Cat's Eye

A prime example of what Japanese filmmakers do better than anyone else - take a ludicrous premise, give it a serious treatment, and somehow manage to make it all work. During the day, three lovely sisters run a restaurant called "Cat's Eye". By night, they don black vinyl fetish gear and become the notorious cat burglar team known as "Cat's Eye". It's a good thing no one has ever made the connection. A live action adaptation of the anime with the same name, it resembles the original "Batman" TV series more than anything else, with its tongue-in-cheek campiness and its arsenal of ridiculous gadgetry that would make Bruce Wayne jealous. To the Cat Cave, girls! Everything about this film is fun and light-hearted, and the entire cast looks like they're having a great time. The action scenes, though somewhat tacky, are hilarious and complement the campy tone of the film quite nicely. Not for everyone, but if you appreciate anime, superhero comic book mentality, playful campiness, and girls in vinyl suits, it's definitely worth checking out.

Having lost their parents at a very young age, three sisters named "Ai Kisugi" (Yuki Uchida), "Rui Kisugi" (Norika Fujiwara), and "Hitomi Kisugi" (Izumi Inamori) have dedicated their lives to recovering all of their father's paintings from various museums across Japan. Needless to say, the theft of these valuable artworks has attracted the attention of the police, who have assigned one of their top officers, named "Toshio Utsumi" (Kenta Harada), to bring them to justice. Strangely enough, another criminal organization from China, known as the Ko-Ryu-Dan Syndicate, is also interested in these artworks and, under the leadership of a beautiful woman named "Miss Wong" (Wenli Jiang), has targeted the three Kisugi sisters for elimination as well. Instead of revealing more, I will just say that watching these three young women carry out their crimes while dressed in sleek cat outfits, armed with all kinds of elaborate tools and weapons, reminded me of the "Batman" TV show from the '60s, which featured either Julie Newmar or Lee Meriwether dressed as "The Catwoman." Likewise, for those too young to remember that show, I should also mention that Halle Berry looked great in a similar costume. Be that as it may, despite the attractive ladies just mentioned in this movie, I must admit that the comic book nature of this picture limited its potential to a certain degree, and I have rated this movie accordingly.

Kaizo Hayashi's CAT'S EYE is a very hip and cool looking film. Based on Hojo Tsukasa's popular 80's manga (comic) series, CAT'S EYE is the story of a trio of beautiful sisters who lead a normal life by day and become Tokyo's most notorious cat burglars at night. Being a huge fan of the manga series and of the subsequent animated series, I was looking forward to this big budget take on the series. CAT'S EYE the movie takes the basic concept but fails to live up to the source material. The casting is superb, you couldn't get a better cast. The trio of Norika Fujiwara (Rui), Izumi Inamori (Hitomi) and Yuki Uchida (Ai) definitely fit the roles and PVC costumes well. And what costumes they wear! Unfortunately the story is a total mess. The original story is tossed away and instead we are presented with a James Bond inspired ripoff complete with a mysterious crime syndicate/evil organization and their `Dragon Lady' leader played with hammy delight by Taiwanese actress Jiang Wenli. Ninja Master, Sho Kosugi's son Kane Kosugi appears as well playing, what else, a Ninja-like Assassin. This film borrows too heavily from the Joel Schumacher school of campy direction and what we get is half Batman & Robin and half John Woo's Once A Thief. And wait until you get a load of the ludicrous ending! A missed opportunity at what could have been a cult fan hit. The opening animation sequence was inspired, too bad the rest of the film couldn't follow suit.

This one has it all, with a sexy trio of CatBurglars (in extreme cat burgling suits) flying, leaping, and making all the boys hearts race. Tons of nice action sequences and effects, mixed in with a nice amount of subplot make this a breezy treat for anyone who likes superheroes, but is tired of the stodgy and almost depressing treatment that they get in the United States. Find it at any cost!

Well, I have to say that the 1997 Japanese action comedy "Cat's Eye" was definitely somewhat in a league of its own. If you think "Catwoman" mixed in with a healthy doze of Anime and archetypical Japanese over-the-top storytelling, then you have "Cat's Eye" from writers Kaizô Hayashi and Tsukasa Hôjô.

As I sat down here in 2023 to watch "Cat's Eye", I had never even heard about the movie, so I wasn't sure what I was getting myself into here. However, I will say that the movie certainly was watchable, but you have to keep a pretty open mind about realism, constructive storytelling and things that make much of any sense.

I wasn't familiar with the cast ensemble in the movie, but the actresses and actors on the cast list put on fair enough performances in bringing the movie to life on the screen, taking into consideration the contents of the script they had to work with.

Visually then the "Cat's Eye" had pretty terrible effects. I am sure that back in 1997 then the effects were adequate, but they certainly haven't aged well, and they are quite horrible to look at today. Luckily the movie wasn't heavily relying on special effects, so you just have to endure a bit.

Watchable for what it was, director Kaizô Hayashi's 1997 movie came and went without leaving a lasting impression with me. And it is not a movie that warrants a second viewing, simply because there isn't sufficient contents to the storyline to support more than a single viewing.

My rating of "Cat's Eye" lands on a mediocre five out of ten stars.