Movie Night #2

 Feeling lonely? I'll lend you a cat!

 

Rent-a-neko, 2012

I had little doubt I'd like this movie when I came across it online. IT'S JUST SO CUTE. It's the story of a young Japanese woman whose grandma, her only company, dies - and she's left behind with this weird gift of attracting cats. Since she knows that you can't feel lonely if you have cats around, she makes it her job (literally) to rent cats to lonely people. WHERE DO I SIGN UP? (for both the job and renting kitties). 

 

To find new clients, she walks around a lake with a megaphone yelling "feeling lonely? I'll lend you a cat!" with 6 cats in the back of her wagon. Lonely people respond to her call and, after she inspects their houses to see if they aren't just some creeps after cats, she lends them a cat that suits them.

 

At the end of their interview, she charges them only 1,000 yen. If you're not familiar with Japanese currencies, know that this is worth today less than 10 dollars! So her clients, always very thankful for her to have relieved them of their loneliness, ask her "oh, but how will you get by?" and she answers "why, do I look like I'm having trouble getting by?" and they'd go like, "yeah" (rude). So she always makes up a different day job that makes her millions of yen everyday, like a stock trader, a fortune teller or a commercial jungle writer (in all of which she's aided by her kitties, of course.)

 

The movie is also a great way to become familiar with Japanese culture. For example, her main dream is to find a husband (jeez). One thing I don't get about the movie though, is that she thinks of herself as this super weird person who can't deal with other people, when in reality she's just really kind and adorable to everyone. Also, a notion of Japanese people's problems: one of her clients is really sad because his daughter said he smells worse than her dog, hahaha. Oh, and there's also her transvestite neighbor who is always telling her how weird and ugly she is, and how she'll never find a husband. DUDE YOU'RE AN UGLY UGLY MAN-WOMAN. STOP TELLING HER LIES. RUDE.

OK, maybe I went a little overboard with my screenshots? It's just that this movie is so cuteeeee. Check out her flowery playsuit + polka-dotted red shirt combo, so pretty <3 Anyway, if you think you'd like a movie about cats, loneliness and filling up holes (not in a dirty way), I totes recommend this to ya.

A pleasant day to you,

V.