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Belladonna of Sadness
Movie

Belladonna of Sadness

1973 • Unknown

Woke Score
7
out of 10

Plot

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.

Overall Series Review

This 1973 Japanese animated feature is a psychedelic, watercolor-painted art film that presents a stark, visceral critique of feudal, patriarchal, and religious power structures. The plot centers on a peasant woman, Jeanne, who is brutally victimized by the local nobility and then seeks revenge by making a pact with the Devil. The film explicitly frames its narrative as a metaphor for female liberation and a harsh denunciation of institutionalized misogyny and tyranny. Traditional institutions and their male representatives are portrayed as the primary source of all suffering and moral depravity. The visual style is highly experimental, blending still, painted images with moments of intense, erotic, and often violent animation. The core story is a tragedy of oppression that morphs into a radical, anti-establishment fable of individual power and rebellion, culminating in a call for systemic revolution.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics6/10

The conflict rests heavily on an intersectional hierarchy of class (noble versus peasant) and sex (men versus women). The entire plot is structured as a lecture on systemic oppression and the abuse of privilege by the powerful feudal and male-dominated ruling class. The protagonist is victimized not by chance, but by the systemic 'droit du seigneur' ritual. Since the setting is Medieval France, the narrative does not rely on contemporary race-based identity politics or race-swapping; the characters are defined by their status and sex.

Oikophobia9/10

The film demonstrates extreme hostility toward the institutions of the setting's 'home culture.' The feudal system, the nobility, and the church are all presented as fundamentally corrupt, barbaric, and the root of the common people's suffering. The narrative champions the protagonist's rebellion, which is achieved by breaking entirely with societal and spiritual norms. The conclusion directly links her story of destruction and defiance to the radical overthrow of the French monarchy and its associated heritage.

Feminism10/10

The core of the plot is a manifesto on female liberation. The female lead, Jeanne, is instantly perfect after her Faustian pact, acquiring transformative power through embracing her sexuality and becoming an icon of rebellion and self-actualization. Male characters are depicted almost universally as incompetent (the husband, who is helpless and weak) or toxic and evil (the Baron, who is an oppressor). The narrative makes a clear case that female agency and power stand in direct opposition to a traditional, patriarchal social structure.

LGBTQ+1/10

The story's power dynamics and sexual themes revolve entirely around the oppression and subsequent liberation of a cisgender female protagonist within a traditionally male-female, patriarchal structure. There is no centering of alternative sexualities, questioning of biological sex, or overt promotion of modern queer theory. The sexual content is focused on the protagonist's struggle against heterosexual male-dominated society and her resulting empowerment through a relationship with the Devil figure.

Anti-Theism10/10

Traditional religion is the root of the evil in the narrative. The tyrannical feudal lord is explicitly identified with oppressive religious imagery. The Devil character is presented not as a figure of ultimate evil, but as a path to power and self-actualization, who explicitly validates the protagonist's anger and tells her she is 'more beautiful than god.' The film portrays institutional faith as the repressive force that the protagonist must ally with the 'spiritual vacuum' to overthrow.