Shozo, a Cat and Two Women(Neko to Shôzô to futari no onna)

Caught between two marriages – first to a hag-like maid, then to a young sex kitten – both arranged by his shopkeeper mother for material gain, middle-aged Shozo reserves his true affection for his beloved cat Lily. Toyoda Shiro – a specialist in filming literary adaptations – sensitively realises Tanizaki’s humour, social observation, and insight into married life, while adding something more according to film scholar Miyao Daisuke, who argues that Toyoda responds to the era’s craze for ‘ghost cat’ films by envisioning Shozo’s ‘two women’ (brilliantly played by Yamada Isuzu and Kagawa Kyoko) as themselves feline-like, culminating in a climactic cat fight absent from the novella.

Kinema Junpo Award for Best Actress

22/12 (Sun): Film talk with William Lau

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