A Short Story - Bi Gan
A short film about a wandering cat who comes across a scarecrow who asks to be set on fire to join his friend in the sky. The cat agrees, but asks if he can have the scarecrow’s clothes and ask what is the most precious thing in the world. The scarecrow replies that it doesn’t know, but there are three weirdos who may.
Dressed the scarecrow’s clothes, the cat ventures out to talk to these weirdos. Then it becomes odd…
I’m going to seek out and watch Bi Gan’s other films and hope they’re as beautiful and unique as this.
The first weirdo is Bot. A robot in an orphanage who gives the departing children a candy that’s bitter, sour and sweet to remind them of childhood.
The cat finds Bot in the abandoned orphanage and revives it with sunlight and is told “Hello, Goodbye” before being given the candy. However, the cat can’t taste the sweetness and only tastes the bitter, sour.
The second weirdo is a woman who eats a bowl of “Losing memory noodles” to forget her lost love.
The cat gives the woman an eye to light up her world and revive her memory. We then hear a love poem her lover wrote before he left. When she opens her door, we see she’s in a moving train as the poem is recited.
The cat doesn’t understand the meaning of the poem and goes to visit the third weirdo.
The third weirdo is a magician seeking real magic. To get the magician to help him, the cat has to give up a note of his soul. Moving backwards, the magician gives the cat a ball of dirt saying it’s precious. The cat runs out of notes to give the magician and feels cheated.
We now learn why the cat was wandering and seeking the most precious thing in the world.
A little girl found the cat and brought it home. They became best friends and the cat shows its appreciation and love by leaving an injured bird, a dead rat and a dead snake in the girl’s bed. This scares the little girl and says she thinks the cat is the devil.
Heartbroken, the cat leaves and wanders around in the scarecrow’s clothes so it won’t be recognized. But it’s the little girl’s birthday and it wants to give her the most precious thing in the world.
On her birthday, still disguised, the cat meets the little girl and says a friend brought her a gift and it’s under the hat. The little girl removes the hat and beneath it is the ball of dirt, with a tiny flower growing in it. She plucks the flower and the film ends.