Archive - 9th Five Flavours Film Festival

Rent-a-Cat

Rentaneko
Japan 2012, 110’
subtitles: Polish and English
director: Naoko Ogigami
screenplay: Naoko Ogigami
cinematography: Kazutaka Abe
editing: Shinichi Fushima
music: Kosuke Ito
cast: Mikako Ichikawa, Reiko Kusamura, Ken Mitsuishi, Maho Yamada, Kei Tanaka, Katsuya Kobayashi
producer: Aki Kubota, Shuichi Komuro, Kumi Kobata
production: BS Nittere, Paradise Cafe, Suurkiitos, Video Audio Project, Yahoo Japan
language: Japanese
colouration: colour

Film description

Sayoko has a gift – she makes friends with cats. She's not that good with people. One day she has a brilliant idea – she will rent the furry vagabonds to those who need their comforting company. Not everyone can be a cat carer, though, so the candidates must go through a special recruitment procedure.

The protagonist herself a bit like a cat – she follows her own paths. She is also a bit lonely, but the director shows this experience without sentimentality. Each character goes through it differently – with despair, peacefully, or defiantly. The film is lined with melancholy, but the energetic, unconventional character, Sayako, takes all patterns and stereotypes apart. Ogigami is known for her attention to detail – the careful frame compositions, and the diligently arranged interiors of the cats' new homes, speak about the characters stronger than words. The film, filled with warm colors, colorful characters, and car purring, is a nice, yet very intelligent story about an original way of life.

Jagoda Murczyńska

Naoko Ogigami

Born in 1972 in the Chiba Prefecture. In 1994 she left for the US where she studied directing at University of South California. Her sweet and melancholic films, with a characteristic visual style, are enormously popular among the audiences, often appearing at international festivals.

Filmography:

1999 Ayako (short)
2003 Barber Yoshino / Yoshino's Barber Shop
2004 Koi wa go-shichi-go! / Love Is Five, Seven, Five!
2005 Kamome shokudo / Kamome Diner
2007 Okulary / Megane / Glasses
2010 Toiretto / Toilet
2012 Kot do wynajęcia / Rentaneko / Rent-a-Cat

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