If Cats Disappeared from the World

A thirtysomething postman (Takeru Sato) who can’t get rid of a stubborn cold goes to the doctor only to find out he is dying from a brain tumor. Stumbling home, where he lives alone with his beloved cat, he is shocked to meet a man (Sato again) who looks exactly like himself. Claiming to be the devil, the stranger offers to extend the postman’s life by one day for every thing he chooses to erase from the world. So begins a bizarre week spent in a world without phones, movies, and clocks… And as these mundane objects disappear, they spark memories of the past, and reveal the deeper connections between the everyday items we take for granted and the moments that make us human. The postman seeks out people from his past, including his ex-girlfriend (Aoi Miyazaki), as he retraces these threads. Like the best of Murakami, the film is about dying, the connections we make in life, cute cats, and letting go.

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