Rent-a-Cat at Cinema Akil

Cinema Akil’s August line-up kicks off with a whole week of cat-centric films. Feline fanatics are in for the ultimate feline film fest, night after night this August with homemade videos, animations, music videos and dramas.

On 10th August, the Japanese comedy-drama ‘Rent-a-Cat’ will be screened at Alserkal Avenue's art-house theatre Cinema Akil.

With Rent-A-Cat, Director Naoko Ogigami brings us a self-written film touching upon the loneliness that plagues many in modern society, but especially in Japan with its declining birthrates and rise of individuals completely uninterested in reproducing. With a particularly demanding work culture and increasing social isolation amongst people both young and old, many Japanese today feel like they are alone in the world. Rent-A-Cat explores this theme with a particularly humorous touch - the middle-aged Sayoko (Mikako Ichikawa) has a natural ability to attract cats to her, and she in turn rents these cats out to particularly lonely individuals for the low price of 1000 yen ($10).

The film itself is broken up into a couple of stories about the people who rent her cats - an elderly lady who has lost her husband, a salaryman who is isolated from his family due to extended business travel, a car rental agent who is unable to find a suitor, and an old acquaintance from middle school who also feels lonely in the world. It comes as no surprise, however, that Sayoko may be the loneliest of them all. When a man from her past turns up in Sayoko's life, things start to fall apart.