The Boy Who Draws Cats is a short film that presents the important visual and substantive qualities and perspectives found in traditional Eastern ghost stories. The intent of this film is to communicate these characteristics in a culturally accessible way that makes it easy for Western viewers to understand and accept the alternative values that are commonly presented in an Eastern ghost story.

My film is an interpretation of a traditional Japanese folk tale that presents “guardian ghosts” in the form of “living drawings” as shown by the cat drawings created by the boy in the story. Unlike the haunting and sometimes scary ghost characters of Western ghost stories, these guardians are a comfort to those they protect and are a key feature of Eastern ghost culture and philosophy.