I Am A Cat

I know I have read at least the first volume of Natsumi Soseki's novel I Am A Cat, sometime in my early years of coming to Japan, but I can't remember it well. Kon Ichikawa has made an adaptation of a Soeki novel previously with Kokoro, a more serious work. I tend to like Soeski's comedies more (Botchan is a comic masterpiece) so I quite enjoyed Ichikawa's light touch in I Am A Cat (1975). Tatsyua Nakadai is great in the role of the persecuted English teacher and father of three, Kushami. And I enjoyed his interplay with his cronies, including a fine performance form future director, Juzo Itami (Meitei) and his former student Kangetsu (Nobuto Okamoto). Unlike the novel, which is told form the point of view of the cat, the film is a series of mostly comedic episodes that happen to Kashimi. The nameless green eyed gray stray is in the film intermittently as a voyeur and sometime as a participant until his voice over at the end of the film changes him into narrator and ends in tragedy after drinking some beer on the day his beloved neighbor cat has died. Ultimately, it is a minor entry in the body of a great director, but it is not without its merits.