Cat Pupa (2024)

Cat Pupa

We all know the problem of wondering where we belong in this world, sticking to our current situation through birthright or filial piety. If there is such a place for us, don’t we owe it to ourselves to try and find it?

Chika (Naoyo Ichinose) returns on a fleeting trip to her home island of Sanagi with new husband Kiyoshi (Yuuki Nomura), where they are cleaning out Chika’s old family home, and she finds videos of her childhood. While Kiyoshi takes a break, he sees a woman in white Hanako (Nanami Hatokawa) dancing on the rocks in the middle of the bay; except he sees her as a cat then she falls into the water.

Also on Sanagi is abrasive old friend of Chika’s, Yasushi (Taku Asahina). Seeing she is back, he stops by to say hi. On leaving Chika’s house, Yasushi sees Hanako in her human form – now soaking wet and completely lost. Taking her to the island’s hotel for the night, Yasushi suggests she leaves Sanagi but she cannot go until she finds her bag; which Chika and Kiyoshi find… with surprising contents.

I’m going into this film pretty blind; there’s hardly any info online about this one it doesn’t even have an IMDb page just a basic cast list and some wayward plot summary on TMDB and LETTERBOXD with production notes. Coupled with the iffy subtitles on this version (on Amazon prime), it can be quite easy at times to lose your bearings as to what exactly is happening here.

Yuuji Nomura wants Cat Pupa to be about finding somewhere you fit in or belong. But there is also another idea running parallel that suggests contentment isn’t exclusive to that either; and reaching for the stars won’t bring you that. I think. That’s the vibe I get but Nomura has quite an interesting plot device through which to explore this, so it’s a little bit spoiler.

First, let’s set the scene Sanagi (which means “Pupa”) is a remote island with a small population mainly composed of old people and lots of cats which may or may not be the same thing, I can’t remember. My reason for thinking this is that Kiyoshi said he saw a cat dancing when we know very well that Hanako is a woman. Is Kiyoshi hallucinating or was it just too expensive to hire another actor to play Hanako?

Chika’s old house is understandably dusty since she hasn’t lived there in a while she was supposed to come back earlier but got stuck on the mainland because of COVID, or so we assume from the way she talks about it. She got herself a husband over there, much to Yasushi’s surprise/annoyance/jealousy whatever he evidently loved her but never told her how he felt before she left him behind on this goddamn island. But from what we see later on in the movie it doesn’t look like things worked out quite as planned for Chika; she seems to be still pretty far away from achieving whatever kind of success she went looking for.

Yasushi, through his many rants during the film, seems torn between loyalty to his home island and an urge/drive/lack of ambition/desperation/something to find something more fulfilling somewhere else; this ties in with how he tries to convince Hanako (the new girl) that she should leave the island immediately and find somewhere better suited for her because there’s nothing here for her on the other hand though he says so himself later in conversation with Chika while they’re cooking dinner together:

“But you know, I’m the only one who goes up there every day.” So at least if nothing else maybe Yasushi visits maintains knows about is friends with spends time at the shrine to keep alive memory of people who have passed away.

So, about that spoiler I mentioned earlier. Hanako is an alien. I don’t know if she can turn into a cat or just looks like one sometimes maybe that’s what Kiyoshi saw? But her white dress and wide-eyed expression of confusion/awe/terror/whatever make for a pretty otherworldly aesthetic to support this revelation. She left her home planet because she didn’t fit in there anymore and wanted to find somewhere else that did.

Also, Hanako’s bag is actually a big white egg-shaped capsule thingy that Chika found on the beach, and inside it is a shitload of money. At this point Chika doesn’t know about Hanako yet so she takes a “finders keepers” approach until Yasushi catches them trying to leave with some extra baggage. So Yasushi puts two and two together (or well one and one) and brings Hanako back to Chika’s house so they can be reunited with their respective capsules and also maybe get some answers.

Answers are indeed given, but as much as this was supposed to be a realization/moment of clarity/catharsis/fill in the blank for Hanako, we end up learning more about Chika than we ever knew before maybe even more than Kiyoshi knew? This then leads into Yasushi having to re-evaluate his opinion of Chika while still wanting to protect have Hanako’s best interests in mind but not getting too involved because she’s still a kid and you don’t want to scare her or take advantage of her or whatever yet he still can’t quite shake off his prickly attitude completely; almost as if he’s mad at himself for being stuck here while everyone else seems so keen on getting away from it.

Philosophically speaking, Nomura appears to have framed the narrative around Yasushi’s bravado as a cover for the sacrifice he is making in letting the others go while he stays behind. He keeps telling them happiness is out there but not always where you think it us, and if it isn’t don’t try to fool yourself it is. I doubt this bodes well for Sanagi’s tourist board judging by how much he encourages Hanako to steer clear of her.

Being a very low budget indie film, the photography does a good job at making the island look peaceful and idyllic while Nomura has a good eye for shot composition. Most of the cast are unknowns except child actor Yuuki Nomura (related?) but they’re all good in their roles, creating a nice group chemistry.

There’s clearly something intriguing about Cat Pupa that makes it work as a quirky piece of sci-fi fun even if it overreaches slightly in trying to be profound where some whimsy might’ve worked better. An ambitious yet promising debut.

Watch Cat Pupa For Free On Gomovies.