Neko râmen taishô

This is probably the only movie to feature a cat pondering - through an internal monologue - the ramifications of the 2008 Great Recession. Just five minutes later, it also dares to ask the question: "What would happen if a cat was allowed to be a taxi driver?" It's accurately answered by showing that it wouldn't work, because if said cat saw a mouse or a rat on the road, it would be instantly compelled to run it over, regardless of how dangerous that would be for the cat's passenger.

The cat eventually ends up running a ramen shop. It kind of feels like four episodes of a sitcom, which is fitting, considering it's a live-action version of an anime miniseries. I can't believe I found myself thinking "yeah, it's good, but not quite as good as the 13 two-minute episodes that comprise the anime version." I also recognised the voice of the cat as the same person who voiced the goalkeeper crab in Crab Goalkeeper, another low-budget masterwork directed by Minoru Kawasaki.

If the idea of a movie about a cat running a ramen shop sounds funny to you, I can highly recommend this. I watched some of it with my cat, but he got bored after 20 minutes (he's very pretentious, and genuinely seems to prefer looking at the screen when it's a black-and-white film that's playing).