She and Her Cat (1999)

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Dreadfully Boring

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

SHE AND HER CAT is beautiful, sensitive and isolated, differ from the other Japanese animated short, it's more European.Two lonely heart, few dialogs, and absolutely none-stop voice-over, the Wong Kar Wai style it is, e.g. Chungking Express. Obviously, Makoto Shinkai is more sentimental.And sometimes the short subject feels like A MAN AND A WOMAN, directed by Claude Lelouch, tremendously moving, extraordinary deepening.It seems that I should dislike the film. However, I still enjoy it. Because Makoto Shinkai show the honest feeling about love in a man's heart.

Makoto Shinkai is a force to be reckoned with. The buzz surrounding his 2002 film Hoshi No Koe, (available on domestic DVD as Voices of a Distant Star) catapulted him to fame in his native Japan, eliciting hyperbolic claims of him being the "next Miyazaki" That film, a 30min mix of 2-D and 3-D animation was as celebrated for its novelty as much as anything else—it was created by Shinkai entirely at home on his Macintosh—but his followup, the beautiful feature film The Place We Were Promised In Our Early Days, demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt the skills of an animator with a beautiful visual sense.This short, Kanojo to Kanojo no Neko (She and Her Cat ) is an early work by Shinkai, done in 1999. A charming monochrome piece, the story relates the relationship between a young Japanese woman and her cat, told from the perspective of the cat.Pretty and endearing, the film is also an excellent primer on a number of common anime stylistic techniques—mundane objects slowly panned and artistically framed, ellipses of black, and on-screen text, serve to balance the whimsicality of a woman and cat love story with an almost nostalgic sadness.**Check out all our weekly reviews at ShortoftheWeek.com

I have always enjoyed watching films that are quite, soft and touching to the heart and in a way "old fashioned" to enjoy a Saturday afternoon and this film fits the bill exceptionally.The use of classic black and white images to convey the mood and atmosphere of the story was wonderfully done and as short as the story was it wasn't necessary to go any further because it had already left a life long impression on me.The woman referred to as only "she" by the cat wasn't always on screen but when she was you could see just how beautiful she was by the way her hair and and body was shown in each of the frames in the screen shots.A very moving short film that is highly recommended for a lazy Saturday afternoon in the suburbs.

Three seasons of this cats life is summed up in five minutes by the cat himself. He goes dating with Mimi in summer and she wants to marry him, but seeing as they are both kittens and he has an affair with an adult woman he cant do anything but make empty promises to her.Its a pleasant short with lots of detail. The drawings are wonderful all made in black and white depicting the city realistically. The story is likewise interesting from the perspective of the cat. You can really tell a story in five minutes, thats remarkable.If this is made by a débutant it looks very promising for hers/his carrier.