Would
tennis rackets disappear too? Probably yes. According to the rules established
by the Devil, when things mysteriously disappear from the world, all the
memories and consequences of their existence also vanish. However, the
protagonist will have more profoundly personal associations with cats to worry
about than mere sporting goods in Akira Nagai’s beautifully tragic If Cats Disappeared from the World (trailer here), which screens
during the 2016 New York Asian Film Festival.
When
a thirty-year-old postman is diagnosed with a hopelessly advanced brain tumor,
he is rather surprised to find his Mephistophelean doppelganger waiting for him
at home. Purporting to me the Devil, his double offers him a deal. Every item
he completely sacrifices from the world will extend his life one day. The
emphasis should definitely be on completely. The first supposedly pedestrian
item to vanish will be phones. Yet, the Postman belatedly realizes it was phone
calls that brought him together with the great lost love of his life.
While
he reconnects with ex for a final day, the Postman is flooded with memories of
their relationship—and then they disappear from each other’s lives. The next to
go will be movies, which will also usher his film snob best friend from his
life. Clocks will follow, affecting his relationship to his slightly estranged watchmaker
father, but cats will really hurt, because of his current feline’s heartrending
backstory.
If
you want to hear big burly men choking back sobs, ICDFTW is the film for you. Think of it as a cross between Yojira
Taika’s Oscar-winning Departures and
Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Journey to the Shore,
but this film really goes for the heartstrings early and often. There is no
question Nagai is nakedly manipulative, but viewers will not notice while they
are under his spell.
As
the Postman, Takeru Satoh revisits the fantastical romantic terrain of Kurosawa’s
REAL, but this time he takes his
performance several levels deeper. He is also suitably sinister as the infernal
doppelganger. He does a lot of brooding and staring out to sea, but his scenes
with Aoi Miyazaki as his true love are just devastating. Their achingly
sensitive chemistry is a small wonder to behold. Yet, the audience really needs
to gird themselves for when Mieko Harada (the fierce Lady Kaede in the other
Kurosawa’s Ran) really lowers the
boom as the Postman’s mother.