Does your pet like Kurosawa films?

After seeing this, I guess I now have a new goal in life: condition my cats to like Kurosawa films. Maybe I could start by giving a treat every time Toshiro Mifune appears on screen… ??

Indeed. What a wonderful series of moments. I had a deaf Jack Russell terrier who really enjoyed Akira Kurosawa's "Dreams", so this really made me smile.

— PurpleGimp (@PurpleGimp) January 10, 2019

Kitty, rest her soul, actually enjoyed watching football. But only when Portugal was playing, and only when they were playing in their red kit. No other colour, and no other team with red shirts. Later in life, she also became something of a Ferrari fan. I guess she liked the colour.

I can’t say my cats have ever cared one way or another about Kurosawa films other than it meant I was sitting in one place for lengthy periods. Some of them have been lap cats, some not.

The most reaction I’ve gotten from a cat to something onscreen has been to other cats making noises they recognize.

I believe I have watched Seven Samurai with my cat, serene, in my lap, but nothing much more. It was some years ago, before I lost her, and before I began to watch many more films, including Flowing, with its remarkable, though shorten, character cat, Ponko. So I can’t tell how mine would have reacted.

Usually, I notice every cat in a film, but, for now, I can’t remember any particular cat in Kurosawa’s, except for the tiger in Dersu Uzala (have a treat for your cats, Vili), though I’m pretty sure there must be some.

Lawless: How about door bells in films? Our cats have always reacted to those, even back when we didn’t have (and had never had) a door bell. Any sorts of explosions, alarms and emergency vehicle noises they have no problem with, but a door bell in a film or a TV series usually gets their attention immediately. I have no idea why.

Fabien: Thanks for the picture! 🙂 Off the top of my head, at least Madadayo has a major plot point about a found and then lost cat called Nora and how it affects the old professor.

They’re more apt to react to movement, especially of animals, or animal noises rather than doorbells.