Chika nga lang…

House (Hausu) Color / 1977 / 88 min. / 16mm

Directed by: Obayashi Nobuhiko

Cast: Ikegami Kimiko (Oshare & her mother), Oba Kimiko (Fantasy), Matsubara Ai (Gari), Jimbo Miki (Kung fu), Sato Mieko (Mac), Miyako Masayo (Sweet), Tanaka Eriko (Melody), Minamida Yoko (Oshare’s aunt)

Synopsis: Summer vacation is coming. A junior high school student OSHARE is keeping company with a dreamer, FANTA, a grind, GARI, a karate expert, KUNFU, ever hungry, MAC, cute but chicken hearted, SWEET, and a music lover, MELODY.

One day, Oshare is told her father is remarrying and is introduced to his fiance Ryoko. Shocked Oshare, remembers her aunt who is living in the country. She writes her aunt a letter asking the permission to visit, with her friends, during the summer vacation. Seven girls arrive at the Hausu Mansion, feeling uneasily but free from the chaperone Togo, their teacher, who was supposed to go with them.

The fresh air in the country makes the seven girls happy. Oshare’s aunt although confined to a wheelchair is kind and takes care of them. After a short time, some mysterious phenomenon begins to occur. First, Mac, who goes to get a cool watermelon in the well, does not return, so the other girls go to search for her. To their surprise, Mac is in the well! After this, many attacks on the girls happen in rapid succession. One girl is eaten by a piano; one is chopped by a clock, etc. Later it is learned that Oshare’s aunt had died several years earlier, and became the spirit in the wheelchair. This "Hausu Mansion" is her remaining ghost! Why does the house attack the girls?

The reason is revealed later that the aunt who still loves her fiance who died in a war many years earlier will become younger and able to wear the wedding dress that she was supposed to wear only by eating the flesh of young girls. The girls are vanishing one by one in the Hausu Mansion. Finally, Ryoko is leaving to go to the mansion. Oshare is waiting for her, but is she really Oshare or her spirit?

I should have been warned that the movie was a complete bore after reading that synopsis. I mean, do they have to reveal the plot if it is as interesting as it should be?

I have been a fan of Eigai Sai (Japanese Film Fest) ever since we’ve seen Kairo’s "The Cure" last 2003. Hearing that they were featuring horror movies as line-up for this year’s film fest, I immediately asked my friends to go with me and watch it.

Saturday was a free day and we were hoping to catch a good one at Shangri La mall. Sara, Vira and Jen patiently queued for the 2pm film while Millet, Iel and I whiled away our time "travelling" Macau.. hehhehhe..

Anyways, it came our time to watch the film and we were eagerly awaiting to have that scare of our life. Waaa.. the movie could have won the best in musical scoring, sound effects, and filmography… huhuhuhhu… it was brilliantly done i still could not fathom what the meaning was behind all of it.. (hey, i’m trying to be sarcastic in all this..)

Marilyn Monroe-wannabe, Ryoko, was a character on her own, as she is shown complete with a wind-blown effect, her white scarf cascading around her shoulders.

The seven girls who got their own monicker from their passions in life Melody (for her love of music), Fantasy (for being a dreamer and a vain one to boot), Kung Fu (martial artist), Mac (for her unending appetite.. as in Big Mac, I suppose), Sweet, and the rest I forgot their names already.. hhehehh..

The really mind-boggling part was that they were all stripped naked when they’re attacked by the ghost. Don’t know what the reason was behind this but it seems to me they were exploited by showing their boobs onscreen for no reason at all..

It’s supposed to be a scary film but the sound effects, which projected retro music distracted viewers into laughing it all out. Well, at least for me as I was laughing halfway of the film (while other viewers decided to walk out on it..hhehehh..)

It was a disappointment for the rest of us, specially to Ruth who tried to beat the 2pm just to be able to watch the film. But come to think of it.. the movie may have been excruciatingly boring, but it left a lasting impression on me..

(Sweet being attacked by the headless Mac)

(Melody.. her fingers bitten off by the monster piano)

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