ReviewFilm review: Neko Samurai – A Tropical Adventure is strictly for cat lovers
Wafer-thin plot of sequel to 2014’s Neko Samurai revolves around a white cat mistaken for a god, a black cat, and their owners’ budding romance. If you don’t love cats, prepare to be bored
1.5/5 stars
Committed fans of felines and flatulence may find a modicum of entertainment in this threadbare sequel to the hit 2014 movie Neko Samurai (Samurai Cat in English), but for the rest of us the further adventures of a ronin and his four-legged friend are a tedious ordeal.
After rescuing the snowy white cat Tamanojo from a gang of evil samurai in the first film, masterless swordsman Kyutaro (Kazuki Kitamura) heads off to Shikoku, only to be shipwrecked on a desert island. Tamanojo meets a black kitty owned by young islander, Kawaya (Grace Nuwaeme), and starts a burgeoning romance. But when the other natives mistake Tamanojo for a god, Kyutaro must enlist the help of a female pirate (LiLiCo) to mount a daring rescue and escape.
The wafer-thin plot immediately betrays Neko Samurai’s TV show origins, and director Takeshi Watanabe struggles to fill even such a mercifully short film with worthwhile material – alhough, credit where it’s due, he does glean an impressive amount of comedy material from a bunch of hard-to-digest bananas.
