MovieChat Forums > Nekojiru-sô (2003) Discussion > brother died?

brother died?

posted 18 years ago by waynedshen
8 replies | jump to latest

Something in the beginning of the movie really confuses me - the brother with the green shirt is shown drowning in the bathtub in the beginning, but later on, it is he who must save his sister who has died. Shouldn't the sister be the one with the toy truck in the beginning?
I've read the part of the manga that's on amazon, which also shows the sister as the (half) dead one. So I don't know why the cat who dies in the beginning of the movie is wearing a green shirt like the brother.

[–] jmalmsten 18 years ago

just saw it, and I never understood it as him dying... he just stayed under water for a wierd amount of time...

[–] Advenith 18 years ago

Just bought the movie. In the director's commentary, he says that the brother may or may not be dead, depending on your viewpoint.

[–] xyzzy70-1 18 years ago

It's a very true remark. I showed Nekojiru-so to a number of my friends and noticed that only the most cynical folks took the whole story at once for the death visions of the drowning brother. "The poor kitten has finally drowned," commented one of the cynics at the end of the film. Being an undoubted masterpiece, Nekojiru-so acts as a mirror that shows more of the viewer looking in it than of things behind it. No single interpretation can ever explain it, and that's why we love it so badly.

[–] moon_face2090 18 years ago

maybe he actually died for a moment then he came back to life to bring the other half of his sister soul..

[–] Xaositect_Crayon 17 years ago

it's up to you whether or not it is real or a variation on the short story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"...

[–] acebandg 16 years ago

Also very "Jacob's Ladder"y

[–] jn15-3 14 years ago

He drowned; he noticed a Buddha leaving with his sister's soul while he was walking around the house. That's why his parents couldn't see him. His dad pulled his body out; that's why his mom stormed in the room, looking so alarmed.

[–] buddylee8 10 years ago

Call me crazy, but I'm pretty sure the kid drowns in the bathtub and the entire film after that is him imagining he's going on a journey to bring his dying sister back and at the end the family disappears because he's dead and they aren't there with him....wherever 'there' is.

There are images of war and atom bombs going in reverse, which does throw a slightly WW2 tone to the film, but I think that just means that the journey included God reversing time, which I'm sure the brother wanted to happen to save his sister (and also undo other bad events in time), but in the end that isn't possible and he's gone and they aren't there with him.

Think about it. After his father pulls him out of the tub and revives him he goes into the other room and puts his sister's "life force" back into her via her nostril...then it gets more surreal from there. Pretty sure it's all a dying dream.

Sad.

My friends and I call this film the animated "Enter The Void". If you haven't seen that movie...watch at your own risk.