I Am a Cat

Original title: Wagahai wa neko de aru

1936
1h 27m

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

YOUR RATING

Japanese Comedy Drama

This movie is adapted from well-known 1905-1906 novel from Natsume Sôseki, a classic of Japanese literature, which describes the life of a teacher, his family and neighbors, in a Japanese mi... Read allThis movie is adapted from well-known 1905-1906 novel from Natsume Sôseki, a classic of Japanese literature, which describes the life of a teacher, his family and neighbors, in a Japanese middle-class town of the Meiji Era, as viewed by the family cat.This movie is adapted from well-known 1905-1906 novel from Natsume Sôseki, a classic of Japanese literature, which describes the life of a teacher, his family and neighbors, in a Japanese middle-class town of the Meiji Era, as viewed by the family cat.

Director
- Kajirô Yamamoto
Writers
- Masaru Kobayashi
- Sôseki Natsume
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

YOUR RATING

Director
- Kajirô Yamamoto
Writers
- Masaru Kobayashi
- Sôseki Natsume
Stars

1User review

See production info at IMDbPro

Photos1

User reviews1

6.325

Featured reviews

5boblipton

What Has This Got To do With A Cat?

A small cat wanders into a household and is the witness to the snobbery and preoccupations of a teacher's household and its interactions with the nouveau riche neighbors.

My notes indicate this was based on a popular novel by Soseki Natsume. In the movie, the cat is the inadvertent and uncomprehending observer of the petty rivalries of the neighborhood. Unfortunately for me, this results in a rather incoherent movie, in no small part because I am unfamiliar with the societal assumptions of the era. Everyone seems a bit self-obsessed, despite occasional references to the First World War; the cat turns up at odd moments on screen, and at other times, it offers its thoughts on issues that have nothing to do with the human drama going on; whether this is a statement of the unimportance of such things -- from a cat's viewpoint anyway -- seems unclear. The result is rambling and a bit dull.

More like this

6.5

I Am a Cat

Trivia
The film changes the novel's pessimistic ending. In the film, Sneaze does not have dyspepsia. The novel ends with the cat's death, while at the end of the film, the family erects a grave for the cat with a poignant epitaph.