Sekai kara neko ga kietanara

The film manages to make look good the book it's based on, which had already exhausted the author's creativity in calling the protagonist's two pet cats Lettuce and Cabbage and thus sets the bar pretty low. It takes quite some liberty with regard to the book, omitting the most fun parts of it (the cat never gets to speak, the Devil doesn't wear Hawaii shirts; there are no upbeat songs in the sad scenes), and so it ends up a melodramatic mess, with wooden acting, poor character development, a soundtrack so boring and repetitive it would be unfit even for a furniture store, and a plot so foreseeable and unimaginative watching a blank sheet of paper would have been more thought-provoking and entertaining.