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.

When I saw this movie a few days ago, my eyes were completely fixed to the screen. Its greatness held my attention to such an extent that I focused all of my attention on it for its entire duration. I would recommend seeing it not just to fans of anime, but to anyone who likes great movies period (or who likes really weird stuff). The style of art is beautiful, the sound is perfect, and the symbolism within it is breathtaking. I've heard complaints about the weird insertion of English text in the movie, but I think the way its done is complementary to the strange style of the movie. The self-attributed description of "Hello Kitty on acid" doesn't do justice to this film of absolutely epic proportions. I'd like to find more works by whoever made this, and see them.

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!

"Nekojiru-so" ("Cat Soup") is based in the manga of the same name by Nekojiru. I can't compare both for I have not read the manga, and only found out it was based on a manga after popping the disc in the DVD and watching the short.

This is described as "Hello Kitty on Acid", but I would describe it more as "Psychotic Lynchian Hello Kitty". Yes, that's more fitting. Plotwise, the short doesn't explain much, and it doesn't need to! With no dialogue what-so-ever, random cat noises here and there, and some pop-up speech balloons like in a comic book, the short needs nothing but its imagery to be understood. And this is supported by the fact that, "Nekojiru-so" is supposed to be understood differently by everyone. There's so much interpretation to be had, so many symbolisms and abstract imagery. And this is where it succeeds the most, it's such a personal experience!

The animation is amazingly fitting, sometimes very weird and abstract. The art and backgrounds are also equally superb. Sound is top notch, the soundtrack is so fitting it enhances the feeling of doom, despair and just down right weirdness. And happiness too! Even though it's a very weird happiness...

Opposite to what you may have thought from the cute-sy art, this is absolutely NOT a film for kids. Don't even think about popping this on for a kid. There are some very disturbing images / actions in these amazingly brilliant 30 minutes of art.

Only downside? Too short... but it's like Tatsuo Sato says in the interview, if it were any longer, people might go crazy! But hey... I just wanted this crazy experience to last a wee-bit longer. That's it. The only downside.

This is an absolutely incredible, stunning and dark short surreal animation that hooked me up from the beginning to the very end without letting go. It spoke so much to me, I had to watch it a second time almost immediately.

So, if you're into surreal / abstract animation / film / art, you should be watching this right now, getting freaked out and developing your own interpretation.

An amazing experience!

9 out of 10.

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.