The Cats of Gokogu Shrine

Official Selection, 2024 Berlin International Film Festival

Filmmaker Kazuhiro Soda (Inland Sea, SDAFF ’18) insists the cats at Gokogu, a Shinto shrine in Ushimado, Okayama, are the main characters in this observational documentary. They are certainly the attraction for those visiting from afar; one woman describes being healed by their presence — the shrine but a background to the cats. The humans who interact with them, however, are perhaps the bigger part of this story.

Soda’s human and feline subjects are all vocal in expressing their needs and wants. Two groups agree on wanting to keep the local feral population in check — cat-loving volunteers who bring food but also perform trap-neuter-return (TNR) and retired residents tired of picking up poop in their gardens. But seeing eye-to-eye ends at the question of whether these creatures are companions or pests. (One child is altogether opposed to TNR: “The more cats, the cuter.”) Soda, on the surface, does not belong to either group. A longtime resident of Ushimado, he repeatedly declines entry to an orange tabby named Chata-kun, only to give in when the cat seeks refuge during a typhoon.

Soda’s “Ten Commandments” of documentary filmmaking include no research or scripting before starting production, and to “cover small areas deeply.” In examining Gokogu in tender detail, Soda reflects our desire to live in harmony with fellow creatures and our surroundings, which sometimes puts us at odds with members of our own species.

– Wilda Wong