Kaneto Shindo's Kuroneko combines a traditional Kwaidan, or vengeful ghost story, with some samurai action in the story of two murdered women (Nobuko Otowa and Kiwako Taichi) revived by a demon-cat to kill all samurai warriors. The women's son/husband Gintoki (Kichiemon Nakamura) is ordered to destroy them, and the ensuing emotional drama -- the wife makes a bargain in order to be temporarily reunited with her husband, the mother has to kill her son -- fits in well with the action and composes a moving theme about the civilian effects of war. The major set pieces are clear and concise, particularly the opening where the murder of the women is conveyed through a final long shot that has the samurai exiting a farmhouse and walking off-screen and moments later a cloud of smoke belching out the windows and doors. Other highlights include the use of repetition and suspenseful editing when the ghosts lure the warriors to their death and an amusing, if superfluous, fight scene between Gintoki and a colossus warrior in a towering grass field. The supernatural elements are visualized using simple efficient tricks: spot lighting, minimal but suggestive sets, and smoke machines. Overall, it is a wonderfully engaging piece of cross-genre entertainment.