Movie Review: Rentaneko (Rent-a-Cat)

Title: Rentaneko (Rent a Cat) | Year: 2012

Director: Naoko Ogigami | Writer: Naoko Ogigami

Genre: Drama, Family | Duration: 1 hr 40 mins

Starring: Mikako Ichikawa, Reiko Kusamura, Ken Mitsuishi

Rating: 2 1/2 Cups of Coffee



"Let this cat fill a hole in your heart" 

Sayoko rents out cats to help lonely people fill up the emptiness in their heart. She walks along the banks of the river with a megaphone promoting her service and her animals in a hand cart. It turns out that Sayoko is lonely too, ever since the death of her grandmother. All she has left is her cats. However, one day a young man shows up from Sayoko's past. He follows her home and suddenly her life seems completely to fall apart.

My Review

My first opinion is this movie is adorable as it has lots of cute "neko"-cats and a beautiful lead actress, though her sense of fashion is a bit off. As its core, Rent-a-Cat is about loneliness and how to fill up the hole in one's heart. The main character of this movie, Sayoko, portrayed by Mikako Ichikawa, repeatedly wonders along the river banks - it's so beautiful, I wish I can walk along such a river bank as well! Pulling a cart full of her cute cats, she's offering cat rental to lonely people. 

I like Sayoko so much. Though she is an awkward looking girl with a dream of getting married soon and has her honeymoon in Hawaii, she is definitely an adorable person in character and has a definite good heart not only towards animals, but towards people around her as well. "Let this cat fill the hole in your heart", is the nicest suggestion to the each of the people renting her cat. And she is also protective of her cats until the extend of doing the thorough inspection of the cat-renters because she though "Some jerks like to abuse little animals". 

It's so fascinating that the director plays a lot with the beautiful color tones and picturesque settings. I feels like I wish I can be a part of the beautiful settings. Sayoko's house though it looks less spacey, it is so beautiful that I wish I have a house like that but with no cats of course. However, I think that this movie's weak point is the delivery of it's emotional aspect left a small impact on me. Definitely, it has some humors but it fails to make me laugh. Normally, for this kind of movie, with its deep message I'm expecting myself to cry a bucket or two, but it failed terribly. I don't even shed a tear. Moreover, the movie's repetitive nature on the whole makes the movie less fun and less emotional than expected. The ending is confusing. I was like "What? That's it?". I really hope that it would end differently i.e Sayoko getting married with the boy from the past and off the go to Hawaii for honeymoon. Well, that's my kind of ending which never happened in this movie. 

All in all, it's adorable and cute but it's boring. Highly recommended for those who love cats. You might love this movie too. 

First Impression: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Title: Mockingjay | Author: Suzanne Collins

Series: The Hunger Games #3

Genre: YA Fiction, Action, Dystopian

Format: Paperback, 455 Pages

Date Started: June 10, 2012

The Blurb

Young Katniss Everdeen has survived the dreaded Hunger Games not once, but twice, but even now she can find no relief. In fact, the dangers seem to be escalating: President Snow has declared an all-out war on Katniss, her family, her friends, and all the oppressed people of District 12. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My First Impression 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Advanced Rating: 4 Stars

I stare down at my shoes, watching as a fine layer of ash settles on the worn leather. -1st line

Now comes to the last part of the "game". Katniss' final battle. Well, at the beginning of the book I found out that Katniss is having a hard time to figure out whose side she should be on. Feeling betrayed by Haymitch and utterly disgusted by what the Capitol had done to District 12, she's trying to figure out what is the best move she should do next. Separated from Peeta but having Gale by her side, I can't wait what will happened in this final part of the Hunger Games. I really think that Katniss' characters is more mature in this final part, so does her sister Prim. I adore them.

Wishlist: April 12, 2012

Seriously I have no idea how to start blogging again. It seems like all my ideas just stuck in my head, couldn't come out into words. I didn't review for almost half of the year, thanks to my working life! and I'm damn sure that my writing is getting rusty. Well, it is rusty. But I am so happy to write again and hopefully I can do it more frequently from now onwards. Maybe, piling up my wish-list would be a brilliant start. Don't you think so? Well, I do.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Divergent Book 2

One choice can transform you or it can destroy you. But every choice has consequences, and as unrest surges in the factions all around her, Tris Prior must continue trying to save those she loves and herself while grappling with haunting questions of grief and forgiveness, identity and loyalty, politics and love.

Tris's initiation day should have been marked by celebration and victory with her chosen faction; instead, the day ended with unspeakable horrors. War now looms as conflict between the factions and their ideologies grows. And in times of war, sides must be chosen, secrets will emerge, and choices will become even more irrevocable and even more powerful. Transformed by her own decisions but also by haunting grief and guilt, radical new discoveries, and shifting relationships, Tris must fully embrace her Divergence, even if she does not know what she may lose by doing so.

New York Times bestselling author Veronica Roth's much-anticipated second book of the dystopian Divergent series is another intoxicating thrill ride of a story, rich with hallmark twists, heartbreaks, romance, and powerful insights about human nature.

Note: I've reluctantly rated the first book, Divergent, with two stars. Mixed feeling. Though I like the premise and the setting of the story, but the characters development failed to impress me. The story also was a bit dragging in the beginning but towards the end of Divergent, the story started to catch my interest, the reason why I'm so looking forward for this second installment.

City of Lost Souls by Cassandra Clare

The Mortal Instruments Book 5

The demon Lilith has been destroyed and Jace has been freed from her captivity. But when the Shadowhunters arrive to rescue him, they find only blood and broken glass. Not only is the boy Clary loves missing–but so is the boy she hates, Sebastian, the son of her father Valentine: a son determined to succeed where their father failed, and bring the Shadowhunters to their knees.

No magic the Clave can summon can locate either boy, but Jace cannot stay away not from Clary. When they meet again Clary discovers the horror Lilith’s dying magic has wrought Jace is no longer the boy she loved. He and Sebastian are now bound to each other, and Jace has become what he most feared: a true servant of Valentine’s evil. The Clave is determined to destroy Sebastian, but there is no way to harm one boy without destroying the other. Will the Shadowhunters hesitate to kill one of their own?

Only a small band of Clary and Jace’s friends and family believe that Jace can still be saved and that the fate of the Shadowhunters’ future may hinge on that salvation. They must defy the Clave and strike out on their own. Alec, Magnus, Simon and Isabelle must work together to save Jace: bargaining with the sinister Faerie Queen, contemplating deals with demons, and turning at last to the Iron Sisters, the reclusive and merciless weapons makers for the Shadowhunters, who tell them that no weapon on this earth can sever the bond between Sebastian and Jace. Their only chance of cutting Jace free is to challenge Heaven and Hell a risk that could claim any, or all, of their lives.

And they must do it without Clary. For Clary has gone into the heart of darkness, to play a dangerous game utterly alone. The price of losing the game is not just her own life, but Jace’s soul. She’s willing to do anything for Jace, but can she even still trust him? Or is he truly lost? What price is too high to pay, even for love?

Darkness threatens to claim the Shadowhunters in the harrowing fifth book of the Mortal Instruments series.

Note: First of all, the cover is so gorgeous. Second of all, I was so enchanted by City of Bones and currently absorbed with the City of Ashes. Third of all, I have all four books including City of Glass and City of Falling Angels. And fourth of all, I don't see any reason not to have this one as well.