Movies: The Cat

INTRODUCTION


So this movie talks about cats, like

NYAN CAT

LONG CAT

In case you don't know what about these cats, search up nyan cat on youtube and long cat appears in many meme pictures.

BUT enough of unrelated cats, the movie I am going to review now is this one 

First of all, this show is a korean show and the genre is supposed to be horror. There are a lot of cats that you will see in this show but for all you cat lovers, don't worry, no cats were harmed in the making of this film. In fact they even say that in the credits so there is nothing to be worried about.

There is no synopsis from wikipedia that i can easily find so I shall put my own. The story basically traces the hauntings of this girl who is a worker in a pet shop and its relation to some cats. There will be people dying and the cats in this show will range from the real cutsie ones to those that are all mean and angry. On interesting point to note is that are some dogs in this show also, and even some dogs that look like cats or cats that look like dogs. Since they are in between these two idenfications I cannot really decide which of the above statement makes more sense.

Now into the review proper.

Plot

This show basically has a standard plot, but in today's context of a eastern horror movie, it means a horror movie that is scary, but also has a fair bit of story line unlike the western horror movies that if not ripped off, are merely just scarefests that might become downright wonky.

In a statement, if you see this with people who are more emotional (read female), you might start off this show with many awwww so cute, to shrill screams and finally to tearing not because of fear but for another reason.

So this is basically a good example of a movie whereby it goes beyond its genre to come out with a pretty good story line, but the cliche is rather well repeated in Asian horror movies but kudos still for the effort.

Character

There are basically 1 human main character which is the girl, 1 not so human main character which is a cat and one very special other character. But this is not a disney show, so don't expect the cat to do anything like talking unless you are able to interpret and speak cat language.

For the most part, with the girl being the focal point, her character is pretty well developed and at the end of the show, it gives you a feeling that you really understand the situation and the entire movie and can empathize with the characters.

There are however other random characters that are brought in merely for the effect of showing how powerful this haunting is, and as far as that purpose goes, it is done pretty well. Don't expect backgrounds or development of those characters though.

NOTE: No real handsome korean guys. AT least to me. So if that is what you were finding, your out of luck here.

Cinematography

As far as horror movie goes, there are two types of scares, the first being the SHOCKING IN YOUR FACE BOO MUAHAHHA SHRILL SCREAM kinda scare, and the really creepy anxiety building up kind of scare. As far as this movie is concerned, if the first is 1 and the creepy factor is a 10, this show should be about a 6.5 as it does try to build up the creepy tension first.

I personally didn't think this movie was as scream fest as some shows I have seen mainly because there are always a few milliseconds of a time gap when you see the haunting before the music and image becomes more pronounced. This allows for some sort of reflex preparation that will ensure that you are not as shocked and this works to the advantage of the show because if you actually seen those shows with a rating of 1 on the scare factor i.e. just using pure shock factor alone, you will be screaming but its only because its sudden. There is not a really good feeling in being scared in those shows. It becomes tedious and you just dread the moment as you move from one cheap scare to another.

The show also is able to put you more into the mood of the main character from the time frame that the scenes are filmed in and this adds to the creepy value when you start to realize that whoa shes haunted absolutely EVERYWHERE!!!! EVEN AT HOME!!! CHECK UNDER THE BED!!!

Music

The music plays a very important role in horror movies and I would say that this show handles it pretty well. Using calming and happy music in the introduction to set you into the mood that this can just be a simple typical day, and not going overly loud in the scary bits of the show. So it doesn't cheat and try to shock you with a loud noise which is pretty cheap if you ask me.

Spectacle

With respect to horror genre, I believe that we Asians can be pretty proud as it seems that our horror movies do score well on creepiness as well as putting in some values into the show with better coherent story lines. Hence this show does its job of meeting the expectation of horror buffs pretty well and ends off with everyone being fairly satisfied.

It also shows that in some situations, we humans might be even more scary then hauntings themselves and this show does it so well that there was a section when I felt the human had it coming and was on the "other side" if you know what i mean

SUMMARY

Plot                           : 4.5 (Horror with a little bit extra)

Character                  :  4 (Good variety of characters, some characters however add no value to the show)

Cinematography         : 4 (Able to bring out the creepy factor pretty well)

Music                         : 4 (Does what it is meant to, effort is put in to influence mood)

Spectacle                    : 4.5 (Differentiates itself from other horror movie by adding in meaning and the cat factor)

Overall                         : 4.2 (Fans of the genre will be able to enjoy the show, non fans with slight tolerance to horror should still be able to enjoy the show)

So thats another movie review for now, but I believe the show might be ending its theater run pretty soon but it can work well for a night rental with the lights off for ambiance.

As always, please leave aside any comments if you have them.

And here is a cute cat to brighten up your day