In the picturesque small coastal town of Ushimado in Japan’s Okayama Prefecture, a Shinto shrine has become home to an ever-growing colony of stray cats. Enter Japanese documentarian Kazuhiro Soda, renowned for his self-imposed ‘10 Commandments of Observational Documentary,’ which include doing no prior research, having no pre-set themes or goals, and shooting long takes without scripts, narration, or superimposed titles—all while filming everything himself.

In his tenth documentary, Soda casts a calm and meditative eye over the shrine, its feline inhabitants, and their human neighbours. Set over the course of a year, he captures the lives of the cats as they adapt to the seasons, steal fish from local fishermen and interact with local residents, some of whom see the cats as a nuisance, while others view them as a potential tourist attraction for the town.

The result is a charming and thoughtful portrait of the delicate balance between cats and humans in an ever-evolving world set over the backdrop of a little explored region of Japan.

IMDB: 7.2
Kazuhiro Soda, Japan
2024 Documentary
119 mins