I Am a Cat

Adapted from the novel by Natsume Soseki, this is a comically misanthropic portrait of a Tokyo teacher circa 1900, detailing his ailments, his disappointing family and his feuds with pupils, neighbours and in-laws. For distraction he holds earnest conversations with his cronies about Life and Art, and observes with fascination the affairs of the local cat population. The humans are too caricatured to sustain interest, even as objects of satire, but the feline aspects are fun. Especially admirable is Blackie, perseverance personified as he dedicates himself to catching and dismembering an outlaw weasel who torments him with fusillades of fetid farts. Finally, the teacher's own cat addresses us from the soundtrack on the pointlessness of existence, before lapping up a pint of beer and falling drunk into a water barrel. Who'd be a cat? Who'd be a person?