So apparently Cambodian films from the 70s are popular. Which means I do not get to see them. After today’s first film however, that was kind of bearable!
Rent-a-Neko (Rent-a-Cat, ?????)
Japan 2012, Ogigami Naoko, 110′
Sayoko, a girl nearing her 30s in (not very active) search for marriage lives in her dead grandmother’s house together with lots of cats, as these are the only living creatures attracted to her. Every day she goes out with her cart advertising her rent-a-cat service.
Four years the same director presented “Megane”, which I also watched. Apparently she is in the businees of making “healing” films, an absolutely wonderful sub-classification of various cultural products aimed at making you feel all warm, fuzzy and at ease. The cats are delightful, the music is healing, the visuals are healing, Sayoko is healing… Most of the movie is very episodic, with Sayoko going out to lend a cat and focusing on one specific customer and his problems. Only near the end, when she meets the boy from her past it looks like things might be heading somewhere. The episodes are separated from each other through several somehow surreal sequences showing her more profitable sources of income, which remind us, that this movie really is not meant to be a serious realistic story but just a lovely something to make you feel good.