Review of 'Cat Samurai'

cat_samurai.jpg In the Edo period of Japan, masterless Samurai (Ronin) Kyutaro Madarame (Kazuki Kitamura) is disgraced, making a living by building umbrellas. He is offered much needed gold coins by a dog-loving gang to kill Tamanojoh, the white cat of their cat-loving rivals in a feud started years previously when the cat from the one group scratched a dog of the other…When the assassination does not quite go to plan Kyutaro ends up caring for the cat but how long will it be before they discover the last-minute replacement is not the real Tamanojoh? Though Kyutaro has another offer to kidnap a dog…

An altogether silly bit of a film that never takes itself to seriously from the ridiculously brooding Kyutaro continually sharing with the audience his thoughts to the completely ridiculous premise as this “swordsman for hire” comes more and more attached to this cute fluffy animal. There is, of course, many gratuitous shots of cute cats (and dogs) throughout which, of course, simply adds to the irony. Having said that, some of the sword action scenes are actually quite well choreographed and the old-Tokyo setting is passable. The film does suffer by being slightly overlong and the humour does tend to wear a bit thin by the time an hour has gone by (perhaps even this is a bit of a stretch).

Make no mistake, this is Japanese silliness of the highest order making it all the more enjoyable – Seeing the serious Kyutaro fighting with a sword in one hand and a cat curled up in his other arm cannot fail to amuse.

Rating: “Really good but I have some issues”

Review Date: 2018-08-18


Directed by: Takeshi Watanabe and Yoshitaka Yamaguchi

Studio: AMG Entertainment

Year: 2014

Length: 100 minutes

Genre: Action/Adventure

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3185154/