She and Her Cat: Their Standing Points

Makoto Shinkai is a force to be reckoned with. The buzz surrounding his 2002 film Hoshi No Koe, (available on domestic DVD as Voices of a Distant Star) catapulted him to fame in his native Japan, eliciting hyperbolic claims of him being the "next Miyazaki" That film, a 30min mix of 2-D and 3-D animation was as celebrated for its novelty as much as anything else—it was created by Shinkai entirely at home on his Macintosh—but his followup, the beautiful feature film The Place We Were Promised In Our Early Days, demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt the skills of an animator with a beautiful visual sense.

This short, Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko (She and Her Cat ) is an early work by Shinkai, done in 1999. A charming monochrome piece, the story relates the relationship between a young Japanese woman and her cat, told from the perspective of the cat.

Pretty and endearing, the film is also an excellent primer on a number of common anime stylistic techniques—mundane objects slowly panned and artistically framed, ellipses of black, and on-screen text, serve to balance the whimsicality of a woman and cat love story with an almost nostalgic sadness.

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Three seasons of this cats life is summed up in five minutes by the cat himself. He goes dating with Mimi in summer and she wants to marry him, but seeing as they are both kittens and he has an affair with an adult woman he cant do anything but make empty promises to her.

Its a pleasant short with lots of detail. The drawings are wonderful all made in black and white depicting the city realistically. The story is likewise interesting from the perspective of the cat. You can really tell a story in five minutes, thats remarkable.

If this is made by a débutant it looks very promising for hers/his carrier.

It's crazy that even when he's making a film that's just a few minutes long, Makoto Shinkai can't help but start strong and then lose the plot at a certain point. He's such a frustrating filmmaker.

This looks striking and it has a neat mix of cuteness and sadness early on. It's a novel approach to exploring the bond between a pet and their owner, though I swear I've seen this story - or a very similar one - adapted into a piece of animation before, and done better.

She and Her Cat doesn't really know how to end. It just sort of peters out at a point. I also think some of the sound effects were too loud and the narrator's voice became grating after a while (the last of those complaints are purely subjective though, and I won't let that affect what I score the short overall).

SHE AND HER CAT is beautiful, sensitive and isolated, differ from the other Japanese animated short, it's more European.

Two lonely heart, few dialogs, and absolutely none-stop voice-over, the Wong Kar Wai style it is, e.g. Chungking Express. Obviously, Makoto Shinkai is more sentimental.

And sometimes the short subject feels like A MAN AND A WOMAN, directed by Claude Lelouch, tremendously moving, extraordinary deepening.

It seems that I should dislike the film. However, I still enjoy it. Because Makoto Shinkai show the honest feeling about love in a man's heart.

As i said i like cats. But i must write something to publish this review. NYAN NYAN NYAN