by Mark Murton

Original Title: Jin ling shi san chai

Directed by: Yi-Mou Zhang

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: In 1937 China, during the second Sino-Japanese war, mortician John Miller (Christian Bale) arrives at a Catholic church in Nanjing to prepare a priest for burial. Upon arrival he realizes he is the lone adult among a group of convent girl students. Soon they are joined by a group of flamboyant prostitutes from a nearby brothel seeking refuge and Miller finds himself the reluctant protector of both groups from the horrors of the invading Japanese army.

Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): The prostitutes take up residence in the cellar under the church where one of the curious convent girls spies on them and sees one of the women, who we later learn is known as “Mosquito” (Yuan Yangchunzi), cradling a dirty white kitten.

Tensions simmer between the two groups but these are forgotten when the church is invaded by marauding Japanese soldiers, and the prostitutes cower in the cellar with Mosquito holding her cat close.

They listen in shocked silence as the Japanese soldiers run riot.

Eventually, a Japanese colonel, Hasegawa (Atsuro Watabe) arrives to restore order. After promising to protect the convent by placing guards outside the gate he sits at the piano to play and sing a lament about being away from home. The song echoes around the building including down into the cellar. Hasegawa tells Miller he will return in a few days to hear the convent girls sing. With the immediate danger passed, the prostitutes entertain themselves while Mosquito holds on to her cat.

Hasegawa duly returns and the convent girls sing for him. During this, Mosquito has left the cellar in search of the cat which has run off. Once found, the kitten is quickly gathered into her arms.

Mosquito is making her way back to the cellar but an explosion outside frightens the cat which struggles free from her grasp. Crawling after the kitten, Mosquito inadvertently reveals herself to the Japanese soldiers. A quick-thinking convent girl covers for her, and the Japanese accept she is another convent girl who was kept out of the way because she had lost her uniform.

Later when the prostitutes have decided to sacrifice themselves to save the schoolgirls, Mosquito explains to one of the girls the only thing she owned was her cat and that he has run away. She makes the girl promise to find the kitten after they leave. The cat isn’t seen again. However, the cat’s presence is reflected in a scene at the end of the film when the prostitutes, suitably disguised as the school girls, are being taken away by the Japanese soldiers. As they leave the church a Japanese soldier presents Miller with a bag containing a Maneki Neko statue as a gift from his troops.

The women are being loaded onto a truck when Mosquito panics and starts loudly proclaiming that she isn’t a student, threatening to expose the ruse. Miller quickly goes to her and presents the cat statue to her. Calmed, Mosquito climbs on board the truck and is still holding the statue as the vehicle drives off.

Final Mewsings: Cats being us peace even in the worst times of war.

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