Ghost Cat Anzu - BAKENEKO ANZU-CHAN

Pitch

Karin, 11 years old, has been abandoned by her father at her grandfather’s, the monk of a small town in the Japanese province. He asks Anzu, his ghost cat who is helpful and jovial, although rather temperamental, to keep an eye on her. The clash between their very strong personalities causes sparks to fly, at least at first...

“I think that all Japanese children go through a stage where they are fascinated by the imagery and stories from Yokai. This is probably due as well to the work of mangaka Shigeru Mizuki, who helped to make the Yokai culture popular in Japan. What is paradoxical about these creatures is that they are at the same time both frightening and endearing. So I think that, unconsciously, I must have been influenced by all these tales that I heard when I was small... In our story, there is nobody who is entirely good or entirely bad. Very often, when you make a film, which is in itself an artificial process, you create characters who have to play the role of hero or villain, but this isn’t the case in our story.” Yamashita Nobuhiro