The Cat (1991)
The Cat (1991)
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The Cat: Nine Lives (1991)
The Cat (老貓 Lǎomāo, lit. "Old Cat"), marketed as Wisely's The Cat (衛斯理之老貓 Wèisīlǐ Zhī Lǎomāo, lit. "Wisely's Old Cat"), is a 1991 Hong Kong-Japanese science fiction film directed by Lam Ngai Kai and written by Chan Hing-Ka and Gordon Chan based on the novel The Old Cat by Ni Kuang (aka Wisely), with special effects by Kazuo Sagawa and Shinji Higuchi. Funded by Golden Harvest and produced by Paragon Films, it stars Waise Lee, Christine Ng, and Gloria Yip.
A Japanese version of the film, entitled Nine Lives (猫 NINE LIVES Neko: Nain Raibuzu, lit. "The Cat: Nine Lives"), was also shot concurrently; written and directed by Mio Hani with additional backing from Tokuma Enterprises and Nippon TV, it instead starred Japanese actor Hidekazu Akai in the lead role. The Japanese version was released first, debuting at the Tokyo International Film Festival on September 29, 1991 before going straight-to-video the same year.[citation needed] Golden Harvest later brought the Hong Kong version to that country's theaters from October 22 to 28, 1992.[1]
Plot
A novelist named Wisely writes about a recent experience he had with two humans and the Cat. He begins writing about his friend Li Tung: one night Tung is awoken by a mysterious knocking sound and walks upstairs to investigate. He bangs on his neighbor's door. The hammering stops and a man wearing glasses named Errol opens the door and talks with Tung. After complaining to the man, Tung analyzes a girl in a black dress, dubbed the "Princess", holding a black cat, called the "General" by the girl, inside the apartment and is startled when the man shows him his bloody hand, leaving the man to shut the door on him. As soon as Tung returns to his apartment, the knocking resumes to Tung's displeasure. The following morning, Tung leaves his apartment complex to begin work and sees the man, girl, and cat vacating in a truck. Tung goes to their flat and finds intestines wrapped in newspaper; soon the authorities launch an investigation, with investigator Wang Chiehmei determining the intestines are from a cat and have only been there for roughly two hours. That afternoon, Tung enjoys dinner with Wisely, Wang, and Wisely's girlfriend Pai So.
Writing the story, Wisely states that he believes the girl and cat to be good-natured aliens, and notes that "kindness is bound to bring evil". In the historical museum, the cat and Princess steal an archaeologist-perplexing device, dubbed the "octagon" by the Princess, they intend to use as a weapon, with the assistance of her ally Errol who bags a security guard witnessing the pair robbing the object. The three of them walk around the museum and see a humanoid creature looking at them behind a window. Its eyes pop out of its sockets and bleed terrifying the alien girl before it disappears. They soon are attacked by a strange large cone-shaped monster that suddenly bursts through the window at them and becomes an even larger toadstool-shaped creature. It grabs and slays a security guard, shocking the Princess who runs away with Errol and the cat. Wisely discovers the girl and cat's whereabouts and seeks their newly acquired flat. He hears the Princess telling the cat they must find a second octagon to defeat "the star killer" and return to their planet; the duo then discover Wisely in their home and the cat attacks him before Errol knocks him unconscious.
The following morning, Wisely finds no trace of the duo and returns home. While at home with him and his girlfriend, he learns that the octagon was stolen. Therefore, he visits the museum, where he notices that the walls are covered in parches (though there are no indications of fire) and discovers some hair which he determines is from a cat.
Wisely and Wang Chiehmei obtain the dog Lao Pu from his dog-loving owner Chen to locate the cat. Sometime later, five police officers, including Wang, enter a building where they are possessed by the monster; Wang subsequently steals firearms from a group of terrorist gun dealers by wiping out the group.
