To tell you the truth up front there's really no way I can rate this movie.  Whether you want to see it or not is a true testament as to how much you like odd quirky films.  

This is a Horror, Musical, Comedy, Volcano movie.  Japanese by Takashi Miike who also did Gozu, which I'm pretty sure I reviewed on this forum at an earlier date.  This film, however, is a remake of a Chinese or maybe Korean film that has nearly the same name.  But when the Japanese did a remake they decided to add music.  Don't ask me why?  The result kind of reminded me of Cannibal the Musical - except translated into Japanese with claymation bits.

The story is a simple one.  Man moves family to guest house which is supposed to get a road built near it but the road doesn't happen.  First guest commits suicide but family decides to bury the body.  Second guest has heart attack while having sex and since he's a Sumo he suffocates the girl that he's on top of.  So they bury him too.  Third guest well, the third guest is a bit different but not that much.  

So as you see it's sort of a family values movie, the family that works together, buries bodies together.   And actually the story works - surprisingly.  I was feeling for them by the end of the movie.  

And that is also surprising because most of the movie I wasn't sure whether I should be appalled, laughing, tapping my feet, or turning it off.   It wasn't that the subject was confusing but the way the movie was put together was.  

First there was this claymation that kept popping up at weird points.  It wasn't like oh ah stuff but it served it's purpose.  At least every one but the first one did.  The first one was like wtf.  I guess in the end it served it's purpose too but it took a roundabout way to get there.

Then there was the music and that was even more confusing.  Sometimes it was so good and it fit so perfectly.  Other times it's just seemed totally out of place (and tune).  I'm not sure if it's just because I'm western or not that I didn't appreciate some of it.  Perhaps if I was more in tune with the Japanese culture I might have got more of it.   They definitely were trying to evoke The Sound of Music at times.

Despite all of this there's some really good comedy in this movie.  I laughed out loud quite a few times and despite myself.

Then at the end the movie got very philosophical.  Perhaps it was that way the whole time and I just never noticed it until then.  But this movie has something to say about life and it says it fairly clearly.  

Besides that, there's probably a lesson about movie making in this movie.  So if you do by chance decide to watch it, watch it for that reason.  And don't blame me - you wanted to watch it.  

This was a fun film sans a few moments that make you feel almost embarrassed to watch. I think it's amazing that Miike is the definition of a director-for-hire and regards himself as such yet he produces such creative, artful and distinct work. One of my favorite directors and has had a major influence on my writing since I started watching his films.