Synopsis
An evil feudal lord rapes a village girl on her wedding night and proceeds to ruin her and her husband's lives. After she's eventually banished from her village, the girl makes a pact with the devil to gain magical ability and take revenge.
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Cast
- Aiko NagayamaJeanne / Belladonna (voice)
- Tatsuya NakadaiThe Devil (voice)
- Takao ItoJean (voice)
- Masaya TakahashiThe Lord (voice)
- Shigako ShimegiThe Lord's Mistress (voice)
- Natsuka YashiroThe Witch (voice)
- Masakane YonekuraThe Priest (voice)
- 88
Slant Magazine
Eiichi Yamamoto's cult anime strikes a perfect balance between midnight-movie enchantment and arthouse sophistication. - 83
The A.V. Club
Perhaps too ambitious for its own good (or at least its budget), the film is impossible to dismiss, even if it exhausts its reserve of ideas. - 83
IndieWire
There's an undeniable genius at work here, strong enough to survive the psychedelic sleaze that's been baked into every frame. - 80
The New York Times
Belladonna of Sadness is compulsively watchable, even at its most disturbing: The imagery is frequently graphic, and still, after over 40 years, it has the power to shock. - 80
The Hollywood Reporter
The artwork is achingly delicate, but there's nothing subtle about Belladonna of Sadness, a blast of psychedelic madness full of rape, tyranny and Satanism. - 78
Austin Chronicle
For those up for an adventure into the LSD-influenced world of counterculture animation, Belladonna of Sadness is a curious artifact that, after 43 years, remains a glorious mindf--k. - 75
The Film Stage
For all its overindulgence in depravity, Belladonna stands as both an important forebear to a now-beloved genre and a confused, albeit earnest tribute to those who dare defy authority in order to elevate themselves. - 63
RogerEbert.com
That mashup — of feminine beauty and insanity-inducing toxicity —is a good cipher for everything about Belladonna of Sadness (“Kanashimi no Balladonna”).