Tabineko ripôto

It is rare these days to come across a movie that can tenderly show the beauty hidden in life, even in its aching moments and imperfection. This is one of such films.

The movie shows a young man, looking for a new home for his beloved cat, then the flash backs begin, so we can see his childhood, his teenage years, and adult life. His life can be considered a tragic one, yet the movie also delicately presents the beauty and love from friendship and kindness surrounding him, and most of all, a cat that means to him more than just a pet, and we can easily understand why cats mean to him so much after we see his childhood days.

The movie is slow paced, taking us through his life in its small but meaningful moments, yet somehow I couldn't stop watching it. This is far from boring. Some of the scenes are so amazingly beautiful, very picturesque, and memorable. Bravo to the cinematography. The cat looks very natural; I'm glad they didn't use any CG to control its mouth or face. The acting of the cast is natural too.

But most importantly, the story is told with a heart, with wisdom, and gentleness. I both smiled and had tears in my eyes. Yes, death and dying is one main subject of the film, but that's life, isn't it? If you have lived it beautifully enough, then there is nothing to be sorry about death.

PS. Cat lovers, this is a must-see film for you. Sometimes the talking sound of the cat can be annoying, but I think it fits the personality of Nana the cat. He isn't the sweet type but he loves his human deeply.

Saturo (Sota Fukushi) loves cats, but after his parents die in a car accident, he has to go to live with his Aunty Noriko (Yuko Takeuchi), who moves around a lot for her work and therefore can't have cats at home. Saturo finds a home for his cat and continues with his life, until he meets Nana (voiced by Mitsuki Takahata), a stray cat whom he befriends and soon adopts. Five years later, though, the grown-up Saturo is not able to care for Nana any longer, and so he goes on a road trip, visiting old friends in the hope that one of them will be able to take Nana in. But he reckons without Nana's determination to stay with him, as his one and only cat.... Obviously this film is for cat lovers, but you are guaranteed to be moved by it even if cats aren't your thing. It's a very sweet and gentle story (which I mean in a good way), full of humour and pathos, providing a slice of life in various parts of Japan while also telling a very human story. I would only warn potential viewers - be sure to bring plenty of tissues, as you're going to need them!

My wife bought this book during our vacation. She read it and liked it a lot. I read it later, really liked it too and went on to check if it had perhaps been turned into an anime already. But it hadn't. Instead, I discovered this live action film which we decided to watch together.

And let me tell you: watching it soon after reading the book isn't such a good idea. My expectations were let down, and my wife didn't even watch the movie to the end.

Let's start with the most obvious: in order to fit the story into the screen time, it had to be shortened. One of the big arcs in the book, as well as some minor scenes, just didn't make it into this film.

But more importantly, I found the storytelling just plain awkward: the main character meets his friends and they reminisce their past, but the way these past memories were brought up just didn't seem natural. Actually, most of the acting just seemed like... acting. As in, in theater. Maybe that's typical for Japanese live action films (this must have been the first one I watched, so I have nothing to compare it to), but I just couldn't buy the act, it was too theatrical. Like watching a school play or something.

Also, I just have to mention the cat, who's undoubtedly one of the two main characters in this story. I read that they actually trained a real cat for this film, and it's amazing, but I'm not sure that it was a good choice. in the end her (his?) inner dialog just didn't seem to match the acting. For example, there's a scene where Nana is supposed to be desperately trying to get out of a carrier box. The inner dialog sounded desperate. But the cat on the screen? Not so much: she just sniffed around, no sign of the stress or desperation she was supposedly going through.

All in all, while I really loved the original story, I don't believe this film is the best screen adaptation there could be. I still hope to see it adapted into an anime (mini)series one day.