Chat Noir Lucy
Nekophilia
くろねこルーシー
(Kuroneko ruushii)
Chat Noir Lucy
A down-on-his-luck fortune-teller finds his own destiny transformed when two black kittens turn up on his doorstep.
Dir:
Tōru Kamei
107min
HD
2012
Drama
Kamoshida is a bit of a loser. After losing his job at an insurance company, his wife leaves him, taking their five-year-old son with her. Despite his complete lack of rapport with his child, he’s nevertheless a kind man and a good listener. This, coupled with his strong belief in omens and auguries, leads him to take up his new profession of a fortune teller. Unfortunately, the shopping centre where he plies his trade has similarly seen better days, and with his skills at divination proving deeply unreliable, business is slow, to say the least.
When one day a black cat crosses his path, its collar emblazoned with the name "Lucy", the profoundly superstitious Kamoshida is initially unnerved, and shutters himself inside his dilapidated apartment. He awakes the next morning to plaintive mewing outside his window, and is shocked to discover two new-born kittens, but no sign at all of their mother. Despite his fear of black cats, Kamoshida finds himself unable to ignore the pitiful cries of these foundlings and takes them into his home, a decision that will change his life forever.
Director's profile:
Born 1969, after dropping out of Japan Designer's Academy, Tōru Kamei worked for RKB Fukuoka Television for 3 years before moving to Tokyo, where he began work as a director's assistant on straight-to-video 'V-Cinema' titles including the zombie movie Junk (2000) and Gun Crazy (2002), both directed by Atsushi Muroga. He was also an assistant director on Kazuyoshi Kumakiri's features Hole in the Sky (Sora no ana, 2001) and Antenna (2004). From 2002, he began directing V-Cinema films himself, in the erotic and horror genres, one of which, Question (2004), screened at Singapore International Film Festival. He made his theatrical feature debut with Double Suicide Elegy (Shinjū erejī, 2005), a story about doomed lovers set in modern-day Tokyo that screened at a number of festivals overseas, which he followed with Paradise (Rakuen: Nagasarete, 2006), about a former news anchor woman who returns to her rural fishing village and becomes involved in local politics. Among his other works are the horror movie Woman Transformation (Yōkai kidan, 2006) and Neko Taxi (2010), a story about a cabbie who finds his business transformed when a stray cat make its home in his vehicle. The film's commercial success paved the way for Kamei's later films Mr Inukai Keeps a Dog (Inugai-san chi no inu, 2011) and this, Chat Noir Lucy (2011). All of these 'pet' movies have resulted in TV spin-off series.
