Pussy Soup – Review

Minoru Kawasaki is without a doubt among the most peculiar of Japanese directors. One can’t help but raise an eyebrow at merely hearing some of the titles of his films such as; ‘Calamari Wrestler’, ‘Executive Koala’ and ‘Crab Goalkeeper’. These movies entail Kawasaki’s personal niche of basic formulaic plots brought to life by actors dressed up as animals, while most of the world around them is completely normal. Human-sized squids are pro-wrestlers, koalas are stressed-out businessmen, and crabs play soccer, and nobody in Kawasaki’s universes bats an eye. After making several of these surrealist ventures Kawasaki has tried a more straightforward parodying hand at monster, detective, and disaster movies. Then, in 2008, he directed Pussy Soup, a manga adaptation, which in a way brought him back to his ‘animalistic’ roots.

This time our protagonist is not an actor wearing a suit though, it’s a puppet. A small cat named Taisho whose father tries to push him into being a cat-model like himself. Taisho can’t handle the pressure and runs away. He tries to find the right job to suit him but nothing pans out and he ends up homeless and alone. Just when our furry little friend turns depressed and is about to end it all, he is taken in by a ramen chef. Taisho becomes his student and before we know it he is running his own restaurant. Things seem to be going well, although he isn’t doing great business he makes some good friends in his plain old cozy ramen shop. But one day a mysterious rival opens up a ramen shop right across the street. Not only does this place serve unbelievably tasty ramen, it does so in a very flashy manner, and draws in all the customers. Thus Taisho decides to embark on a quest around Japan to find the ingredients for the perfect bowl of ramen, in order to outcook his adversary.

Like most of Kawasaki’s films this one too feels like one big joke. But whereas the main gag in ‘Calamari Wrestler’ and ‘Executive Koala’ (the animal suits) had kind of run its course halfway through those movies, in ‘Pussy Soup’ the cute little puppet maintains to be amusing until the very end. The humor only rarely treads adult innuendo ground, but is also far from childish. It’s just the right combination of tongue-in-cheek, dry, and cute to make it accessible to any viewer (who knows what he’s getting himself into).

Special mention goes out to the five minute intermezzo halfway through the film where Taisho just hangs out with two other real-life cats, you don’t necessarily have to be a cat lover to find this scene utterly hilarious. One thing is abundantly clear; more than ever, Kawasaki and his crew had loads of fun making this. There isn’t much negative to say about ‘Pussy Soup’, if Kawasaki’s type of humor is up your alley, you will have a great time, if it isn’t, you might not. Clocking in at a mere 80 minutes, though, it is definitely worth a shot. Movies such as these don’t come around too often, not even in Japan.