The Ghost Cat and the Mysterious Shamisen
02/11/1938
A quintessential example of the period "ghost cat" (bakeneko or kaibyo) movie, this was one of at least six such titles released by the studio Shinko Kinema between 1937-40 featuring Japan's first scream queen, Sumiko Suzuki. Here she plays Mitsue, the possessive onna-kabuki actress betrothed to apprentice shamisen player Seijiro. When one day Okiyo, a beautiful young girl of samurai class, is led to Seijiro's house by his lost cat Kuro, she becomes besotted with him. Dark jealous passions are invoked in Mitsue, which are intensified when Seijiro gifts Okiyo his precious shamisen. The cat is the first to suffer at the end of Mitsue's hairpin, but returns from the grave to assist Okiyo's younger sister Onui avenge her sister's murder.
Movie Information
Sumiko Suzuki
as Mitsue Bando
Mitsuko Mori
as Onui, younger sister of Okiyo
Kinue Utagawa
as Okiyo
Shinpachirō Asaka
as
Eigorō Onoe
as
Mitsugu Terashima
as
Hiroko Takayama
as Okimi
Tokusaburo Arashi
as
Yaeko Asano
as
Yuriko Asano
as
Junzaburō Ban
as
Mitsuko Gun
as
Matsuko Hidaka
as
Yasumasa Jitsukawa
as
Taisuke Matsumoto
as
Matsuko Miho
as
Yukiko Miyagawa
as
Shizuko Mori
as
Shōzō Nanbu
as
Fujiko Suwa
as
Masako Takamatsu
as
Yoshiko Tomei
as
Yōko Umemura
as Osen
Eiko Wakaba
as
