Tag Archives: Japanese

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Japan Cuts Film Festival at Japan Society Emphasizes the Eccentric

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By Mike Hale
July 3, 2015

The annual cinematic cornucopia known as Japan Cuts — the largest festival of Japanese film in the United States — has previously been presented in association with the even larger New York Asian Film Festival. This year, its ninth, Japan Cuts is going it alone as it presents 28 features and a program of experimental shorts beginning Thursday through July 19 at Japan Society in Manhattan.

BELLADONNA OF SADNESS The most distinctive item on the program is this restoration of a 1973 animated feature produced by the anime legend Osamu Tezuka and directed by his colleague Eiichi Yamamoto. It’s an Age of Aquarius curio, based on a 19th-century study of witchcraft and featuring alternately flowery and surprisingly graphic depictions of sex. (No one under 18 will be admitted to the screening.) Fair warning: The story, about a peasant woman assaulted by the king on her wedding night, is both a female-empowerment fable and a rape fantasy, in which the initial attack is followed by less violent anime-style intrusions of flowering tendrils and devilish imps. But the impact of the story is secondary to the strangeness and beauty of the mostly still images (the camera moves slowly across them) done in styles resembling Klimt, O’Keeffe, Op Art, Ralph Steadman and the higher class of Playboy illustration.

Belladonna of Sadness

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BELLADONNA OF SADNESS

1973 | dir: Eiichi Yamamoto | 86 min

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One of the great lost masterpieces of Japanese animation, never before officially released in the U.S., BELLADONNA OF SADNESS is a mad, swirling, psychedelic light-show of medieval tarot-card imagery with horned demons, haunted forests and La Belle Dame Sans Merci, equal parts J.R.R. Tolkien and gorgeous, explicit Gustav Klimt-influenced eroticism. The last film in the adult-themed Animerama trilogy produced by the godfather of Japanese anime & manga, Osamu Tezuka and directed by his long time collaborator Eiichi Yamamoto (“ASTRO BOY” and “KIMBA THE WHITE LION”), BELLADONNA unfolds as a series of spectacular still watercolor paintings that bleed and twist together. An innocent young woman, Jeanne (voiced by Aiko Nagayama) is violently raped by the local lord on her wedding night. To take revenge, she makes a pact with the Devil himself (voiced by Tatsuya Nakadai, from Akira Kurosawa’s RAN) who appears as an erotic sprite and transforms her into a black-robed vision of madness and desire.

Extremely transgressive and not for the easily offended, BELLADONNA is fueled by a mindblowing Japanese psych rock soundtrack by noted avant-garde jazz composer Masahiko Satoh. The film has been newly restored by Cinelicious Pics using the original 35mm camera negative and sound elements – and including over 8 minutes of surreal and explicit footage cut from the negative. On par with Rene Laloux’s FANTASTIC PLANET and Ralph Bakshi’s WIZARDS as an LSD-stoked 1970s head trip, BELLADONNA marks a major rediscovery for animation fans. If Led Zeppelin had a favorite film, this would be it. In other words, Stairway to Hell. (In Japanese with English subtitles.)

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“A bewitching masterpiece”
Glenn Kenny – The New York Times

“See Belladonna now or be damned to perdition!”
Robert Brenner – The Huffington Post

“Belladonna of Sadness is a major re-discovery”
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky – A.V. Club

“Yamamoto’s magnum opus may have gotten here four decades behind schedule, but the wait was more than worth it.”
Charles Bramesco – UPROXX

