A SHORT STORY (2022)

A short directed by Bi Gan. A strange black cat does a scarecrow a favour and burns him to death. The black cat puts on the scarecrow’s coat and hat and goes on a journey to investigate three “weirdoes” who might know what “the most precious thing in the world” is. He recharges a robot who dispenses heartbreak candy to orphans, gives an eye to a woman who eats special noodles to delete her memory (a stunning, surreal image of memory regained, here), and a demonic slot machine balanced on a drum that eats souls one note at a time has a secret. And the cat’s quest is not what it seems. There are wonderfully unexpected visual tricks all over this piece – it’s a delight of invention. A scene that slowly starts to seem like a David Lynch bit turns out to have forced perspective stunts and a great colour-filter gag in it. Every moment is richer than you expect. I watched it on MUBI, but I’m sure it’s knocking around elsewhere, and it’ll be the best ten minutes of your life that day.