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Belladonna of Sadness

Play trailer 1:30 Poster for Belladonna of Sadness 1973 1h 33m Fantasy Drama Anime Play Trailer Watchlist
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90% Tomatometer 42 Reviews 74% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
A peasant woman is banished from her village and makes a deal with the devil to gain magical powers.
Belladonna of Sadness

What to Know

Critics Consensus

Belladonna of Sadness has more than enough brilliant visual artistry to keep audiences enraptured even as the film's narrative reach slightly exceeds its grasp.

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Critics Reviews

View All (42) Critics Reviews
Wael Khairy RogerEbert.com What starts off as erotic hallucinatory psychedelia ends with a powerful message about female solidarity...beneath all the horror, the torture, and the violence, you’ll find a cry for revolt against various forms of inhumanity. Feb 20, 2024 Full Review Violet Lucca Film Comment Magazine Carefully constructed and a little sloppy, alluring and disturbing, this gem deserves a trigger warning, but also a chance. Mar 1, 2018 Full Review John DeFore The Hollywood Reporter The artwork is achingly delicate, but there's nothing subtle about Belladonna of Sadness. Mar 1, 2018 Full Review Guillem Martinez Oya Cinematismo A museum's picture in movement. A stimulant revisit to the legend Joan of Arc. About womanhood empowerment [Full review in Spanish] Rated: 4/5 May 16, 2021 Full Review Panos Kotzathanasis easternKicks.com Belladonna of Sadness is a landmark in the history of animation, both Japanese and international, and both due to its style and its radical content, Jul 26, 2020 Full Review Emilie Black Cinema Crazed It's a story worth at least one watch even if these aspects are not for you as the trippy watercolor animation should keep anyone's attention. Rated: 4/5 Apr 19, 2020 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (38) audience reviews
Cees T Trippiest hentai drama i've ever half watched. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 08/05/24 Full Review Audience Member A very artistic yet very off-putting film that fetishes rape. Definitely not a very pleasant film despite it's gorgeous art style. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 07/13/22 Full Review Audience Member Perhaps a far more interesting film in idea than execution, this animated psychedelic wig-out charts the tragic life of Jeanne, the Beladonna of Sadness, and millions of other women raised and repressed under religious patriarchy. It's a product of its time, in terms of the advent of women's sexual liberation, but I'm curious how this ended up being made in Japan, of all places. In places its animation is fantastic, elsewhere a little slapdash, and sometimes its too keen to shock for it's own good. The fuzzed up soundtrack is fantastic. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 02/16/23 Full Review l.d. b This movie is very much a product of the Psychedelic 1970s. It is very X-rated and stepped in both medieval French and Japanese mythologies on female empowerment, to make comment on both Sexual liberation and Feminism movements of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The art is very wonderful, and if you are fan of water colors you will enjoy the art very much. Warning this movie deals with rape, and revenge in a very graphic manner. If you have the mind to handle the concepts that are being portrayed and commented on in this movie, I would say check it out. It is more then worth it. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member This movie was approximately 90 minutes of loosely connected rape scenes followed by an extremely brief slideshow of paintings of the French Revolution. Half a star is awarded for the fun schoolhouse rock animation in the middle. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 01/27/23 Full Review Audience Member Yes yes of course it is very artistic to fetishize rape. This whole story is about a woman getting raped on her wedding night in a very "artistic" way some might say, then making a deal with the devil who rapes her everytime he comes to force her to make a deal. Spare yourself some trauma and skip this movie. Also this is a prime example of why you shouldn't trust IMDB reviews as a woman. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Belladonna of Sadness

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis A peasant woman is banished from her village and makes a deal with the devil to gain magical powers.
Director
Eiichi Yamamoto
Screenwriter
Yoshiyuki Fukuda, Eiichi Yamamoto
Production Co
Nippon Herald Films
Genre
Fantasy, Drama, Anime
Original Language
Japanese
Rerelease Date (Theaters)
May 6, 2016
Release Date (Streaming)
Oct 12, 2016
Runtime
1h 33m