by Mark Murton

Original Title: Kaibyô noroi no Numa

Also Known As: Ghost Cat of the Cursed Pond; Ghost Cat of the Cursed Swamp

Directed by: Yoshihiro Ishikawa

This review contains an Implied Kitty Carnage Warning!

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

Synopsis: In this stylish variation of the Japanese kaibyo / ghost cat film, the ambitious and amoral Naoshige Nabeshima (Ryôhei Ucida) murders his lord Ryuzoji Takafusa in order to seize his land, his power and his wife, but rather than submit to his will she opts to drown herself (along with her cat!) in the waters of a nearby swamp. Ten years later at a festival to placate the spirits of the “cursed” swamp, Nabeshima spies another woman he decides will become his latest concubine, but she too prefers to die in the swamp which awakens the spirits and unleashes the swamp’s curse on Nabeshima.

Featured Feline: As Lord Takafusa and his wife (Masumi Tachibana) are dragged away by Nabeshima’s men, she begs to be allowed to take “Tama” with her who is revealed to be her beloved pet tabby and white cat (wearing an adorable ruffed collar).

As her husband is killed she faints and is taken to her room to recover. She is revived by the off-screen cries of Tama who runs to her and she cuddles the pensive-looking cat.

Implied Kitty Carnage Warning! Lady Takafusa manages to slip away with Tama to the edge of a nearby swamp. Asking Tama “to be strong” she wades slowly into the waters and together they drown.

A decade passes and her body never surfaces while those who approach the swamp meet with an ill fate leading to it becoming known as “the cursed swamp”. Yukiji (Kyoko Mikage), the woman chosen by Nabeshima at the aforementioned festival, decides to defy him to be with her betrothed, Jonosuke (Kôtarô Satomi). As the couple walk and talk while planning what to do they inadvertently find themselves at the cursed swamp. Hearing a cat’s cry they spy a soaking wet Tama at the water’s edge.

Yukiji picks up the cat and holds her close, gently drying her as she decides to take the poor kitty home.

Yukiji is next seen at home with Tama where they are having a final cuddle as she prepares to leave to meet Jonosuke so they can run away together.

Yuki walks out of the room, closing the shoji door behind her to bar Tama from following. Tama scratches frantically at the door and continues to cry as Yukiji slips away.

Yukiji and Jonosuke are pursued by Nabeshima’s men to the swamp where they die in each others arms. As Yukiji breathes her last on the bank of the swamp Tama approaches and starts to lick at her blood. (According to Japanese legend, a cat which laps the blood of a murder victim absorbs that person’s hatred and can assume their identity in order to seek vengeance on their behalf.)

In her room, one of Nabeshima’s wives, Hyuga (Machiko Yashiro), is tormented by the sound of a cat hissing and snarling until she is seemingly killed by an unseen presence, but when a servant girl comes to check on her saying she heard screams Hyuga assures her all is well. As the servant leaves a slight smile plays across Hyuga’s lips. After this Hyuga’s strange behaviour causes Nabeshima to send his men to watch her. That night she is seen entering her room but one guard notices that the only trace on the steps outside are of wet cat paw prints.

Leaving her room again, Hyuga takes on an increasingly cat-like appearance (as well as developing a penchant for raw human flesh!). Convinced they are dealing with some sort of shape-shifting spirit, Nabeshima’s men engage a team of gunmen and “Hyuga” is shot and badly wounded. She makes her way to Jukiri’s mother’s house and scratches at the door. Yukiji’s mother (Mitsuko Yoshikawa) lets her in thinking her daughter has returned and not realizing it is actually the spirit of Tama. Nabeshima’s men arrive and as they search the house Tama watches through a gap in the basket in which she is hiding. Thwarted, the men leave and the visitor admits that she is not Yukiji but has just “borrowed her likeness”.

Meanwhile, Nabeshima has now set his sites on his minister’s daughter Yuri (Yuriko Mishima) but like others before her she prefers death, as outside her room Tama approaches. Tama takes possession of Yuri and again is able to gain access to Nabeshima, whom she drives to madness in a variety of ways.

As Nabeshima, possessed and hallucinating, rampages through the castle, scenes are constantly framed by the eye of Tama before finally transitioning back to “Yuri”‘s eyes.

At the end of Nabeshima’s killing spree he finds himself at the edge of the cursed swamp where he is tormented by visions of the women whose deaths he caused as Tama attacks him again. Nabeshima drowns and as the spirits fade away the final one transitions to Tama who lies dying by the swamp. (Presumably Tama’s not meant to be quite dead at this point as the cat actor is very clearly alive, licking her lips!) The film ends with Yukiji’s mother laying flowers at a cross erected by the swamp with the inscription “Here lies Tama, beloved cat.”

Final Mewsings: You never want to incur the wrath of a vengeful ghost cat.

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