IN THEATERS
May 6-June 2, 2016 – HELD OVER! Metrograph New York, NY get ’em
May 6-23, 2016 – HELD OVER! Alamo Drafthouse – New Mission San Francisco, CA get ’em
May 12-26, 2016 – HELD OVER! The Cinefamily Los Angeles, CA get ’em
May 13-26, 2016 – HELD OVER! Alamo Drafthouse – South Lamar Austin, TX get ’em
May 13-19, 2016 Alamo Drafthouse – Littleton-Denver Denver, CO get ’em
May 13-26, 2016 – HELD OVER! Denver Film Society Denver, CO get ’em
May 13-26, 2016 – HELD OVER! Cable Car Cinema Providence, RI get ’em
May 13-26, 2016 – HELD OVER! Alamo Drafthouse – Vintage Houston Houston, TX get ’em
May 13-26, 2016 – HELD OVER! The Loft Cinema Tuscon, AZ get ’em
May 13-16, 2016 Brattle Theater Boston, MA get ’em
May 20-30, 2016 Texas Theater Dallas, TX get ’em
May 20-26, 2016 Northwest Film Forum Seattle, WA get ’em
May 20, 2016 Cinemapolis Ithica, NY get ’em
May 20, 2016 International House Philadelphia, PA get ’em
May 20-June 2nd, 2016 Alamo Drafthouse – El Paso El Paso, TX get ’em
May 20-June 2nd, 2016 Alamo Drafthouse – Lubbock Lubbock, TX get ’em
May 20-22, 2016 The Royal Cinema Toronto, Canada get ’em
May 20-26, 2016 Alamo Drafthouse Omaha Omaha, NB get ’em
May 20-June 9, 2016 – HELD OVER! Gateway Film Center Columbus, OH get ’em
May 20-26, 2016 Jean Cocteau Cinema Santa Fe, NM get ’em
May 20-23, 2016 Hollywood Theater Dormont Pittsburgh, PA get ’em
May 26, 2016 Mayfair Theatre Ottawa, Canada get ’em
May 27-30, 2016 Hollywood Theater Portland, OR get ’em
May 27-30, 2016 Alamo Drafthouse – Ritz Austin, TX get ’em
June 2, 2016 Alamo Drafthouse – Yonkers Yonkers, NY get ’em
June 3-4, 2016 AFI Silver Silver Spring, MD get ’em
June 3-5, 2016 Cleveland Cinematheque Cleveland, OH get ’em
June 3-8, 2016 Pacific Cinematheque Vancouver, Canada get ’em
June 3-9, 2016 Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts (UICA) Grand Rapids, MI get ’em
June 3-9, 2016 Tower Theatre Salt Lake City, UT get ’em
June 6-7, 2016 Trylon Microcinema Minneapolis, MN get ’em
June 10, 2016 Dryden Theatre Rochester, NY get ’em
June 15, 2016 Sun-Ray Cinema Jacksonville, FL get ’em
June 17-19, 2016 Videology Brooklyn, NY get ’em
June 17-19, 2016 Starlite Cinemas Rochester, NH get ’em
June 17-23, 2016 Cinestudio Hartford, CT get ’em
June 17-23, 2016 The Frida Cinema Santa Ana, CA get ’em
June 24-26, 2016 Broad Theater New Orleans, LA get ’em
June 25-26, 2016 Rio Theatre Vancouver, Canada get ’em
June 24-30, 2016 O-Cinema Miami, FL get ’em
June 24-30, 2016 Grand Illusion Cinema Seattle, WA get ’em
July 1-7, 2016 Railroad Square Cinema Waterville, ME get ’em
July 1-4, 2016 Music Box Theatre Chicago, IL get ’em
July 7-8, 2016 Speed Art Museum Louisville, KY get ’em
July 8-10, 2016 Austin Film Society Austin, TX get ’em
July 15-17, 2016 Capitol Theater Olympia, WA get ’em
July 20-27, 2016 – ENCORE SHOWS! Cinefamily Los Angeles, CA get ’em
July 22-28, 2016 Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center Lincoln, NB get ’em
July 28, 2016 Globe Cinema Calgary, Canada get ’em
July 29-August 4, 2016 Cinematheque Quebecois Montreal, Canada get ’em
August 12-13, 2016 The Belcourt Nashville, TN get ’em
August 24, 2016 Metro Cinema Edmonton, Canada get ’em
August 26, 2016 Dairy Arts Center Boulder, CO get ’em
September 16-18 & 21, 2016 The Cinefamily Los Angeles, CA get ’em
September 23, 2016 Indiana University Cinema Bloomington, IN get ’em
September 24-25, 27 & 30, 2016 The Cinefamily Los Angeles, CA get ’em
September 30, 2016 Amherst Cinema Amherst, MA get ’em
October 1, 2016 The Cinefamily Los Angeles, CA get ’em
October 14-20, 2016 Row House Cinema Pittsburgh, PA get ’em
October 27, 2016 Charles Theater Baltimore, MA get ’em
October 28-30, 2016 Doc Films, University of Chicago Chicago, IL get ’em

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INDIEWIRE: Cinelicious Pics Restoring Animated Masterpiece BELLADONNA OF SADNESS for U.S. Release

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 29, 2014 | 9:00AM PT

Cinelicious Pics has signed an exclusive deal to restore and distribute the long-unavailable 1973 Japanese animated masterpiece BELLADONNA OF SADNESS, as its first major restoration and re-release. The last film in the groundbreaking Animerama trilogy produced by the godfather of Japanese anime & manga, Osamu Tezuka (METROPOLIS, ASTRO BOY) and directed by his long time Belladonna_Of_Sadness_Poster_760x1089collaborator Eiichi Yamamoto, BELLADONNA is a mad, swirling, psychedelic lightshow of medieval tarot-card imagery with horned demons and haunted forests. Never before released in the U.S., BELLADONNA OF SADNESS unfolds as a series of spectacular still watercolor paintings that bleed and twist together like an animated version of Chris Marker’s LA JETEE. Cinelicious will restore the feature using the original 35mm camera negative and sound elements in anticipation of a 2015 theatrical, VOD, and home video re-release in North America.

Cinelicious Pics, which launched earlier this year, is uniquely positioned to restore film through its parent company Cinelicious. “It took months of negotiations to convince the Japanese rightsholders to entrust us with the original camera negative of the film which we’re restoring in-house,” says Cinelicious Pics’ President Paul Korver. “People will be simply blown away by the wild, hallucinatory images and soundtrack,” he adds. “BELLADONNA OF SADNESS belongs on a short list with Rene Laloux’s FANTASTIC PLANET and Ralph Bakshi’s WIZARDS as one of the trippiest animated films ever conceived,” adds Cinelicious Pics’ EVP of Acquisitions & Distribution Dennis Bartok. “This is a major rediscovery – and I have to give credit to Hadrian Belove at The Cinefamily here in L.A. for bringing the film to our attention.”

Belladonna_Of_Sadness_Face_760x570An innocent young woman, Jean (voiced by Katsutaka Ito) is savagely assaulted by the local lord on her wedding night. To take revenge, she makes a pact with the Devil himself (voiced by Tatsuya Nakadai, from Akira Kurosawa’s RAN) who appears as an erotic sprite and transforms her into a black-robed vision of madness and desire. The film is fueled by a Japanese psych rock soundtrack by Masahiko Sato. The deal was negotiated by Cinelicious Pics’ President Paul Korver, President of Business Affairs Kristine Blumensaadt and EVP Dennis Bartok with Japanese rightsholders Gold View Co. and Mushi Productions.