---
title: "The Cat (1992) review"
description: "A cat kung fu fights a dog. That's really all you need to know."
url: https://www.joekarlsson.com/reviews/the-cat-1992/
---

![A still from The Cat (1992)](https://www.joekarlsson.com/images/reviews/the-cat-1992/backdrop.webp)

# The Cat (1992)

Jan 14, 2026 | 2 min read | Rated 4 out of 5 | Dir. Lam Nai-Choi

A cat kung fu fights a dog. That’s really all you need to know.

The Cat is absolutely batshit, and I think it’s ultimately great cat representation - our feline hero goes through it and comes out on top. It is weird though that our human protagonist seems to hate animals for about 80% of the movie, actively putting them in danger and seeking to destroy them. Somehow we’re supposed to root for him at the end. The tonal math doesn’t add up.

This movie attracts cat lovers, and I have to say - there are some sequences where I genuinely don’t know how they filmed them without hurting or at least scaring the cat. That made me uneasy. Fair warning.

The plot is nuts. Things happen with little explanation and we’re just expected to go along with it. An author has all these connections, is ingrained into different worlds, and is willing to chase a story to the ends of the earth because his friend told him he saw a cat and a girl that stared into his soul. Sure. Okay.

It doesn’t matter though. If you’re here, you’re not here for the plot. You’re here for the action, and yes - there is an incredible sequence of a cat kung fu fighting a dog. The last act goes completely unhinged. Evil Dead 2 levels of monster demon alien production value. One of the gloopiest, most fire-soaked finales I’ve ever seen.

Hong Kong horror operates on a different wavelength entirely.

Also on [Letterboxd](https://letterboxd.com/joekarlsson/film/the-cat-1992/)

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I write about my homelab, AI tools, databases, and the weird stuff I build on the side.

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