Japanese film makers have a knack of making council meetings interesting. I cite Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and his brilliant Evil Does Not Exist, and now Japanese documentation Kazuhiro Soda, renowned for his self-imposed “10 Commandments of Observational Documentary,” which include doing no prior research, having no pre-set themes or goals, and shooting long takes without scripts, narration, or superimposed titles—all while filming everything himself.
In THE CATS OF GOKOGU SHRINE, Soda sets his sights, insights and camera in the picturesque small coastal town of Ushimado in Japan’s Okayama Prefecture, where a Shinto shrine has become home to an ever-growing colony of stray cats.
In his 10th observational documentary, Soda casts a calm and meditative eye over the shrine, its feline inhabitants, and their human neighbours. Set over the course of a year, he captures the lives of the cats as they adapt to the seasons, steal fish from local fishermen and interact with local residents, some of whom see the cats as a nuisance, while others view them as a potential tourist attraction for the town.
The result is a disarmingly captivating, or should that be cat-tivating and thoughtful portrait of the delicate balance between cats and humans in an ever-evolving world set over the backdrop of a little explored region of Japan.
If you’ve a yen for zen like lens, whether you’re friendly to felines or foe, THE CATS OF THE GOKOGU SHRINE is a fascinating film, a dreamy reality show, that could sway your idea of the stray. It’s up there with FLOW as a cool cat cinema experience.
See THE CATS OF THE GOKOGU SHRINE at Palace Central, Palace Moore Park and The Ritz, Randwick.
