Plight of South Korea strays caught on film

THANKS to the Internet, cat porn is giving food photographers a run for their money on social media platforms and celebrity online felines such as Grumpy Cat and Lil Bub are fast overtaking Garfield in the fame game. When the former held a book signing (or paw-printing, to be precise) earlier this week in Arizona, more than 1,000 people showed up; the latter, meanwhile, has her own Animal Planet cable TV special.

So who could blame Yun Ki-hyoung for making the stray felines of South Korea the subject of his award-winning documentary, Dancing Cat. Screening at The Arts House this weekend as part of Singapore Film Society's Talkie series, the 76-minute film explores the lives of homeless cats living in a society where they are generally given dirty looks by the public because of their own hostility and sometimes-unhygienic appearances.

But when two non-cat-lovers, Yun and poet-blogger Lee Yong-han, start paying attention to the strays in their neighbourhoods, they become fascinated with the little creatures' lives and begin following them; documenting their observations on video and still photographs respectively. The footage is raw - Dancing Cat is an indie effort so don't expect National Geographic-style high production values - and the subjects caught on camera aren't always necessarily as cute as their names (Thundercat, Darth Snooze, Bessie, Sweetness) suggest; let alone look as picture-perfect as the ones you'll find on the front of a packet of cat food. In reality, many are mangy because of their poor living conditions - a mother-and-son pair live out of a broken umbrella in a drain - and the constant need for them to compete for both territory and food.