Join us for the first-ever North American Theatrical Release of this Japanese cult classic! NEW 4K RESTORATION! Enter Discount Code BELLAPONY at checkout and save 30% off admission!

Friday, May 20th - Opening Night!!
Psychedelic Pre-Show at 7pm, Screening at 8pm
Saturday, May 21st - 4:30pm
Sunday, May 22 - 7pm
Saturday, May 28 - 9pm

The Royal Cinema
608 College St West, Toronto
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One of the great lost masterpieces of Japanese animation, BELLADONNA OF SADNESS is a mad, swirling, psychedelic light-show of medieval tarot-card imagery, where horned demons, haunted forests and La Belle Dame Sans Merci collide with 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 longtime collaborator Eiichi Yamamoto (ASTRO BOY, 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 (voiced by Tatsuya Nakadai, from Akira Kurosawa’s RAN) who transforms her into a black-robed vision of madness and desire.

A loose adaptation of Jules Michelet’s La Sorcière, a 1862 proto-feminist history of Satanism and witchcraft in the Middle Ages, BELLADONNA is fueled by a mindblowing Japanese psych rock soundtrack by noted avant-garde jazz composer Masahiko Sato. The film has been newly restored by Cinelicious Pics using the original 35mm camera negative and sound elements – including over 8 minutes of surreal and explicit footage cut from the negative. On par with Rene Laloux’s FANTASTIC PLANET as an LSD-stoked 1970s head trip, the chilling, funky beauty of BELLADONNA marks a major rediscovery for animation fans.

On opening night, come early for an astounding psychedelic pre-show trip of animation and out-there cinema from Japan and around the globe!