It’s a kitten extravaganza! A look at ‘Nekonade’ and ‘Gou-Gou Datte Neko de Aru’

In areas like metropolitan Tokyo the general lack of living space makes owning a pet a rare privilege—so much so that many cat-lovers are willing to shell out ¥800 (a little over $7 USD) per hour to play with cats at one of many specialized cat cafés. Therefore it should come as no surprise that executives at Japanese production companies are more than willing to green light quite a few of the life-affirming dramas about inspirational house pets that cross their desks. 2008 is no exception, with two kitten movies on the horizon: Miki Omori’s Nekonade coming out on June 28th and Isshin Inudo’s Gou-Gou Datte Neko de Aru slated for release sometime in September.

In Nekonade Ren Osugi stars as Taro Onizuka, a no-nonsense personnel manager at a Digital Dragon IT company. He doesn’t tolerate dependence from his own family, much less his employees. Onizuka carries out all the orders of the cold-hearted company president, Mr. Tatsumi (Shingo Tsurumi), routinely firing employees deemed unnecessary and earning the fear of the ones that remain. However, the stress of being forced to fire people for less than justifiable reasons combined with his refusal to ever relax causes Onizuka to develop stomach pains.

One day while stopping in the park to secretly take his daily stomach medication Onizaki notices a tiny abandoned kitten. When he looks into the kitten’s eyes he knows he can’t just leave it there so he brings it home. Too stubborn to admit to his wife (Hideko Hara) and daughter that he brought home a kitten, he decides to keep it at a secret room in the mansion he uses once a week for employee training. Caring for the kitten and the extraordinary things he has to go through to hide it gradually start to change Onizaki’s outlook on life.

Here’s the trailer. The theme song featured in it is a cover of the classic Fishmans song “Tayorinai Tenshi”, performed by Tsuji Ayano.

Coming in September and armed with a little more star power than Nekonade is Gou-Gou Datte Neko de Aru. Based loosely on a book by Yumiko Oshima, the film stars Kyoko Koizumi as a manga artist named Asako who finds it difficult to continue creating manga when Saba, her cat, suddenly dies. However, with the help of a new kitten that shows up named Gou-Gou she’s able to get over the loss of Saba and eventually feels inspired to continue her manga work. When Asako gets the horrible news that she’s been diagnosed with cancer she’s devastated at first, but soon finds some new perspective on life and death. Also appearing are Juri Ueno as Asako’s assistant Naomi and Ryo Kase as a medical intern.

Here’s the teaser:

Sources:
Nekonade official website
Gou-Gou Datte Neko de Aru official website
Ryuganji

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Tags: animals, cats, isshin inudo, juri ueno, kyoko koizumi, miki omori, noriko aoyama, ren osugi, ryo kase, tsuji ayano