Dawn of the Felines

Dawn of the Felines follows the experiences of three Tokyo call girls, from perverted johns to kinky underground nightclub spectacles to the constantly present threat of being busted by the cops. This descent into the night is a raw chronicle of urban loneliness and survival in the same vein as Kazuya Shiraishi’s earlier films The Devil’s Path (NYAFF 2014) and Twisted Justice (NYAFF 2016). Paying tribute to Noboru Tanaka’s 1972 “Roman Porno” classic Night of the Felines, Shiraishi explores the same moral universe with an even more assured authorial grip, never straying outside the formal framework of the genre. Instead of carnal kicks, Shiraishi goes sin-deep and presents the cracks and flaws behind the smiling facades of the sex workers, who are never portrayed as victims. North American Premiere.