8
Jul/15

JAPAN CUTS 2015: BELLADONNA OF SADNESS

8
Jul/15
BELLADONNA OF SADNESS

BELLADONNA OF SADNESS is a spectacular adult fairy tale about sex and power

FESTIVAL OF NEW JAPANESE FILM: BELLADONNA OF SADNESS (KANASHIMI NO BELLADONNA) (Eiichi Yamamoto, 1973)
Japan Society
333 East 47th St. at First Ave.
Friday, July 10, $13, 10:30
Series runs July 9-19
212-715-1258
www.japansociety.org

The third film in Mushi Production’s adult Animerama trilogy, following A Thousand & One Nights and Cleopatra, a pair of collaborations between manga godfather Osamu Tezuka and Eiichi Yamamoto, Belladonna of Sadness is a gorgeously made grown-up fairy tale, a deeply moving erotic story about love and power, loyalty and revenge. Based on Jules Michelet 1862 book Satanism and Witchcraft, also known as La Sorcière, the film follows the misfortunes of Jeanne (voiced by Aiko Nagayama) and Jean (Katsutaka Ito), a couple “drunk on happiness” who present their marriage to the local lord (Masaya Takahashi), a harsh ruler — his evil elegantly expressed by his skeletal head. When Jean and Jeanne are unable to pay the absurdly high tax demanded by the lord, his evil wife (Shigaku Shimegi) decides that the lord and his court will have their way with the virgin Jeanne, then return the spent woman to Jean. Jeanne is raped by the lord in a harrowing, psychedelic, blood-soaked sequence and comes back home with an overwhelming melancholy. As Jean tries to deal with the horrible situation, Jeanne is visited by a small, red, phallus-shaped spirit (Tatsuya Nakadai) who claims to be part of her. “Your soul was screaming, ‘I want power. Someone help me,’” the strange creature says. But every time Jean and Jeanne start to put their life back together, terrible things happen to them, and it gets worse when the town believes that she might be in league with the devil.

Belladonna of Sadness is a beautifully rendered film, awash in lush watercolors by Fukai Kuni that evoke the work of Gustav Klimt and Aubrey Beardsley, as well as Ralph Bakshi and the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine, as it ranges from still scenes like comic-book panels to moving images that include dreamlike shimmering, flowing blood, a sleeping Jeanne being lifted skyward into darkness, and a naked, desperate Jeanne falling down a snowy mountain. Yamamoto often lets the camera linger over emotional scenes before exploding into a trippy wonderland. The film is narrated by Chinatsu Nakayama, who also sings several songs, with music by Masahiko Satō. “I don’t want to forget anger and hate!” a distraught yet determined Jeanne declares at one point, surrounded by swirling colors and flora and fauna. It’s an empowering moment, and frightening as well. Fairy tales are supposed to have happy endings, but Belladonna of Sadness takes you to surprising places you never expected to go. The film is screening July 10 at 10:30 in a brand-new 4K restoration in the “Classics: Rediscoveries & Restorations” section of Japan Society’s annual Japan Cuts Festival of New Japanese Film, which runs July 9-19 and includes such other works as the opening-night selection, the North American premiere of Yuri Irie’s HIBI ROCK: Puke Afro and the Pop Star, which will be followed by a Q&A with the director and a party; Daishi Matsunaga’s Pieta in the Toilet, which was inspired by the last page of Tezuka’s diary; a 4K restoration of Nagisa Oshima’s Cruel Story of Youth; and the hotly anticipated world premiere of Takeshi Watanabe’s Neko Samurai 2: A Tropical Adventure.