Shôjo tsubaki: Chika gentô gekiga (1992)

Director:

Hiroshi Harada

Writers:

Hiroshi Harada (screenplay)
Suehiro Maruo (manga)

Genre:

Animation | Drama | Horror | Romance

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Freak | Art Film | Child Abuse | Subculture | Underground Film

Cast

Minako Naka	...	Midori (voice)
Norihiko Morishita	...	Wandâ Masamitsu (voice)
Keinosuke Okamoto	...	Koijirô Arashi (voice)
Kazuyoshi Hayashi	...	Akaza (voice)
Yoshifumi Nomura	...	Muchisute (voice)
Sanae Katô	...	Benietsu (voice)
Yumiko Takagi	...	Kanabun (voice)
Akiko Tanaka	...	Midori no Haha (voice)
Kôji Imoto	...	Hiroshi Inagaki (voice)
Yoshihiko Matsui	...	(voice)
Kinu Yoshimi	...	(voice)
Karuki Tamazukuri	...	(voice)

Also Known As:

Midori (International: English title) (video title)

Runtime:

56 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Kiryûkan

Soundtrack:

Akai shitagi

Cinderella with perverse sex

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The perversity and gore of this animated work by Hiroshi Harada has been a bit overblown. Sure it's a matter of experience, shown to a mainstream audience it would hold some shockers but to a veteran of horror the crudely drawn pictures of a nude female child, weird adult sex and minor gore don't really justify the reputation this work has developed. To be honest, somewhere around 30 minutes into the movie I started having trouble following the plot, maybe it loses something in the cultural translation or perhaps it was just me losing interest in the film. The basic story is this... a young girl loses her father then mother and out of desperation joins a carnival where she is a abused sexually, physically and mentally. The first half of the story is basically Cinderella with perverse sex. Eventually Midori meets her Prince Charming, known only as Master, who it turns out, has a dark side. Midori's choice to get married is fateful in another way, that it destroys her one chance to forever escape the carnival when she is asked to star in a motion picture but her husband refuses to allow it. Realizing that again, Master is Midori's only chance at happiness she eventually forgives him and clings to him as he takes her away from the carnival. But in the end, tragedy strikes and apparently Midori spirals into madness. In the end you can take what message you want from the movie but it's a basic story about the choices available and the choices we make. I liked the story in that it didn't have a sappy and unrealistic happy ending.