Inscrutable Japanese animation, like a folk legend though based on a 19th Century French novel, tells a compellingly unsavory tale of sex, abasement and revenge set in Feudal Japan where young lovers Jean & Jeanne come up nine cows short of the ten needed to avoid Droit du Seigneur upon their wedding. And not just the Lord; it takes a village to deflower this maid, the visualization stylized, yet graphic. Psychologically & physically rent by the brutal custom, Jeanne refuses Jean’s offer to start anew on the farm, running off to seek payback, now using sex as bait, helped by Satan himself for guidance. Shot in a bewilderingly mixed-up style of limited animation that ranges from Aubrey Beardsley to Little Annie Fannie in design, animated influences spanning FANTASIA to YELLOW SUBMARINE, director Eiichi Yamamoto pushes boundaries of sense & taste like an attention deprived Community College underachiever, holding your interest while overloading on sensory perception. An original cut reportedly incorporated stolen ‘live’ sex footage between the activated still drawings and animated action, a tactic that just might have worked here. It also might have made getting a release difficult. In the event, the film bankrupted Yamamoto’s studio, but a cult following has led to a restoration. Perhaps it plays differently when seen alongside two earlier films that make up a trilogy: A THOUSAND & ONE NIGHTS/’69 and CLEOPATRA/’70 (neither seen here).
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