Neko Atsume House ねこあつめの家 (2017) Dir: Masatoshi Kurakata

Neko Atsume House  

ねこあつめの家　「Neko Atsume Ie」

Running Time: 92 mins

Release Date: April 08^th, 2017

Director:  Masatoshi Kurakata

Writer: Yuji Nagamori (Screenplay)

Starring: Atsushi Ito, Shiori Kutsuna, Tomoro Taguchi, Tae Kimura, Kayoko Okubo, Masahiro Toda,

Film adaptations of video games are usually bad. Filmmakers face the choice of trying to faithfully transfer a source choked with awfully written lore like Assassins Creed or depart from the source entirely like Super Mario where the platform jumping turtle stomping plumber fights property developers in New York. What to make out of a casual mobile video game where there’s no real story and the sole aim of the experience is collecting cats and purchasing toys to keep them content?

Neko Atsume House, when translated into English, means Cat Collector’s House. As delightful as this sounds, the narrative eschews producing a Rent-a-neko (2012) style quirky protagonist and gives audiences an every-man struggling in a real situation and shows the help he derives from cats in a gentle comedy.

The character we follow is novelist Masaru Sakumoto (Atsushi Ito). He was once a celebrated hotshot in the literary world but a severe case of writer’s block means he is now forced to churn out a zombie-themed serial novel to earn money. Panicked by feelings of failure, he retreats to an old house in the countryside in a place called Tako town. It is here he aims to find inspiration and jump-start his creativity.