Original Title: Nasanunaka

Directed by: Mikio Naruse

This review contains a Slight Kitty Carnage Warning!

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: Actress Tamae Kiyooka (Yoshiko Okada) returns to Japan after a five year absence hoping to claim her daughter Shigeko (Toshiko Kojima) who only knows her loving stepmother Masako (Yukiko Tsukuba) to be her real mother.

Cat Burglar (Scene Stealer): When Shigeko’s father, Shunsaku Atsumi (Shin’yô Nara), comes home from work one day he asks for his mother Kishiyo (Fumiko Katsuragi.) Shigeko offers to fetch the woman and finds her grandmother in her room brushing a content white and tabby cat wearing a ribbon.

Her father asks Shigeko to play while the adults talk. She goes into the corridor where the cat is sitting and crawls across the floor after the retreating kitty.

Slight Kitty Carnage Warning! Having found out that the family is now broke, Kishiyo returns to her room and angrily shoves the cat from her cushion. The cat saunters out of the room, not to be seen again.

Kitty Cameo: A short time later the family goes for a walk. Masako spots a black kitten in the grass nearby, possibly meant to be an omen of events about to happen.

Final Mewsings: Cats aren’t to blame if your family is broke!

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