Nekonade is a 2008 Japanese movie about a middle aged man who takes in an abandoned kitty.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
The main character of this film works as a middle management type employee at a big company; his job is to basically fire people and turnover a certain percentage of company personnel on a regular basis. The premise here is to show that a somewhat cold hearted (but not evil) man who's stuck in his ways after many years, can have a new outlook on life and become a nicer & better person, by taking in and caring for a kitten. Sounds good on paper, but just doesn't quite work when viewing the end product that resulted on screen.
I wouldn't say this film is bad or unwatchable, but I can't really recommend it. It has a few problems, in my opinion, that hold it back from being a worthwhile watch:
1. Not much happens. It's slowly paced (and not in a good or intentional way). I wasn't expecting any overly crazy or inspirational stuff to occur, but so little occurs that I found myself asking what the actual purpose & meaning of this movie was.
2. It's boring. It took me 3 different watches to complete my full viewing of this film, and that is never a good sign. I wasn't overly tired, preoccupied, or drunk (more than usual) while watching it either.
3. None of the characters are really fleshed out in anyway, and you don't really feel like you have gotten to know or understand them at all, see them grow/change, etc. There are couple of secondary character stories which you think will be further developed and come to some fruition, but, it just never happens.
4. By the end of the movie, the main character doesn't seem to have ever really changed his view or approach to life at all (regardless of his job). Basically, he more or less still seems to mostly be the same person/jerk as always, except, now he has a cat to take care of.
Bottom line: I won't bash this movie too much, and some people might like it well enough, but it just didn't do anything for me at all. Just not enough "meat" to it for me do anything other than just dismiss it as being merely average. Kitten was cute though; I probably would have taken it in too!
5 out of 10 stars!
