36/35
Residents care for them; others disturbed by the mess
Synopsis
An ample cat colony inhabits a Shinto shrine.
Filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda observes their coexistence
The earnest programmer who introduced the British premiere of this documentary at the 2024 London Film Festival used, more than once, the phrase "non-human animals" – wokeism comes to the animal kingdom!
However, even non-fans of felines are likely to be enchanted by the cats inhabiting the Shinto shrine in a small Japanese coastal town
But director Kazuhiro Sôda was an engaging chap, taking a selfie with the audience – which distracted from his unpromising assertion that he worked without doing any research…It is, of course, unquestionable that dogs are superior to cats.
We see them being fed by well-wishers, being caught to be 'fixed', sharing food with their kittens, etc
But it is not all cats: humans feature as well, in sequences such as an interminable committee meeting and clearing up after a typhoon.The problem with making an 'observational film' of this sort is the small likelihood that people with a camera pointed at them actually behave as they normally do – so how much does the documentary-maker change by the mere fact of their presence?
As a result, can we really say what we are seeing is accurate?
But in its presentation of a slice of Japanese life, the film is at least worth watching once.