Meanwhile, at the museum where another octagon is stored, Wisely, a group of people, and Lao Pu wait for the cat to reappear and rob the second device. Before long, the cat appears, taking the object. Lao Pu attacks the cat and follows it (with the object in its jaw) out of the museum, with the group in pursuit. In his car, Wisely follows Lao Pu chasing the cat into a scrap yard. Upon entering the scrap yard, Lao Pu again spots the cat and runs after it, resulting in a ferocious conflict between them. The cat tricks the dog into getting electrocuted and briefly collapsing. However, Lao Pu quickly wakes up and sprints after the feline. After slashing at the dog's side, the cat jumps at the hound, lifts him, and slams him to the ground. Wisely searches the junkyard for the pair and finds a collapsed Lao Pu. Lightning crashes and Wisely hears the cat meow loudly. He captures the cat and traps it in the bonnet of his car to the cat's displeasure. However, the cat manages to escape running away from Wisely extremely fast. He then finds the cat's tail still stuck in the bonnet.
Sometime later, at a university lab, Professor Yu tells Mr. Chen that Lao Po is still alive and will fully recover in a few weeks. After watching Chen take the dog away, an assistant hands Wisely an envelope with the cat's tail inside; Yu then says that analysis shows the tail is from a cat that died "scores of years ago", leaving Wisely in disbelief. The cat reunites with the Princess and her assistant during the day. While in bed with So that night, he sees the cat in the bedroom with them. It jumps at the envelope with its tail inside and tears it in an attempt to retrieve its tail. However, after throwing the cat away from the object, it curls up on So's shoulder. Wisely attempts to set the envelope alight when he is stopped by the alien girl who dashes into the room (with Errol following behind), picks up the cat, and she and Errol tell the pair that they and the cat are aliens who fled their planet due to the "Space Killers". While they tell the pair about their reason behind being on the Earth, a man stands outside loading guns oblivious to them. The Princess fits the cat's tail back on the feline while the man straps the guns and grenades to himself. The man fires rounds at the group. Wisely attempts to set him on fire throwing four Molotov cocktails at him but accidentally misses and sets his outside pool alight.
Wang then walks into the room where the group is taking cover; upon stepping inside So realizes that he is Wang and exposes her location. The group moves to another area of the room to avoid Wang, who shoots at everything in his sight; Wisely successfully throughs a glass bottle at Wang which infuriates him further and he fires in their direction. Wisely heads to the roof to escape as the rest of the group hides from their attacker; their aggressor pursues him to the roof where he is electrocuted, plunging to the foot of the house. Errol sets himself on fire and leaps off the roof to the Princess' disbelief. He lands on Wang and falls into the fiery pool with him. The Princess sees Errol's motionless body on the pool surface. The Princess, Wisely, and So run away from Wang again upon him surfacing and sprint to their car while he exits the pool.
The trio, alongside the cat, drive to the local observatory. Upon entering, the Princess explains that, without Errol's assistance, she must return to her home world; they then proceed upstairs to the telescope where the Princess looks at the stars through the telescope and spots the star of her home world which flashes brighter than all other stars in the night sky. So looks into the telescope and sees a red beam coming from the star. The Princess excitedly states that her species has contacted them. The beam shines into the location and lights up the alien's device on the floor. This makes it glow red and turns the cat into the galaxy's most powerful knight. They leave the observatory in Wisely's car and So runs into the police station. Wisely, the Princess, and the General enter another building where people dine. Oblivious to everyone except the cat, that the cat is warning them about it, a red slimy substance drips into the room. Suddenly, a heap of it flows in and becomes like a cobweb that traps several people. Wisely advises everyone to run through the back of the room. Several people exist but return as a humanoid insect-like creature follows them into the room. Wisely throws a cash register at the creature to prevent harming a woman. In an instant, several arms destroyed a wall and killed some of those in the room. Wisely, the General, and the Princess leave the room and run down a corridor with the creature following behind. Wisely, who has the octagon, and the Princess run up a set of stairs and are soon attacked by a giant limb. Wisely sees blobs following them up the stairs as well and tosses the octagon to the Princess ahead of him; he then leaps to the Princess's location on a high stair to escape the ooze not far below him. The Princess and Wisely make it to the roof where the monster, now in a multi-headed form, confronts them by creeping up the side of the building. Upon its heads combining into one, which is first humanoid before evolving into a large mouth, the General grabs the octagon off Wisely and flies into the monster's mouth. Inside the Star Killer's body, the cat combines with the octagon and its meow causes the beast to explode. As a glistening substance rains down on them, Wisley asks the Princess how she can return home. She explains to Wisely that the substance allows her and the cat to return to the stars. Wisely watches as they fly into the night sky.
