GHOST-CAT OF OUMA CROSSING (1954)
aka Kaibyo Omagatsuji
Article 5061 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-26-2016
Directed by Bin Kado
Featuring Michiko Ai, Kotaro Bando, Takako Irie
Country: Japan
What it is: Ghost cat movie

In order that her sister can be the leading actress, a woman forms a conspiracy to remove the current leading actress from a troupe, a plot that eventually ends in murder. But sometimes there can be revenge from beyond the grave…

So what separates this ghost cat movie from the other three I’ve seen so far? English subtitles! And what do they tell me? Only what I’ve been able to figure out from the other ones I’ve seen so far. This is to say that it confirms my deduction that your basic ghost-cat story involves a woman who is dealt a grave injustice and killed, and then returns to wreak vengeance. The biggest difference between the movies is the nature of the initial injustice. The wreaking of the vengeance is usually the same; among other standard vengeance procedures, the ghost-cat usually lures someone into killing an innocent person by appearing before it, and also, using cat-like gestures, forces an evil woman into doing acrobatic stunts. From what I gather, Takako Irie practically made a career playing ghost-cats, and she is good at it. However, my suspicion that most of these movies are interchangeable continues to bear itself out with this one; outside of having one with subtitles, it doesn’t appear particularly different from the others I’ve seen. And I have plenty more to see before it’s all over…