The Cat - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

The Cat



Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:



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Movie
Oh boy, if you’re not familiar with 1991’s The Cat, then you’re in for one HECK of a first-time go-around with this bad boy. For those of you in the know, we all realize that this film’s very existence was often thought of as a made-up fever dream during the late 90s, as it was recommended all over the message boards for its bizarre plot, but was rarely ever seen outside of Asian bootlegs or poor quality torrent rips. But holy cow, I honestly didn’t see this coming. Boutique studio 88 films (best known for their martial arts and various Hong Kong films) have rescued this cinematic cult classic and given it a brand new 4K remaster, and a newly minted Mono mixing of the original theatrical audio for us to enjoy today. Not to mention a GORGEOUS slip box and booklet that make this one of the most physically feature-rich niche titles from the studio so far.

While there have been countless films and novels about alien/supernatural cats (That Cat, The Cat from Outer Space, Alice in Wonderland, Super Kitties), very few are as off-the-rails bonkers as the Hong Kong “masterpiece” that is The Cat. Taken from a series of novels, our film opens up with the protagonist Wisely (Waise Lee), a literary novelist telling us a tail (pun intended) from his latest story in a sort of “story within a story” narrative framework. In that story, Wisely (as himself) stumbles upon an alien invasion after the police are called to a domestic disturbance call where a man’s next-door neighbors are found with animal intestines and organs in their home. While the police shrug the matter off, Wisely decides to look into things and realizes that he’s way in over his head.

It turns out that the “neighbors” are an alien princess and her two bodyguards, with one of them taking on the form of an old man, and the other a black cat. While Wisely tries to hunt them down and figure out just why he gets an odd vibe from them, the entire police squad in charge of the investigation is slaughtered by another alien (which is more like the blob-like being from The Blob), forcing him to reevaluate just what is going on. While technically a spoiler, it’s kind of a focal point in the film, we find out that the three visitors are “good” aliens who have been attacked by intergalactic assassins, and they need Wisely’s help in getting them back home. But first, they need two artifacts (who knows why they’re on earth) that, once combined, can destroy the alien assassins and give them free passage back home.

Honestly, my own description hardly does this film justice. The Cat is nothing short of a drug-induced fever dream that is so bizarre and so over the top that it can only be described as intentionally comedic. I mean, we have a 5-minute battle between a cat and a giant mastiff-like dog (which is intermittently substituted for a puppet for the most active parts of the battle) in which the cat pulls off some serious Wuxia-level wirework. Then there’s the alien assassin, which is like a Hong Kong version of the Blob. And we haven’t even STARTED on the dialog. Seriously, the dialogue is so hilariously ham-fisted that even the early 2000s SyFy channel would be embarrassed to air it. While I don’t have an intimate knowledge of the script writing, a large portion of me believes that this was 100% intentional, as there is NO WAY this was done seriously. Especially when you consider this was directed by Ngai Choi Lam, who is most famous for his rendition of the super-violent Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky and his hammy The Seventh Curse (which also was mined from the same novels that The Cat pulls its inspiration from).

Love it or hate it, The Cat is an absolute mind-bender of an insane good time. The best way to describe it is by comparing the film to a hallucination after overdosing on acid, then putting it in a blender and hitting frappe. Yes, it’s wild, it’s crazy, but the film has some great gore effects and a cast that seems to be hamming things up to level 11. While it’s not as down-to-earth and straightforward as The Seventh Curse or as super violent as Riki-Oh, The Cat is a barrel of fun as long as you’re 100% committed to viewing this through a satirical lens. If tried to be taken seriously, I doubt one could even get through half the film.




Rating:

Not Rated by the MPAA





Video:

Advertised as coming from a new 2K scan, The Cat looks REALLY good on Blu-ray for a lost 1991 Hong Kong film that was shot on a shoestring budget. The result is very clean and clear, with great detail levels (sometimes a bit TOO good, especially for the special effects, which were a mixture of practical puppets, green screen, and animatronics), and solid color replication. The film leans a bit towards the sandy brown kind, but facial tones look solid, and so do black levels. There’s some smoothing here and there that makes me wonder if some form of DNR was used, but it’s not really that obvious outside of me wondering where some of the grain went. But overall, this is a very pleasing transfer, especially considering that this wasn’t exactly lovingly kept in a vault for years.









Audio:

The 2.0 Mono LPCM track sounds great (only the original Cantonese track is included, as no dub was made for it to my knowledge), but has some source limitations that keep it from being truly great. Dialog is strong and clean for the most part, and the score adds some nice heft to the experience. But at the end of the day, this is a low-budget film that was captured using fairly minimalist tech back in the day. The end result is that there is a boxy sound to the audio, with some crackling and scratching on higher vocal ranges, and clipping during the fight with the dog. It’s not a bad experience, just limited by the source material and the budget, as it sounds a good bit better than the Hong Kong DVD I imported back in 2002.









Extras:

• Audio Commentary by HK Cinema Expert Frank Djeng
• Japanese Cut (SD) with English Subtitles
• Interview with Writer Gordon Chan
• Stills Gallery
• Trailer

Final Score:

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The Cat is a hilarious bit of forgotten Hong Kong cinema that I honestly never thought would make it to the U.S. shores. I don’t believe we even got a basic DVD of this film back in the DVD heyday, let alone a domestic 4K release until now. 88 Films has done a bang-up job with the video/audio specs, but even better with the extras. There’s not a ton of extras on the disc, but the packaging is superb and feels like the premium collectors' editions of the 2009 era, rather than the anemic feeling we get from modern releases. Do I recommend this to everyone? Oh my goodness, no. This is a niche film for someone who loves the more bizarre side of Hong Kong cinema in the early '90s. Much like Riki-Oh, the film has a rabid fan base, but if you’re going into this film with no idea but this review, then I highly suggest checking out the trailers and clips online. But for fans of the film, this is WELL worth grabbing.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Gloria Yip, Waise Lee, Christine Ng, Yee Cheng
Directed by: Ngai Choi Lam
Written by: Gordon Chan, Hing-Ka Chan, Kuang Ni
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 AVC
Audio: Cantonese: LPCM Mono 2.0
Subtitles: English
Studio: 88 Films
Rated: NR
Runtime: 89 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: September 23rd, 2025

Recommendation: Hilarious Cult Watch

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