Dawn of the Felines
Dawn of the Felines is a haunting, empathetic journey through the nocturnal world of three sex workers navigating the neon-soaked street of Ikebukuro, Tokyo. Each night brings new encounters—eccentric clients, dangerous fetishes, and the looming threat of police crackdowns—while each dawn finds them wrestling with loneliness, survival, and the search for meaning in a city that rarely looks back. Directed by Kazuya Shiraishi (The Devil’s Path, Twisted Justice, Bushido), Dawn of the Felines is a “suitably melancholy” (South China Morning Post) tribute to Noboru Tanaka’s classic Roman Porno film Night of the Felines. Modern and unflinching, Shiraishi’s update to the genre famously created by the Nikkatsu film studio in the 1970s offers a portrait of women living on the edge of society while negotiating their agency, connection, and dignity.
Director & Cast
- Director: Kazuya Shiraishi
- Starring: Juri Ihata
- Starring: Satsuki Maue
- Starring: Michie
- Starring: Kazuko Shirakawa
Where to Watch
Trailer
Photos
Reviews
- "Kazuya Shiraishi’s film benefits from an excellent and wholly believable script, which fully fleshes out its characters, warts and all, and which manages to be dramatic, eventful and even moving without ever feeling artificial."
- "Juri Ihata’s portrayal of Masako is richly complex and rigorously unsentimental. She plays her tough and smart, but also quite vulnerable. Satsuki Maue effectively brings out the Jekyll and Hyde in Yui, but the one-named Michie probably takes the honors with her mature yet frequently surprising work as Rie."
- "Dawn of the Felines is a suitably melancholy, though no less involving, slice-of-life drama revolving around a trio of prostitutes working for a shabby escort agency in the Ikebukuro district of Tokyo."
Best Screenplay
Asian Film Festival Barcelona
International Film Festival Rotterdam
New York Asian Film Festival