Rent-a-Cat

Sayoko lives alone and her house is full of cats. She loads them into a cart, walks along the river and calls out loud: cats for rent. Her customers are always the same kind of people; an old woman living alone, a man who lost his wife, a clerk posted to a distant city. Sayoko gives them a cat and takes it back after a while. About her own loneliness she does nothing. Naoko Ogigami's film is built on repetition: each section follows the same structure and advances by small differences. The narrative does not slip into sentiment; the cats are offered not as a solution but as a temporary arrangement. The humour is dry and quiet. Mikako Ichikawa plays Sayoko. The colour palette and the production design are as careful as in Ogigami's other work. Who it's for: Viewers who like quiet Japanese comedy, narratives about loneliness, and Naoko Ogigami's films. Who it's not for: The structure repeats and there is almost no plot. The character's own story is also never resolved.