Nekojiru-sô

A young cat tries to steal back his brothers soul from death but only gets half of it and then has to go adventuring to get the other half... or maybe not.

Frankly I'm not sure what happens in this film which is full of very strange, very surreal images some of which parents might find disturbing, (ie.the cats slicing off part of a pig who is traveling with them and the frying it like bacon which all three eat).

This is a very strange film that some have likened to Hello Kitty on acid, I think its more like Hello Kitty as done by Dali. (Certainly this is more alive than Destino which was directly based on his work).

If your up for a very off beat film that will challenge your perceptions of things then see this movie. Just be ready for some very strange images that will be burned into your memory forever.

One thing film can do is trigger the imagination in ways impossible elsewhere.

What we apparently have here is a film based on a comic. There's what I call an "excuse story" about a half-lost soul. Such stories allow the filmmaker to simply noodle about as he or she wishes. It worked for me in "Mirrormask." But not here. I think its because I'm especially sensitive to coherence of image. If the images let me enter a world, I do deeply. But if they come from different minds and sketch different worlds, it just seems as if I am seeing unrelated billboards.

That's what happens here. Oh, there are many things to appreciate; the unexpected turns of reality which at first seem novel but soon become repetitive, mere chapter headings. Some of these are clever.

The one thing that absolutely hypnotized me wasn't in the film proper but was a small inset on the left as the credits rolled by on the right. An animated scene of perhaps two or three seconds is repeated over and over again, sometimes starting a bit earlier or later. Sometimes its backwards. Its of the two kitty children posing with their mother on the beach. The father is the photographer and we sometimes see his arm as he pushes one of the children into the shot where it stays for only a moment before grabbing the mother.

The music tinkles underneath as if automated. We watch this thing cycle and cycle, modulating in the cycles. Its so much more engaging; you develop a backstory that relates to the movie and is so much richer in depth and engagement than anything in the film.

A rather amazing experience, and it was worth watching the movie as setup for that.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

First of all, this movie is 34 minutes long, which means you could watch it three times in a row and still have spent less time than you would have watching most other movies. Second of all--you need to do this. This sensational short film explores the potential of animation through a world of playful or horrifying but always powerful images. Cats riding in and drinking out of a water elephant, a circus featuring a bird that has consumed the sky, and pigs eating their own fried flesh--that's only the beginning. The scenes and images, extraordinary on their own, flow together without obvious causal links in a way that demands re-watching. Furthermore, the DVD includes an amazing director's commentary, which, given the extremely spare dialog, only enhances the viewing. The commentary gives a few interpretations of scenes, but also provides priceless quotes on the crafting of Cat Soup, along the lines of: "well, the artists were asking what we should do in this scene, but I didn't know myself, so its hard to say why it turned out as it did" (that's a bad paraphrase by the way). Also, the sound throughout the film is very high quality, very precise, and very moody. In all, the absolute minimum viewing experience should go as follows:

First viewing: Watch the DVD without the commentary. Second viewing: Watch the DVD WITH the commentary. Third viewing: Rewatch without the commentary.

Once you've watched it three times, however, you're not going to stop there...

I recently discovered this short, and knew it was a must see. Cat Soup is something that can't be described in words. It focuses on 2 cat siblings who end up in a bizarre journey in the surreal earth they live on. This includes freezing time, dried up oceans, and many other unexplainable events that occur.

There's no dialog used in this film. Only Japanese text which is translated. The whole story wasn't meant to make any sense. It was made intended to make the viewer image the whole universe to this story.

For a short this bizarre, it made me wish it was longer. Cause an idea like this can be unlimited to create. Cat Soup would most likely fit in the category of random animation.

Cat Soup is more than a short random anime film. It's a work of art and imagination.

CAT SOUP is a short anime based on the legendary manga Nekojiru. It won the award "Best Short Film" at The 6th Fantasia Film Festival and also won the "Excellence Prize" at Japan's Media Arts Festival.

When little kitten Nyaako's soul is stolen by Death, she and her brother Nyatta embark on a bizarre journey to get it back. In the surreal dreamscape of the Other Side, they encounter many fantastic characters and remarkable, often disturbing adventures.

CAT SOUP is an anime like nothing you've ever seen. It's Hello Kitty on acid! It is very original, stunningly beautiful and possess a great sense of strangeness and lyricism. CAT SOUP is very surrealistic (there are no dialogue) and sometimes cruel and gory. So it is more an anime for adults than children (they may not understand at all!). A great journey for those who get the chance to see this absolute masterpiece. An must-see!