A Whisker Away (2020)

A tale of unrequited love, loneliness, courage and running away as a cat and coming home to a reinvented human.

A Whisker Away (2020) (01h 44m)

Directors: Junichi Sato, Tomotaka Shibayama

Distributed by: Netflix Watch now

Did you ever want this world to end? Have you ever hated this world or your life that much? Did something stupid or make fun of yourself publicly to impress your crush? Not recently but when you were younger. Ignored the advice of your friend who knows you better than you? Would you choose to become a cat and risk your life as a human to be close to someone, who is not interested in you? (No spoiler though.)

Do you see yourself as a lead actor (A Hero) in your own movie of life or you are lost somewhere in the background? That being said, I was reminded of the following quote by a great film director “Hero is a phase and not a person or a character”. What else I was reminded of and what came up to me while I was in this fascinating world of “A Whisker Away” let’s find out

Welcome to a peculiar story of Muge, deeply in love with Hinode, her classmate and is brutally ignored by him. Ready to go to lengths for him leaving behind a family where she doesn’t have a sense of belonging. (Japanese version of our beloved Simran ;-) Did you also find yourself thinking that you hate this world or this life enough that you won’t care if it ends? That you are so frustrated being a human, that you chose to become a cat sacrificing this human life. But what if that might bring you close to a person who you love but doesn’t care about you or your human form? But loves and adores you as a cat, you get all the attention and closeness from him that you always craved and longed for.

Why is it that we do what we do, the choices we make for someone who doesn’t care about us? Is it why it is labelled as Crush? We care more about them looking over our own self. We are okay embarrassing ourselves just to make them laugh or see them smile. We can’t stand someone else insulting them but don’t give a damn if it was about us.

This is why we tend to find escape in fanaticises because the reality is not even closer to what we want it to be. Having a good friend who cares might be a luxury but we ignore what he/she has to say. It also gets confusing who is on our side and who truly cares. It’s hard and overwhelming to continue being friends because it might get a bit of a high-maintenance friendship. Have you ever been in that spot?

It gets even more frustrating when it comes to family, even if we are living in the same house, and eating at the same table it might be suffocating to be disconnected from them, not having a sense of belonging in our own house, living with the people who were there since we were born. Yet we find it embarrassing to show who we really are, speak our own voice or even cry before them. Instead, we find it easy, we choose to pretend that we are not. This might give rise to our imagination go wild and fantasise about a life with someone who we don’t actually know. We never spent enough time together yet we trust them or we believe so, being with that person might bring change to our life, where our needs are met which we never received from our family.

“The lonely one offers his hand too quickly to whomever he encounters”

-Fredrick Nietzsche

When everything is lost the last thing which is left and we can count on might be courage. What is courage for you? When was the last time you did something courageous? Something that you never thought were capable of but the situation and circumstance forced you to. Have you pushed yourself to your limits for someone you care about or love but never would have done the same thing for yourself? It might be something like jumping out of a running train or as simple as speaking your mind, taking a stand for yourself. Having that awkward, uncomfortable conversation with your parents, your partner, your sibling or the toughest, with yourself.

We may think of ourselves as not brave enough, even cowardly but it is actually what we want most at the moment that forces us to be courageous. As Sudhir Mishra says:

“Hero is the name of a phase that a person goes through not a person or character”

I am pretty sure that whenever that time was, that must be for someone else, some person you love, family, or partner. Most of the time we ignore ourselves, ignore our physical, and emotional needs but when it comes to doing the same for someone else, someone we love not just romantic partners, we go to lengths for their needs ignoring our own. It might as well feel gratifying and fulfilling and we glorify it depending upon the influence of our family and social values we absorbed while growing up. But how ironic it is to be so hesitant to take the same step, effort and courage when it comes to yourself. Does it sound relatable or you might know someone who has this trait? But why do we do what we do when it comes to fulfilling our and someone else’s needs? Are we actually doing it for them or for ourselves? Do we ever question, that whatever we might be doing, sacrificing for them, has that person or the situation really asked for it?

Why do we need to meet with the adversity, to say something which is really important, to make a choice which is in our best interest? That it is worth it to face our problems rather than run away from them. What if we rediscover/ reinvent ourselves? That we might be introduced to such a potential we never knew existed before. That this life is worth living and celebrating and we need people to get where we want to be. Risking things is worth it. Saying what is uncomfortable is worth it. Taking a stand for yourself is worth it. Finding an escape can bring temporary relief but that is not the solution.

If we zoom out a little bit we may see that the world is not as bad as it seems and it is us who had shut the door for the darkness but ended up blocking the light too. Step on that bridge holding the hand of someone you trust even if you can’t see the bridge. And who knows the life you always wanted might be on the other side of the bridge just a whisker away…

The film slowly and steadily builds its ground in the first half and sets a firm foundation for the second. It is where things get going. Where the characters are fully formed and justify their choices.

No matter how many Japanese animation films I watch, I’m always fascinated by the world they create for a film, how their minds work, their ability to imagine and their strange obsession with cats. Almost all of their animation films are mediation on life. The beauty of Japanese cinema is it’s always a great escape from our everyday life. Filled with Stunning visuals and colours, the way they show water, be it a flowing river or coming from a tap, is beautiful.

So to sum up, it is a happy sad movie. Even though it starts a bit slow it will keep your eyes glued to the screen till the very end. You may notice yourself smiling by the end and when the screen goes blank you will have a good food for thought.

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