settima

cats

Bell Book and Candle (Richard Quine, 1958)

Mar

12

Bell Book and Candle (1958)

Gillian Holroyd (Kim Novak) and her Siamese, Pyewacket. DP: James Wong Howe.

“I sit in the subway sometimes, on buses, or the movies, and I look at the people next to me and I think… 'What would you say if I told you I was a witch?'”

– Queenie

猫と庄造と二人のをんな [Neko to Shōzō to futari no onna / A Cat, Shozo, and Two Women] (Shirō Toyoda, 1956)

Feb

20

Love Your Pet Day

猫と庄造と二人のをんな (1956)

Shōzō (Hisaya Morishige) on the beach with his beloved cat Lily. DP: Mitsuo Miura.

Someone owns a pet on Love Your Pet Day.

“I'm sharing my husband with a cat. This is humiliating!”

– Nakajima

Shōzō is torn between his ex-wife and his current spouse, but really just wants to spend time with Lily, his cat.

The Black Cat (Harold Hoffman, 1966)

Sep

9

The Black Cat (1966)

A sad blonde (Robyn Baker) with her perfectly coiffured head on a perfectly set table. DP: Walter Schenk.

ねこぢる草 [Nekojiru-sō / Cat Soup] (Tatsuo Satō, 2001)

Aug

30

National Grief Awareness Day

ねこぢる草 (2001)

Nyāko taken away by Jizō with little brother Nyatta telling Nyāko to come back home. DP: Masaru Takase.

Nyatta is not ready to have Jizō take away his big sister Nyāko to Ne-no-kuni, the land of the dead. The kitten grabs his sister's paw, resulting in her soul being ripped in two and leaving Nyāko in a state of limbo. The cats' mother then sends the two off on a mission to buy fried #tofu. Maybe now Nyatta can find a way to put Nyāko's divided soul back together. But first, there's a circus to visit!

 

ねこぢる草 is based on works by mangaka Nekojiru / ねこぢる (1967—1998) whose trademark crudely drawn #cats caused a ripple in Japan's underground #manga circuit. Nyatta and Nyāko continued their surreal adventures by way of widower Yamano Hajime after Nekojiru's tragic suicide in 1998.