English Title: The Life of Oharu
Koi Productions
Starring: Kinuyo Tanaka, Hisako Yamane
Directed by: Kenji Mizoguchi
Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!
Synopsis: The story of Oharu (Kinuyo Tanaka), a Japanese woman of society who falls from grace and has to make her living any way she is able.
Kitty Cameo: At one point Oharu becomes a lady-in-waiting to Lady Matsudaira (Hisako Yamane) who swears Oharu to keep her secret loss of hair from her husband Lord Matsudaira (Toshiaki Konoe). But Lady Matsudaira becomes convinced that Oharu is a threat to her marriage and orders her to cut off her hair. In retaliation one night, Oharu is seen with a small cat.
Oharu presses the cat to her wig and tells the cat to remember the smell.
She then releases the cat into the room of the Lord and Lady. The cat grabs Lady Matsudaira’s wig and runs away with it. But to show this, a very odd-looking and very obvious fake cat (most likely a person in a cat suit) is seen as a silhouette running away with the hair.
Final Mewsings: Apparently Japanese cat actors can’t be taught to steal wigs.
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