49/40
Filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda observes their coexistence
Plot
A sprawling colony of cats inhabits a Shinto shrine. Residents care for them; others are disturbed by the mess.
It is, of course, unquestionable that dogs are superior to cats
The earnest programmer who introduced the UK premiere of this documentary at the 2024 London Film Festival used the phrase “non-human animals” more than once—Wokeism has reached the animal kingdom! But director Kazuhiro Soda was an engaging fellow, taking a selfie with the audience—which distracted from his unpromising claim that he was working without doing any research.
We see them being fed by well-wishers, being picked up to be “fixed,” sharing food with their kittens, etc
Yet even non-feline fans will likely be charmed by the cats that inhabit a Shinto shrine in a small Japanese coastal town. But it’s not all cats: humans make an appearance, too, in sequences like an interminable committee meeting and a clean-up after a typhoon.
As a result, can we really say that what we are seeing is accurate?
The only thing that is really surprising is the small chance that people with a camera pointed at them will actually behave as they normally do – so to what extent does the documentary filmmaker change simply by his presence? But for presenting a slice of Japanese life, the film is worth watching at least once.
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