A Whisker Away
a review by Ping34
a review by Ping34
I have known about this movie ever since Yorushika - Ghost In A Flower was released. I never gotten myself to watch it until now when I was bored and wanted to find something to watch on Netflix. I got to say, I was not expecting this at all. I went in full blind thinking that...
BEWARE: From now on, as I dive deeper into the film, I'll probably spoil something. So, if want to watch it first, please do so and then come back...
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A Whisker Away or its (roughly translated) Japanese name of I wear a cat when I want to cry, is about Miyo who has found herself able to become a cat while wearing a mask, in which she is able to escape her problems by going to Hinode's (her crush) house and finds out a lot of thing more about herself and him.
This wacky romance-ish story is presented in a way that is quite entertaining, but also jarring and weird. What I mean is that it is unrealistic, and I don't mean that in terms interaction between the characters. Tell me, if one day you found out your cat is a person you know stalking you, won't you be creep-ed out at all? I find that small loophole in the plot somewhat annoying to say the least.
The problems between the family, however, I find quite realistic and relatable. We all have our own problems that need to be addressed. This leads me to the next point...
I like the theme of compare humans to cats or other animals of which we has less responsible then ourselves, the core idea of escaping our problem only leads to another one, and we eventually have to face our problem one day.
This hits very close to home. I feel like I want to escape all of the problems I'm facing... we all probably are feeling this way, in some way or another. Though of course, this is not possible, and confronting out problem is the best action to take. It takes time to do so, but I know we all can do it and resolve whatever is going on in our lives.
As a person who is interested in world-building, I would say the directing and the pacing is quite irritating to me. Particularly, I feel like the film puts too much into the interaction between Hinode and Miyo (in her cat form) that it ended up undermines the value of showing exposition for the cat island part. I feel like in some way, it tries to become a Spirited Away - like for its fantasy elements but at the same time not giving these fantasy properties the attention it deserves.
For example, they could give Miyo more time to talk more with the cats and to understand more about how she should have approached her human problems, making her will of wanting to return back to human even stronger. I feel like the bar scene kind of approach this to an extend. However, it does feel like being cut short here.
Speaking of cutting short, the film also does not give a full, proper resolution to Miyo's and Hinode's problem. Sure, they showed an end credits with them addressing their problems, but I feel like it is more proper to include some of it within the movie itself, with voice acting and fully animated scenes to properly end the story.
The art style is very simplistic. It does well for its purpose in conveying the other elements. There are, however, few frames which I feel could have a more moving animations to it. For example, there was a scene where is was raining. When I glanced at it the first time, I can barely see any movement from the rain and the environment that I thought it was a still, slideshow image. I feel like it disconnected me from movie for a moment.
Apart from that, sometimes the character's facial expression is "not there". What I mean is that it feels unnatural from time to time. This, however, is not too noticeable and I guess it could pass off as a flare to the art style.
No complaints here. They nailed the background music for both the calm and the intense scene. Like I said at the very start of this review, I learnt about this film from Yorushika, in which they delivered in terms both of the inserts and ending - they quite very nice to hear and fit very well to the whole thing.
The sound design feels very natural. I find nothing wrong with the sfx/foley and the voice acting. They all fit the purpose really well without any noticeable oddities.
A Whisker Away is a nice film, but it won't be your next "anime movie masterpiece" if that's what you're trying to find. It is worth-watching, despite every nit-picky things I have said about it in the above sections. Like I have mentioned in the Theme section, it reminds oneself that they should face their problem, not avoid them - a very important takeaways from this movie.
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