Archive - 11th Five Flavours Film Festival

Night of the Felines

Mesunekotachi no yoru
Japan 1972, 68’
subtitles: Polish and English
director: Noboru Tanaka
screenplay: Akira Nakano
cinematography: Kenji Hagiwara
editing: Akira Suzuki
music: Koichi Sakata
cast: Tomoko Katsura, Hidemi Hara, Keiko Maki, Ken Yoshizawa, Hidetoshi Kageyama, Akemi Yamaguchi, Kazuo Kinugasa
producer: Ito Ryoji
production: Nikkatsu
language: Japanese
colouration: colour

Film description

A frivolous, candy-colored sex comedy with a melancholic note. The rhythms of big beat and jazz introduce the audiences into the 1970s in Japan and to the stories of women working in a bathhouse-turned-cathouse. The film shows a wide range of clients and their extravagant tastes, as well as the plain reality of the erotic industry - and struggles of a young man preparing to his very first sex date with a girl.

Naboru Tanaka does not hesitate to show on the dark side of "soap land" world, but the extravagant form he uses brings fresh energy to the quasi-genre of geisha and courtesan films. He also reveals the unexpected face of ordinary citizens, shedding a new, interesting light on the Japanese society. The film is considered to be one of the finest works of Tanaka, who is renown for his visual sensitivity and the originality of his mise-en-scene.

Jagoda Murczyńska

Noboru Tanaka

Born in 1937, died in 2006. He studied French literature, worked as an assistant for Seijun Suzuki and Shohei Imamura. Screenwriter and director, one of the leading creators of Roman Porno, praised by audiences and critics for his refreshing plots and form. He made over 20 features for the Nikkatsu erotic series, including the famous "A Woman Called Sada Abe" (based on the same biography which inspired Oshima’s "In the Realm of the Senses"), and "Watcher in the Attic" (based on Edogawa Rampo’s gothic novel).

Selected filmography:

1972 Kaben no shizuku / Beads from a Petal

1972 Noc kociaków / Mesunekotachi no yoru / Night of the Felines

1976 Dziwny teatr Edogawy Rampo: Podgladacz z poddasza / Edogawa Ranpo ryoki-kan: Yaneura no sanposha / Watcher in the Attic

1986 Tsubomi no nagame / Spectacle of Buds

1988 Youjo densetsu '88 / Monster Woman '88

Be up to date!

© Fundacja Sztuki Arteria
Our website uses cookies, i.e. small text files that a website saves on your computer or mobile device when you browse the site. Click here to change your cookie settings.