Belladonna of Sadness: A Companion Book to the 1973 Cult Japanese Anime Film

by J.C. Gabel (Editor), Jessica Hundley (Editor)

Belladonna of Sadness , the final film in the adult-oriented Animerama trilogy, is one of the great forgotten masterpieces of Japanese anime. Loosely inspired by La Sorcière , Jules Michelet’s 1862 history of witchcraft and the occult, Belladonna of Sadness tells the story of a young woman who makes a pact with the devil to exact revenge after being raped and driven from her home. This brief synopsis, however, does no justice to the visual spectacle of the film, which proceeds as a series of still images flashing onscreen. Spectacular watercolor paintings by Kuni Fukai marry the art nouveau artifice of artists like Aubrey Beardsley to ’60s psychedelia; the film’s North American distributor, Cinelicious Pics, describes it as “equal parts J.R.R. Tolkien and gorgeous, explicit Gustav Klimt-influenced eroticism.” A legendary cult classic, Belladonna of Sadness has never been officially released in the United States―until now. This publication accompanies the restored film’s North American release.
Beautifully produced in a colorful, large-format edition, this volume provides an indispensable companion to this incredible animated masterpiece, including script outtakes, stills and other ephemera from the film, a text about the film’s painstaking restoration and interviews conducted with the film’s illustrator, composer, and director Eiichi Yamamoto.
The first printing of the book will include a Blu-ray disc of the 4k restored version of the feature film, with bonus features including interviews with the director, composer and illustrator of the film, original trailer and more. Once the first printing of the book is sold out, the Blu-ray will not be included with any future printings.

Genres: Art, Manga, Film

160 pages, Hardcover

Published August 23, 2016

Reviews

[Meredith is a hot mess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once upon a time...

A kind young man and

a beautiful young woman

Were joined in love

Jean and Jeanne

So starts Belladonna of Sadness, a gorgeous animated film I recently watched on Fandor. The five stars is for the art. I'm still not sure how I feel about the story, but as a fan of watercolor as well as Klimt - this animation felt like a psychedelic mixture of the two. There's a dreamy, fairytalesque beginning to this film that quickly turns to erotic horror. The recently married heroine is soon raped by an evil Lord, and thus proceeds a disturbingly graphic rape scene.

What is that howling

In the black sunset?

Not the night wind,

Not a crow,

But a creaking hinge of rusted hope.

Or could it be...

A woman's painful moan.

"I'll give anything...

if someone would save me...

even my soul."



Belladonna soon meets a tiny dick-shaped devil who proceeds to charm her, only to then turn around and violate her. I was aware of the premise before starting this film - that a raped woman sold her soul to the devil for power. I started this film thinking it might be empowering and this was the first sign that indicated to me, no, this is not an empowering film.



I kept on waiting for Belladonna to gain some agency, enact vegeance on those who wronged her...but instead she looked like the above image for most of the film. Frail, sad, and hauntingly beautiful. She does gain some power, but it's always quickly followed by tragedy. Her meeting with what seemed to be the tiny-dick devil grown up was disturbing as well as entrancing:

I have no need for puny souls

who would throw themselves at my feet.

My lust hungers for souls

crushed under the weight of despair

driven to cursing God, mad for vengeance.

Yours is coming along quite nicely!

Ah, how beautiful you are today.

The state of your body, your spirit...

That is what stokes my desire

I later looked up Osamu Tezuka and I honestly wasn't surprised at all to learn he was racist and sexist. While I'm grateful to have seen this movie, I can't say I'll be rewatching it. I've already found the soundtrack by Masahiko Satoh, which is the only part of this film I'll likely to return too. Despite the faux feminism, despite the heroine's tragic ending, the art of this movie can't be denied. It's fully deserving of the restoration efforts. I wish I could afford this limited-edition book. Currently the only copy I found is available on ebay for $400. If anyone is interested in the context of this film and Osama Tezuka so far this is the most insightful article I've found: https://medium.com/@samgurry/arcane-r...

[Damian Jarvis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Split into 4 sections this covers:-

1. An in-depth critical reappraisal of the film by Dennis Bartok
2. Reprints (some full page) of various frames and scenes from the film
3. Unabridged, transcripts of q&a interviews with the creators (shortened versions can be found on the blu-ray)
4. Detailed explanations from the various technicians involved explaining how the 4K restoration came about

It’s an absolute marvel - the final chapter is very interesting from just a technical POV on how these restorations are actually physically undertaken.

[Katie Pham · Rating 5 out of 5]

The movie is a masterpiece. And this book is a memoir of that. Incredible work!

[Zander Engelke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Art book of one of my top 3 movies,, cannot believe I own this. So beautiful,, I have got to share this with everyone interested.