On Friday, March 20th, the students from the Japanese language and literature program organized a movie night during which they watched Rent-A-Cat (Rentaneko, dir. Ogigami Naoko, 2012) and discussed the main themes of the movie. The students talked about Iyashikei, a Japanese genre designed to soothe, comfort, and heal viewers by serving as a peaceful escape from daily stress. They had interesting discussions about loneliness, human connection, overcoming grief, and how unfair it is to calculate people’s value based on the differences between them. It was a great opportunity to learn more about contemporary Japan through heartwarming movies and interesting discussions.