The ensuing morning, Wisely encounters So and the police outside the building, and a correspondent asks Wisely to recount what occurred, but Wisely declines, telling her that she can read about it in his next book.
Staff
Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.
- Directed by Lam Ngai Kai
- Written by Chan Hing-Ka, Gordon Chan
- Based on a story by Ni Kuang
- Executive producers Chua Lam, Michael Lai
- Presented by Anthony Chow, Peter Lam
- Planned by Johnathon Chow, Anna Chim
- Produced by Arthur Wong, Jackson Ha
- Assistant producer Eric Huen
- Special effects producer Casey Chan
- Assistant SFX producer Huang Lei
- Music by Philip Chan
- Cinematography by Mak Hoi-Man
- Edited by Peter Cheung, Keung Chuen-Tak
- Production design by Ho Kim-Sing, Leung Bing-Kwan
- Assistant directors Mau Kin-Tak, So Jing-Man, Dang Chuk-Gwan, Jeng Wing-Hang
- Directors of special effects Kazuo Sagawa, Shinji Higuchi (uncredited)[a]
- Assistant directors of special effects Sam Leong, Chan Wing-Chiu
Japanese version
- Directed by Mio Hani
- Written by Mio Hani
- Executive producers Masao Kobayashi, Takeo Mutai, Chua Lam
- Co-executive producers Seiji Urushido, Raymond Chow
- Produced by Yasuhiro Nose, Seiji Okuda, Chan Tung Chow
- Music by Shunsuke Kikuchi
- Cinematography by Yuji Okumura
- Visual effects by Minoru Nakano
Cast
Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.
- Waise Lee as Wisely
- Christine Ng as Pai So
- Gloria Yip as Princess
- Lau Siu-ming as Errol
- Lawrence Lau as Li Tung, Wisely's friend
- Philip Kwok as Inspector Wang Chiehmei
- Ni Kuang as Mr. Chen
- Chua Lam as Professor Yu
- Chui Kin-wah, Kong Long as Gun dealers
- Wan Seung-lam, Kong Long, Jeng Yee as Wang's assistants
- Simon Cheung as Police officer
- Kwok Bei-Dak
Japanese version
Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.
- Hidekazu Akai as Mamoru
- Gloria Yip as Strange girl
- Pal as Wang
- Gemma Too as Sonia
- Charles Cho as Fredric Lee
- Kwon Hoi San as Strange old man
- Kai Hong
- Shuichi Ikeda as Wang (voice)
- Yuko Mizutani (voice)
- Chieko Honda (voice)
Appearances
Monsters |
Weapons, vehicles and races |
Production
Shinji Higuchi recalled that problems plagued the production of The Cat.[3]
Alternate titles
- Old Cat (老貓 Lǎomāo, literal Chinese title)
- Wisely's The Cat (衛斯理之老貓 Wèisīlǐ Zhī Lǎomāo, extended Chinese title)
- Wisely's Old Cat (literal translation)
- The 1000 Years Cat (alternate English title)[1]
- Nine Lives (Japanese version English title)
- The Cat: Nine Lives (猫 NINE LIVES Neko: Nain Raibuzu, initial Japanese title)
- War of the Beasts (妖獣大戦 Yōjū Taisen, Japanese VHS title)
- Karate Cat (Karaté Cat; France)
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, 50% of critics and the public's reviews are positive for The Cat based on 2 critical reviews and over 50 audience reviews.
Video releases
Tokuma Japan Communications Video VHS (1991)
- Tapes: 1
- Audio: Japanese
- Notes: Reissued in 1994.
Metropolitan Filmexport DVD (2011)
- Region: 2
- Discs: 1
- Audio: Cantonese
- Subtitles: French
- Special features: None
- Notes: Packaged with Robotrix (1991)
Trivia
- The Cat was the fifth Wisely film, preceded by The Seventh Curse (1986), The Legend of Wisely (1987), A Tale from the East (1990), Bury Me High (1991), and followed by Young Wisely (1993), Young Wisely 2 (1994), and The Wesley's Mysterious File (2002). Keizo Murase worked on The Seventh Curse.
- Wisely writer Ni Kuang made a cameo in the film as the dog owner Mr. Chen.
Notes
References
This is a list of references for The Cat. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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