It's no secret that cats are a big deal in Japan. Take a look at anime, merchandise (Hello Kitty), islands full of felines and the like, and you'll see cats completely integrated into Japanese culture.
That integration also extends into film. One recent movie, released in Japan in February, features a hilarious plot about a cat. In Neko Samurai the Movie, a hard-up samurai gets an assignment to kill the cat of his employer's enemy.
There's just one problem, though, this samurai sees the cat and can't do it. Why? Because that cat is just too darn cute!
Instead, he adopts the cat and hides it from everyone (note when people ask him if he has a cat, he says "no"), but eventually, his faux pas (or would that be faux paw?) comes back to haunt him and he must defend himself and his new kitty friend.
Neko Samurai the Movie had its official international premiere last week with Badass Digest calling it a "must-see film."
The film has also already made the rounds in the U.S. on the festival circuit, including the 2014 Japan Cuts, the New York Festival of Contemporary Japanese Cinema.
The film isn't available widely yet, but for now, check out the subtitled trailer. We're hoping it hits Netflix or one of the other streaming sites soon, because this is one we don't want to miss. Meow!
Here's a bit of trivia: the movie is actually the second incarnation of this story. Originally, Neko Samurai was a TV series in Japan. Both the film and TV series star Kazuki Kitamura. Earlier this year, the series received the greenlight for a second season.
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