Female Cats (女猫, Meneko) is a 1983 Japanese film in Nikkatsu's Roman porno series, directed by Shingo Yamashiro and starring Ai Saotome.
| Female Cats | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Theatrical poster for Female Cats (1983) | |
| Directed by | Shingo Yamashiro[1] |
| Written by |
|
| Produced by |
|
| Starring | Ai Saotome |
| Cinematography | Yonezō Maeda |
| Edited by | Akira Suzuki |
| Music by | Tarō Morimoto |
| Distributed by | Nikkatsu |
Release date | December 23, 1983 |
Running time | 86 minutes |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
Synopsis edit
Innocent female doctor Mineko was seduced by Sachiko, an aggressive lesbian, in her younger days. Mineko begins dating a male coworker, and accepts an invitation to a party at the home of a transvestite patient. Sachiko comes out of Mineko's past, enraged with jealousy, and begins tormenting Mineko and her boyfriend.[2][3]
Cast edit
- Ai Saotome: Mineko Kagami[4]
- Sachiko Itō: Kotoe Hiratsuka
- Koichi Iwaki: Shari
- Hiroshi Nawa: Tarō Iruka
- Kōji Minakami: Mamoru Iruka
- Akiyoshi Fukae: Takehiko Ōbayashi
- Yoshishige Ōtsuka: Eiko Kanzaki
- Yoshishige Ōtsuka: Akiko Kanzaki
- 美露: Tommy
- Mitsu Senda: Jōji
- Kotomi Aoki: Akane Minakawa
- Mariko Nishina: Hiromi
- Keiichi Satō: Mikami
- Ryūji Katagiri: Abe
- Madoka Sawa: Julie
- Akira Takahashi: Keiji
- Hiromichi Nakahara: Movie star
Critical appraisal edit
Female Cats director Shingo Yamashiro was best known as an actor, having debuted in 1957.[5] He appeared in the Battles Without Honor and Humanity series, and one of his better-known appearance for Western audiences is in Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Sweet Home (1989).[5][6]
In his Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema, Jasper Sharp uses Female Cats as an example of the range of themes possible in the Roman Porno genre, calling it an Argento-esque thriller.[3] In their Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films, the Weissers compliment Yamashiro's direction as the best thing about the film. They write that he, "goes the extra mile to compose many astonishingly good-looking sequences, punctuated by some creatively stylish camerawork."[2] A lesbian shower sequence between Mineko and Sachiko is singled out for praise. The scene is shot from the shower faucet's point of view, through a spray of water.[2] However they fault the film's unimaginative script and its "lurid plot".[2]
Availability edit
Female Cats was released theatrically in Japan on December 23, 1983.[7] It was released to home video in VHS format in Japan on March 16, 1984, and re-issued on June 22, 1990. It was released as part of the Nikkatsu Roman Porno Series of VHS releases on December 6, 1991.[8][9][10] It was released on DVD in Japan on December 4, 1998, and re-released on DVD on June 23, 2006, as part of Geneon's fourth wave of Nikkatsu Roman porno series.[11][12] In this format it was issued in the 4-disc Roman Porno series DVD Box, Vol. 1 on March 7, 2008.[13] It is currently scheduled to be released in the USA on DVD May 7, 2013, under the title 'She Cat'.
Bibliography edit
English edit
- "MENEKO". Complete Index to World Film. Retrieved 2009-09-17.
- Mesu neko (1983) at IMDb
- Sharp, Jasper (2008). Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema. Guildford: FAB Press. pp. 127, 367. ISBN 978-1-903254-54-7.
- Weisser, Thomas; Yuko Mihara Weisser (1998). Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films. Miami: Vital Books : Asian Cult Cinema Publications. ISBN 1-889288-52-7.
Japanese edit
- 女猫(1983) (in Japanese). allcinema.net. Retrieved 2009-09-17.
- 女猫 (in Japanese). Japanese Cinema Database (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Archived from the original on 2012-03-11. Retrieved 2009-09-17.
- 女猫 (in Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. Retrieved 2009-09-17.
- 女猫(1983)(邦画) (in Japanese). Kinema Junpo. Archived from the original on 2011-10-07. Retrieved 2009-09-17.
- 女猫 (in Japanese). www.nikkatsu-romanporno.com. Archived from the original on 2009-02-03. Retrieved 2009-09-17.
Notes edit
- ^ 女猫(1983) (in Japanese). allcinema.net. Retrieved 2009-09-17.
- ^ a b c d Weisser, p. 140.
- ^ a b Sharp, Jasper (2008). Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema. Guildford: FAB Press. p. 127. ISBN 978-1-903254-54-7.
- ^ 女猫(1983)(邦画) (in Japanese). Kinema Junpo. Archived from the original on 2011-10-07. Retrieved 2009-09-17.
- ^ a b "Film, TV actor Yamashiro dies at 70". Kyodo News. Japan Times. 2009-08-15. Retrieved 2009-09-17.
- ^ Weisser, p. 180.
- ^ "女猫". Japanese Cinema Database (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Archived from the original on 2012-03-11. Retrieved 2009-09-17.
- ^ "女猫 (VHS)" (in Japanese). Retrieved 2009-09-17.
- ^ "女猫 (VHS)" (in Japanese). Retrieved 2009-09-17.
- ^ 女猫 早乙女愛 日活名作映画館ロマンシリーズ (VHS) (in Japanese). ASIN 4890650814.
- ^ "女猫 (DVD)" (in Japanese). Retrieved 2009-09-17.
- ^ ジェネオン エンタテインメントよりＤＶＤリリース (in Japanese). P.G. Web Site. Archived from the original on May 1, 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-17.
- ^ "日活名作ロマンシリーズDVD-BOX 女優選集 Vol.1" (in Japanese). Retrieved 2009-09-17.