Review by jamesrupert2014

Chris Broad, a Brit expat living in Japan, provides viewers with a cat-themed exploration of Japanese culture. Cat lovers will likely enjoy the film but there is not really much to it. The trips to a couple of islands overrun with cats are interesting but most of the material, such as the story of Tamu the stationmaster cat or the history of Maneki Neko, can be found online. Broad makes too much of the presence of semi-feral cats wandering around Japanese cities or cat-themed stores in Tokyo as a reflection of the Japanese psyche. Many European cities have large semi-feral cat populations (Florence and Barcelona for example) and we in Canada (which has about the same population as Greater Tokyo) have 'cat-themed' stores, cat cafes, cat sanctuaries, etc but no one considers us a 'cat nation'. There are some fun moments and the cats are either interesting or cute (or both), so watchable but nothing special.