She and Her Cat: Their Standing Points

She and Her Cat: Their Standing Points is a short black-and-white film made by Makoto Shinkai in 1999, years before his feature films. Running only a few minutes, it was produced almost entirely by Shinkai himself and helped bring his work to wider attention.

On a rainy spring day, a cat named Chobi is taken in by a young woman and becomes her pet. Chobi falls in love with the beautiful, kind person who rescued him, but as a cat he can never fully understand the complicated world of humans and the worries she carries.

Told through Chobi's quiet narration, the film follows their first year together in the same small apartment, moving through the seasons as the two share a home while living in separate worlds, standing apart and yet close to each other. Its simple monochrome images, gentle pacing and focus on loneliness and connection already show the themes and mood that would define Shinkai's later films.