The "Ghost" My Father Rented for Me

In the building where I work, instrumental background music plays at a low volume in common areas like the hallways.

The song selection is actually quite interesting.

Sometimes it's Akiko Kobayashi's "Koi ni Ochite." Other times, it's "Go the Distance" from Hercules—a song I absolutely love—which is a surprisingly deep cut for Disney music.

Wow, I think to myself, they went there in an office building. I walk down the hallway singing along in my head. The trouble is that my brain gets hijacked by the song for a while, and I find myself humming it unconsciously while working, only to have someone say, "You're in a good mood, aren't you?"

One day, the background music was "Unchained Melody."

The moment the intro started playing, a certain memory from deep within my mind came vividly back to life.

When I was in high school, the movie "Ghost," starring Demi Moore, was a huge hit. "Unchained Melody" was its theme song.

A friend who saw it spoke passionately about what a wonderful movie it was. ...That said, what my friend was truly captivated by wasn't the bittersweet love story, but the medium Oda Mae, played by Whoopi Goldberg.

I also wanted to watch "Ghost" and play Oda Mae with my friend after school!

From that unexpected angle, my "Ghost" fever suddenly reached a boiling point.

This was about 35 years ago. It was an era when the only way to watch a movie after it left theaters was to rent a video.

However, my family had a fatal problem.

Our VCR was a Betamax.

At the time, although Betamax hadn't been completely wiped out by VHS yet, it was on its last legs. Betamax had disappeared from most rental stores, and the only place in the neighborhood that carried them was a small shop called Gu-Choki-Pa. Even at Gu-Choki-Pa, the treatment of Betamax was neglectful, and they only had two copies of the highly popular "Ghost."

The battle for those two copies of "Ghost" among the Betamax users left behind by the times was fierce. Every time I went, they were checked out. I made daily pilgrimages to Gu-Choki-Pa, which was located on a hill, climbing that tiresome slope, but I always came up empty-handed.

Then, one night. My father returned from work and pulled a rental video store bag I didn't recognize out of his briefcase.

"Here, the one you've been wanting to watch for so long." He handed it to me happily. "Wait, really? Is it... Ghost?" I asked, and my father nodded deeply, looking proud of himself. He said he had found it at a store near his workplace and rented it for me.

"Yay! Thank you, Dad!" I opened the bag in great excitement, and what came out was—

"Yokai Heaven: Ghost Hero"

"Nooooo!!!"

When I looked up at the sky and screamed,
my father, who had been looking so proud just a moment ago,
shrank back and said, "I'm sorry..."

...

So, I watched it.
"Yokai Tengoku: Ghost Hero."

It wasn't even a Western movie.
It starred Masao Kusakari and was a super B-grade movie about exterminating yokai.
The supporting cast was a niche and exquisite mix, including Pappara Kawai and Lucky Ikeda as a yokai, and the final boss was Masato Ibu, who looked exactly like a Nurarihyon.

I watched this movie half-heartedly, but

.........it was actually interesting.

Of course, a few days later, I was able to watch "Ghost" without any issues.
The whole family gathered in front of the TV and started watching it with excitement.
And then, during that pottery scene, we all successfully felt incredibly awkward.