Miss Senjo is a famous kabuki actress. Another actress, Somewaka, is jealous of her and wants to take her place. Somewaka’s sister, Mistress, hatches a plan to get Miss Senjo out of the way so her sister can act in her place. To do that she enlists the help of Miss Senjo’s boyfriend, Mr. Gen. Mr. Gen has been two timing it with evil sister Mistress. Mr. Gen tries to sabotage Miss Senjo’s act. First the stage is weakened so that she falls through. Miss Senjo hurts her ankle but continues to act. Next a sandbag is dropped on her but it misses.
All the while she is being bullied by Mistress and Somewaka. Mistress than causes an accident that scratches Miss Senjo’s face. The conspirators give her what they say is medicine to put on her scratch. The ointment burns her face so badly that even the heavy Kabuki makeup won’t cover it.
Somewaka, Mistress and Mr. Umesuke are discussing what they did to Miss Senjo. Miss Senjo’s friend, Tomezi hears what they are discussing and confronts them. Somewaka runs out. Tomezi says she is going to expose them. Mr. Gen shows up and strangles Tomezi. He hangs her from a tree and makes it look like suicide.
Later Miss Senjo and Mr. Gen are taking a moonlight boat ride. Miss Senjo confronts Mr. Gen and tells him she believes that he, Somewaka, Mistress and Mr. Umesuke were all in on what happened to her. She says she also believes that they are responsible for Tomezi’s death. Mr. Gen stabs Miss Senjo with his sword and she falls into the water.
Now the haunting begins.
“The Ghost Cat of Ouma Crossing” AKA “Kaibyo oumagatsuji” was released in 1954 by Daiei and was directed by Bin Kato. It is a Japanese horror film of the ghost cat subgenre. The cat is big in Japan and so is cat lore. Ghost cat movies are usually low budget and an hour or so long. They are similar to American “B” movies. A lot of them were made in the 50’s and 60’s.
A ghost cat is a woman who has been killed in a brutal way and returns as a ghost to exact revenge on the evil doers. Quite often the victim first returns as a cat or through a cat. Often the cat licks the blood of the victim and the spirit of the dead woman manifests in the cat and then changes to a haunting spirit that resembles a frightening kabuki style phantom that can fly and appear or disappear at will. Even if the victim doesn’t turn into a cat, there is a cat somewhere in the film. They are avenging spirits. Ghost cat movies can be quite spooky. The Japanese movie franchise “Ju-On”, known in America as “The Grudge” are ghost cat movies.
For this movie you’ll have to sit through a lot of padding in the form of… kabuki dancing. Unless you like kabuki it can be a little boring and slow at the beginning. When it does get to the ghost cat part the kabuki style grimace on the ghost’s face is quite effective. The haunting is part scary movie and part psychological thriller. Mr. Gen becomes obsessed with Miss Senjo’s spirit. The scene where Mr. Gen is on the boat and Miss Senjo’s ghost keeps coming out of the water at him is actually terrifying. It’s longer than most ghost cat movies but if you want to fast forward through most of the Kabuki no one will know.
Japanese culture is obsessed with cats. They can have protective powers and can bring good luck. The most noted is maneki-neko. Long ago a feudal lord was standing under a tree. He saw a cat waving at him with its paw. He walked over to the cat. At that moment a lightning strike hit the tree where he had just been standing. Walking to the waving cat saved his life. Other cats are evil and possess evil powers. The bakeneko are shape shifter cats that can turn into humans. They can manipulate dead people and possess them. Nekomata cats are similar to bakeneko cats only they have to tails. They are known to hunt and eat people.