey,

1608
01:27:55,240 --> 01:27:57,000
Speaker 1: if you just want to support the show, we'll go

1609
01:27:57,040 --> 01:27:59,040
Speaker 1: ahead and hammer this home again. One of the best

1610
01:27:59,080 --> 01:28:01,120
Speaker 1: things you can do is wherever you get your podcast,

1611
01:28:01,200 --> 01:28:04,400
Speaker 1: make sure you have subscribed and that you're receiving downloads.

1612
01:28:04,479 --> 01:28:06,320
Speaker 1: That helps us out, that keeps the show alive.

1613
01:28:06,680 --> 01:28:10,440
Speaker 2: Here's thanks, as always to our excellent audio producer Jjposway.

1614
01:28:10,840 --> 01:28:12,400
Speaker 2: If you would like to get in touch with us

1615
01:28:12,400 --> 01:28:14,920
Speaker 2: with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest

1616
01:28:14,920 --> 01:28:16,840
Speaker 2: a topic for the future, or just to say hello,

1617
01:28:17,040 --> 01:28:19,719
Speaker 2: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow

1618
01:28:19,720 --> 01:28:27,360
Speaker 2: your Mind dot com.

1619
01:28:27,479 --> 01:28:30,439
Speaker 3: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

1620
01:28:30,520 --> 01:28:33,320
Speaker 3: more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

1621
01:28:33,439 --> 01:28:36,520
Speaker 3: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.