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The Nextlander Watchcast 065: House (1977)

🕑 Added 2023-10-23 22:01:25 +0000 UTC

Comments

Peter L Eldred

I watched this movie at a midnight movie night in college 15 years ago, and I thought it was a 'so bad it's good' thing. then i rewatched it last night for the podcast and i couldn't shake that they had intention in all they did. It's an intentional movie.

bishonenknife

Thank you Alex for going into Obayashi's history in the intro. I honestly didn't know some of that but I'm certainly no Obayashi scholar. House definitely has a sense of humor but in it's own way is a truly staggering work of art. I watch it at least once a year. This year I was lucky enough to see a 35mm transfer of it at the local repertory theater. Obayashi is one of my favorite artists and his other work is similarly disorienting and staggering, I highly recommend The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (1983). Sadly, Obayashi's non "House" ouvre is largely unappreciated in the west and the only way to see most of his stuff with English subs is through extralegal means, though third window has released some of his films on region free bluray (including the film mentioned above in a box set collecting his work from the years he was working with Kadokawa). The Hiroshima bombing being very personal to him was a strain that ran throughout his work thematically to the very last film he made, Labyrinth of Cinema, which was released the year before he died of lung cancer at 82 in 2020. Seriously though, I know House is largely seen as like this weird outlier, but if you were impressed or bowled over by this film in any way I implore you to check out some of his other stuff. It's guaranteed to leave an impact on you. I consider Obayashi to be one of the greatest artists I've ever had the pleasure of sharing some of my time on Earth with. I hope this long winded comment convinces at least one other person to seek his stuff out. 😅