Cat Soup (Sato, 2001)

For a half-hour animated film with cat protagonists, Cat Soup touches on an impressive number of grand themes, such as death, time and the nature of God. Though it is completely unpredictable, it does have a beginning, middle and an end for those paying attention and it does tell a story, as mysterious as that story might be. It does contain a few disturbing images, but it is not a film that chooses shock as its primary reason to exist. Mostly, it's a film that can be enjoyed much in the same way that you would enjoy a Dali painting. It provides powerful stimuli, touches on human themes of utmost importance, combines the ordinary with the extreme and allows the viewer's mind to pleasantly wander. My only complaint is that the film feels too short. By the time I started to process the film's conventions and get a feel for how this universe operated, the film was drawing to a close. Definitely recommended to anime fans or those who revel in the bizarre, but I suspect that its appeal could reach beyond that.