Use of Tropes: The Ghost Cat of Otama Pond

This 1960 film was directed by Yoshihiro Ishikawa and is part of the bakeneko genre of films – changed cats, essentially. Leila contacted me and suggested there were tropes here and, an element of the bakeneko genre is vampiric – reaching back to the story The Vampire Cat of Nabéshima. This certainly has tropes we can recognise from other (Japanese) vampire cat films we have looked at here.

A lot of these films have both modern and period elements, and this is no exception, though the modern section is perhaps shorter and sparser than some and the film really concentrates on the period setting. It starts, however, in the contemporary timeframe. A couple, Tadahiko (Shôzaburô Date) and Keiko (Noriko Kitazawa) stand in front of a pond, a cat sits above them in a tree. The cat does manage to look menacing.

the old woman

The couple are taking a short cut rather than waiting for a bus but they keep getting turned around and arriving back at the lake. There is a concern that Keiko’s father will not allow their marriage if they return late and yet they cannot leave the area. Eventually they see the cat – Keiko states a hatred for them – but Tadahiko rationalises there must be a house nearby and they find a derelict building. As he looks around, a door by her opens and a sinister old lady appears, causing Keiko to faint.

exorcism

He finds her and carries her into the house. We get a lighting change and she seems to wake but the house is no longer derelict. She explores and comes across an old woman (Fujie Satsuki, who is not quite transformed into a cat), Keiko tries to leave but the woman gesticulates with her clawed hands and is able to draw her back. She wakes with a start and has a fever. In the morning Tadahiko carries her away and goes to a priest (Hiroshi Sugi) who suggests that she has the cat’s curse and bears the mark of death. He performs an exorcism and then tells Tadahiko the story of the curse – this is our main story.

the ill-fated lovers

Yachimaru is a young man in love with Kozasa – played by the same actors as Tadahiko and Keiko, it is thus implied they are reincarnations – unfortunately their family are at odds with each other and only Yachimaru’s sister, Akino (Namiji Matsuura), seems to want to help the lovers. Yachimaru is also due to leave the area to pick up a position (though he promises to return for Akino). Interestingly the cat, Tama, is Yachimura’s family cat that was found by the pond (making a tie between cat and pond).

implied blood licking

With Yachimaru leaving, Kozasa’s father (Yôichi Numata) conspires with the local magistrate (Arata Shibata) to murder Yachimaru’s father (Akira Nakamura) and grandmother (Fujie Satsuki) and steal Akino to marry her to the magistrate’s brother (Hiroshi Shingûji). The father ends up dumped in the pond (which turns to blood) and Akino kills herself by stabbing herself in the neck. Yachimaru realises something is wrong and returns home, finds his house burnt to the ground and is eventually killed and dumped in the lake. 

the lake becomes bloody

When this occurs the lake turns to blood again and Tama sits above some spilled blood on the shore. The implication is that Tama licks the blood (a common trope in these films) but we do not see that happen. We can also read that the pond takes the victim’s blood (as it turns red more than perhaps it would) and the connection between the pond and cat causes the change. However, which ever it is, the cat now hunts and haunts the villains, getting revenge and shifting shape to other people (notably Kosana sees the ghost of Yachimaru, walks into the pond – presumably drowning – and the cat takes her form) and cat person form.

ghost at the lake

It is the tie of blood to the cat, creating the curse and making it a supernatural foe that is the primary bakeneko trope. The licking blood isn’t explicit (the cat’s tongue does lick but the cat is some distance from the blood – possibly the best shot they could get). It is not clear that the changed cat then drinks blood. As such I have held this to tropes but it is certainly of genre interest.

The imdb page is here.