Woah I saw this as a kid all confused because my father thought it was a movie for kids. Now I’m older and still dont quite understand but I admire the beauty of it
I saw it multiple years ago but now I think I get it. It's about learning to understand the cost of a loved one and how in most ways you can't bring them back. When his sister died you could see the brother fighting with the man taking her life away and turning it into things impossible to understand and taking the life force out of her till she becomes a vegetable. He tries to take her back but she's just a shell of a former self, so in order to guess where the man might be he heads to the circus and wishes upon the elephant representing good fortune and wisdom, but it seems to fail multiple times in the film, so its ultimately a vain attempt (possibly having to do with death being celebrated with religion to guide a path?). The ladies could also represent gossiping pressurs, that also are ultimately fake. The storm or commotion of the bird maybe representing the commotion of the event, seemingly being pretty on the inside from how death is presented as a beautiful thing in spirituality, japanese culture, and American culture both a physical manifestation in objects of flowers with traditions of celebration while the familty or people in general tug and treat this which you could see is visibly bad the way it was for the bird until it explodes. The bearded man representing life itself. The fish and the woman who gave birth to them representing memory, nostalgia, or a rebirth. The pig could prelude to the feasting we get from the bearded man later, or represent the living and the good things we get from harvesting life itself. This is presnted comedic but also very morbid. May be because you abuse the good thing and rely on it too much it eventually disintegrates and takes a part of you with it somehow. You can repair it somehow by taking or doing the thing you did to repair but it will ultimately never be the same. Maybe the contrast of the sister when the other man with the big lips with the bird is the materialistic consumption of the brother, is the difference between life and death. Maybe when consuming to much it eats you somehow. And maybe when being awware of death, such as the brother wiping the tear of the lady and crushing it like it isn't there, stops time from moving forward to you. Only then does time move backwards as the lady has no tears does time seem to move backwards, then forwards with the bearded magician. May be the truth is that while you continue the search (when the brother was on the boat with the sister, and butterfly, with the turning of machines) there's still something guiding you and looking forward, finding something simplistic and beautiful can your revive your loved one like in memory, when the brother holds the flower up to the sister. But it will never be real as your reviving the memory of the state where death hadn't happened yet, to you. It is acceptance of the death through remembering the memory and remembering it now only exists as a memory.
@@diangelosbased? I wouldn’t say so apart from the circus part. The cruel-cute-funny balance is different than her comics too. Makes sense, since it was done after nekojirous death and is means to capture life and death
Seeing the cats snap out of existence at the end gave me a feeling of deep melancholy. The music box in the creditts and the short animation of nyatto nyako at the beach only added further to the profoundly lonely effect. After I watched the video I watched a review to see what other people thought and it really put everything I saw into perspective especially. Even after the massive adventure the brother and sister went through it was really all for nothing. And I'm just supposed to accept it, same as I've accepted deaths before in the past, same as people will have to accept my passing when its my time to go. This film also gave me a profound ghibli-esque feeling of wonder. If you've ever watched "My Neighbour totoro" It evoked very familiar feelings. Both in the similar endings and dream like themeings throughout the film.
for me, I find that between of all the strange surrealism, theres a lot of grieving. Nyatta's whole adventure was about trying to bring nyako back through multiple methods, which I find to be symbolism for bargaining, a stage of grief. it's only at the very end when Nyatta manages to bring Nyako back, they suddenly just vanish, and its only Nyatta left, which I think is a metaphor for letting go. The credits with the whole constant rewinding of the picture thing could be looking back on the time spent with the person before their passing. I'm sorry if this barely makes any sense, I'm still wrapping my head around the whole movie. It's honestly a beautiful piece of art.
@@pmchad It makes alot of sense and gives me even further insight into the ending bit. I did the same thing when my older uncle died. I constantly go over the memories I had of him. He was a big burly man that dwarfed me, but I remember possibly my fondest memories as a young child being with him. He has a massive presence in my life even now, but I never really got to "meet him" per say, I only got to see him through the eyes of a child, but as a young adult we never had the conversations that we should've. In a way I rewind the beautiful evening I spent with him and the kite he made for me over and over again, him teaching me to fly it, him making the kite for me, and (I think) the kite string snapping and flying away. It's possibly one of my earliest memories. I've been playing the credits from time and time again, it's a very bitter-sweet melody. Theres also a boards of canada edit I like to sit down and watch sometimes. I think my favorite part of boards of canada is how you could listen to the music without doing anything else. Like the music is so complex and beautiful that you can literally just appreciate it as-is. But the association of their song "An eagle in your mind" and the entire movie of cat soup is immensely powerful in a way I can't entirely place in words right now. Give it a good listen/watch if you have the time ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-xf66Lmrqk00.html
I remember struggling with this the first time I saw it when I was 12, elements like the helplessness of a child drowning or instances of mutilation were stressful. Finally finishing it now feels funny since I realize my struggle was in part due to it being just before I really joined the internet and by extension had only started to understand anything about Japan. It was before RU-vid was really even a thing and the only context I had was the VOD description. I avoided it for years because of how distressed it made me but I have this funny feeling of wondering if I found it only a year later, how different would I have felt by the series.
@@FedoraProductions I don't recall her saying anything about it but nekojiu is very influential on her own. This particular animation isn't made by nekojiru herself and has a different subject and atmosphere (death, life, letting go) and vewn work has similar ones in her work. But weird girls keep finding work by other weird girls so maybe lol
The video above is a smarter man's thoughts about me Ed Moldthan and Chris Lash. The story/film begins with the younger male kitty (that represents Chris) falling into a bathtub full of water and nearly drowning. The cat walks into a house where he meets the Cat mother and father that behave like Kathy Lash and Dan Lash. Three balloon cat's were squeaking, and the Chris Lash kitty in a green shirt deflates one (possibly because they don't say anything the kitty in green shirt finds interesting). Chris Lash kitty find the kitty that represents me (Ed Moldthan) getting taken down the road.
Ed M. Moldthan kitty is attached to the purplish flow (thoughts possibly) of totem man who is loading my thoughts with purpleness (cryptic letters). Chris tries to take the me kitty away from the man and pulls a part of the me kitty's soul away from the totem man. Chris Lash kitty returns a part of the me kitty's soul, and the me kitty awakes a bit.
A black spider guards a flower (like the totem man thought about) with a web, and the Chris Lash kitty takes me kitty to a circus where a large whale sits upon a tent. The whale could mean something about living life inside a dead whale.
At the circus a great wizard cuts apart a man/woman and puts him back together with magic. The scene of the woman floating mid-air says something about how the man/woman did nothing important.
The man was pulled apart with a saw and put back together... like the wizard could be a doctor. The whole audience watches the magic because doctor stuff may be difficult to understand. It appears the wizard can do about anything onstage because the audience do not perhaps understand what the wizard means all the way.
![[4K] Cat Soup / Nekojiru-sô (Short Film, 2001)](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
