Night Of The Felines — Night Of The Felines(Blu Ray)
Night Of The Felines is a 70’s Roman Porno film that blends character study and sleazy humour. It’s set in and around a downtown Tokyo bathhouse, focusing on those who work there & find pleasure there. The film is a quirky, often oddly charming affair, with one or two arty touches here & there. Here from 88 Films, as part of there series of reissues from the roman porno cycle- taking in a new HD scan, a new commentary, and a few other extras.
Night of the Felines (aka Mesuneko-Tachi No Yoru) is from 1972. It was directed by Nagano, Japan-born Noboru Tanaka. Between the early 70s and late 80s, he had twenty-six features to his name- these go from the erotic drama Beads From A Petal (1972). Onto ritualistic sex-focused period drama The Hell-Fated Courtesan (1973), violent/ troubling Roman porno Rape and Death Of A Housewife (1978), and true crime drama Village Of Doom (1983).
The film is set in and around the red neon-lettering bathhouse, The Turkish Paradise, with the prime focus being Masako (Tomoko Katsura), one of the workers/prostitutes at the bathhouse. Though woven around this central focus, we get scenes/ brief storylines with several of the place's female workers, and their customers.
As the film's title suggests, most of the film’s one hour and eight minutes length, takes place at nighttime, with the city's neon-lit streets adding great atmosphere to the whole thing. When not working, Masako spends her time in her small apartment- she’s having an affair with her charismatic/ sleazy neighbour, Mr Honda(Ken Yoshizawa)- a thin black moustached, loose/ creased suit, and ragged- haired man.
Honda is bisexual, and his best friend/ part-time lover is a male/ gay prostitute, Makoto(Hidetoshi Kageyama). He’s recently found love with a woman for the first time, but can’t he get it up, so some of the films more sleazy/awkward humour is centred on ‘trying to turn him’ – with one particular memorable selection of scenes sees Masako trying to pleasure him through his trousers as they walk around the city, going on public transport, etc.
The Bathhouse itself is a groovy-looking place, with yellow, brown, and flowered-edged interiors. We get scenes in the bathhouse rooms themselves- meeting both workers/clients, and some of these are also most memorable/ quirky, like a tubby salaryman who is always moaning about been constantly busy, and has a penchant for giving back washes.
Our three leads are most effective, though I’d say most memorable is Yoshizawa, he sits in his own apartment with the lights out, he watches his neighbours across the street having sex, trying to use his feet instead of his hands for everything, and munches on a hanging cabbage above him.
As mentioned earlier- mixed in with the drama, humour, and character study- we get darts of artiness- many of these focused around see-through umbrellas- with gold fish in them, being used as a weapon with blood spray, and falling from heights. In places, the film's cutting is erratic too, making it at times difficult to follow who's who, though this isn’t a huge thing, as it does add to the quirky appeal of the whole thing.
All in all, Night Of The Felines is a highly entertaining and engaging film, blending its genre threads wonderfully. And when the credits roll, you really do wonder what happens next to the characters.
Moving on to this new region B Blu-ray, we get a lovely, crystal clear scan, with great colouring and clarity throughout. On the extras side of things, we get a good enough selection.
First, we have a commentary track from author/ genre commentator Jasper Shape and academic Irene Gonzalez-Lopez. This is a wonderfully informative/ chatty track. They begin by talking about the opening pre-credits scene with the three sex workers eating food scene, commenting on the use of the food throughout the film, and the loose association between sex and food. We find out that this picture appeared six months into Nikkatsu’s roman porno cycle- it was the thirty second in the series of films, and the second Noboru Tanaka film in the genre. We get a potted history of Turkish Baths, which focused on non-penetrative sex, finding out by the 1980s, there were twenty thousand women working in the trade. And how the film, largely, shows sex workers in a positive light. Later on, they discuss the use of different locations and colour palette in this film, compared to later films in the genre. They point out student/ political graffiti in one of the scenes, and touch on the career of lead actress Katsura.
Otherwise we have: Pussy Talk(10.06) with author Kei Chiba. He moves from talking about the poetic cinema of the film, how there is no story flow, as we hazily follow the day-to-day lives of the characters. Onto discussing the use of umbrellas in the film, and much more. There’s Pretty In Pink (13.13) which finds actress and director Yumi Yoshiyuki, talking about the difference between Roman Porno & Pink films- she started in one hundred films in the later genre. Lastly, there’s a stills gallery & trailer. The finished release comes with an inlay booklet featuring new writing by Caitlin Casiello.
Night Of The Felines is an excellent mix of drama/character study and amusing smut, with some arty/ camp edges. This is another great release in 88 Films Roman Porno series, and I hope there are many more to come!.