The Cat Piano

The film opens with the anthropomorphic cat poet narrating over a city that loves music. He describes streets alive with melodies and street performances. He introduces his obsession with a particular female singer.

The narrator singles out one female singer whom he is clearly enamored with, quoting her singing as "A voice that made all the angels of eternity sound ... tone deaf". He is deeply captivated by her, seeing her as the focal point of his world. This fixation foreshadows the tragedy awaiting the plot.

An overbearing structure beyond the sea, a lighthouse, dominates the horizon. Its light quickly goes out, foreshadowing malevolence.

Musicians begin to disappear into thin air, like sailors lost at sea. Police investigators find human shoeprints in the city, hinting at a dark force behind the vanishings.

The Cat Piano is explained as a terrible instrument: instead of strings, it uses nails hammered into the tails of caged cats to produce sound. The revelation reveals the instrument as torture rather than art, chilling the citizens. The warning sign of horror hangs over the city as the narrator describes it.

The protagonist rushes to warn the female singer, but arrives seconds too late. The moment seals her fate and leaves him heartbroken. The city remains oblivious to the looming danger as tragedy unfolds.

With the singer's fate sealed, the city falls to pieces. Fights erupt and music is forbidden as fear spreads through the streets. The poet's world collapses into chaos.

The poet is tormented by thoughts of the Cat Piano and experiences a nightmare of a dark figure holding up a cage with the singer, pricking her with a needle. He wakes in a cold sweat, drenched in anxiety. The nightmare haunts him as the threat becomes real.

Reluctantly the narrator acts, climbs a hill to observe the lighthouse, which now casts a red beam across the sea. He hears distant screams of cats and sees a makeshift army forming behind him. He steels himself and prepares to lead an assault.

The makeshift army boards boats and row toward the lighthouse, scaling its walls to breach the fortress. Inside, the mad pianist commands an organ-like torture device studded with hundreds of needles. The singer sits at the very top of the instrument as the confrontation begins.

The army of cats attacks the pianist, biting, scratching, and driving him to a fatal fall from a window. The imprisoned cats are freed and the lighthouse is set on fire as they escape with the rescued prisoners.

With the lighthouse in ruins, the city regains its artistic vitality, but the poet notes his own anonymity remains intact. He finds solace in hearing music flowing through the streets once again.

The singer appears in the poet's room and affectionately strokes his chin, suggesting a hopeful ending for the poet. The moment hints at a possible reconciliation and renewed happiness for both of them.