The Curse of the Ghost

Overview

About 1786 the doings of a demented lord results in many masterless samurai, including Iyemon (Kei Sato) who is used to luxury and cannot adjust to the hand-to-mouth conditions & piecework of umbrella making. Having hired ruffians to make him look like a superior swordsman, he arranges for himself the opportunity of a profitable marriage. He hires the half-blind masseur Takuetsu (Sawamura Sounosuke) to seduce or rape his wife (Kyoko Mikage), so that she can be divorced or killed for adultery. But the masseur takes pity & informs Oiwa of her husband's horrid plot. Assisted by the merchant's daughter he intends to marry, Iyemon disfigures his wife attempting to poison her so he can marry higher. There's a lovingly gruesome sequence as she combs blad patches into her hair, kneeling deformed at her mirror, weeping with bitterness. She eventually cuts her own throat, swearing revenge.

Cast

Kazuko Inano

Oiwa

Kei Satō

Iyemon

Yoshihiko Aoyama

Yomoshichi, a Samurai

Akiji Kobayashi

Naosuke

Kyoko Mikage

Sonosuke Sawamura

Jun Hamamura

Yasuhiro Minakami

Gen Kimura

Tatsuo Hanabu

Saburo Date

Ikuko Mōri