Description
Title: Midori (1992)
Genre: Animation, Drama, Horror
Plot Synopsis:
Midori, a young girl, lives a normal life until her mother falls ill and passes away, leaving her completely alone. Tricked by a traveling circus, she becomes trapped in a grotesque world of abuse and cruelty at the hands of the circus performers. Just as she loses all hope, a mysterious magician enters her life, offering her a chance at something different. However, her suffering is far from over as she struggles to find an escape from the horrors that surround her.
Cast and Crew:
- Director: Hiroshi Harada
- Writer: Hiroshi Harada
- Cast:
- Minako Naka as Midori (voice)
- Norihiko Morishita as Wonder Masamitsu (voice)
- Keinosuke Okamoto as Mr. Arashi (voice)
- Kazuyoshi Hayashi as Muchisute the Mummy Man (voice)
- Sanae Kato as Benitsu the Snake Woman (voice)
YouTube Trailer:
Midori | Trailer
IMDb Link:
Midori (1992)
Reviews from Letterboxd:
-
August – ★★★★
“There is so much empathy for what Midori goes through as she tries to find any relief in her waking nightmare. Unflinching with its depictions of cruelty and suffering, specifically because the work is about the hopelessness and despair of her situation. Her innocence and childhood dreams are thrown to the ground and stomped out by a reality of exploitation and abuse.” -
AmethystPudding – ★★★
“Midori is super short, at around 49 minutes in length, so that helps its accessibility for people with shorter attention spans. The weird animation looks almost like Speed Racer at times, yet this was made in 1992—quite odd. Very old-looking, crude animation, much like some of the dark visuals to match, crude and brutal. Definitely NOT like Speed Racer on that front.” -
More_Badass – ★★★★
“The grotesquely hypnotic crossroad between Ujicha, Junji Ito, and Belladonna of Sadness, paved with nightmares and laced with venom. Midori is like a rotted, warped funhouse reflection of Freaks, following an orphaned girl as she is taken in by a perverse sideshow troupe and engulfed in a kaleidoscope of misery and abuse.” -
Angelica Jade Bastién – ★★★★
“A surrealist nightmare that tours through the ways young girls are exploited through experiences of poverty and grave misogyny. Instances of disgusting animal violence, r@pe, murder, and neglect permeate the film with some of the most rancid vibes I have experienced in a film in a long ass time.” -
Manolo Palma Cornejo – ★½
“Midori or The Camellia Girl is a medium-length film with 48 minutes of visual torture and violently banal p0rn0graphy. In its first minutes, the depressive story of Midori is told.”
Meta Description:
A controversial animated horror film, Midori (1992) follows a young girl who is lured into a circus and subjected to brutal abuse. Directed by Hiroshi Harada and based on Suehiro Maruo’s manga Shōjo Tsubaki, the film is known for its disturbing imagery and unique animation style.
Title: Midori: The Camellia Girl (2016)
Genre: Fantasy, Horror, Drama
Plot Synopsis:
Midori, a 14-year-old orphan, is forced into a grotesque traveling freak show, where she endures relentless abuse at the hands of the performers. Her life takes an unexpected turn when a mysterious dwarf magician named Wonder Masamitsu joins the troupe. While he offers her protection, his true intentions remain unclear, leading Midori deeper into a surreal and nightmarish world of cruelty, manipulation, and twisted companionship.
Cast and Crew:
- Director: TORICO
- Writer: TORICO
- Cast:
- Risa Nakamura as Midori
- Shunsuke Kazama as Wonder Masamitsu
- Misaki Morino as Benitsu
- Takeru as Kanabun
- Daichi Saeki as Muchisute
YouTube Trailer:
Midori: The Camellia Girl | Trailer
IMDb Link:
Midori: The Camellia Girl (2016)
Reviews from Letterboxd:
-
Luis_989 – ★★
“While you don’t see anything traumatic or extremely terrible—though that depends on the viewer, of course—Midori: The Camellia Girl is a visceral live-action adaptation of the controversial animated film. It’s a grotesque, surreal journey where ‘innocence’ is more of a pretext to confront extreme cruelty. Not a film for all audiences, mostly because of its visual and thematic crudity, but it’s not a great film either.” -
zeroforconduct – ★½
“Live-action adaptations of anime/manga are notorious for being cheaply made cosplay parties that try too hard to mimic the source material beat-for-beat. This is a bastardization of the cult classic Midori—it plays out just as the stereotype suggests, unfortunately. The overly literal set and costume design just doesn’t translate in real life—it looks like a softcore parody.” -
pirers – ★★★
“I think people who haven’t read Midori might assume it’s something deeply disturbing and distressing, but the truth is that—yes, it has some of that, especially in the ‘92 anime—the tone is actually more satirical than disturbing or pornographic. And this film understands that well.”
Meta Description:
A dark fantasy-horror drama, Midori: The Camellia Girl (2016) follows a young girl trapped in a nightmarish freak show. Directed by TORICO and starring Risa Nakamura, this surreal adaptation of Midori explores the depths of cruelty and twisted companionship in a vividly theatrical style.
Title: The Death Lullaby (1985)
Genre: Animation, Drama, Horror
Plot Synopsis:
A dark and surreal animated short, The Death Lullaby follows a young boy who faces relentless bullying from his peers while living in a rapidly industrializing town. As his suffering intensifies, the film explores themes of childhood violence, societal alienation, and environmental destruction, delivering a haunting critique of modern Japan’s rapid urban expansion.
Cast and Crew:
- Director: Hiroshi Harada
- Writer: Hiroshi Harada
- Cast:
- Kiyohiko Inami
- Katsuhito Takahashi
IMDb Link:
The Death Lullaby (1985)
Reviews from Letterboxd:
-
COBRARocky – ★★★★
“The only quality you can find this in is complete dogshit, and I’m fairly sure my subs were machine-translated. It’s fitting, honestly, because this really does feel like a dangerous piece of animation. Harada communicates a real fury at the modern world just through moving drawings.” -
Laurie Orla – ★★★★★
“This is a raw, furious slice of animation that really is a world away from the usual globular-eyed, cutie-filled material that has come to define Japanese anime. Death Lullaby ostensibly tells the tale of a little boy with a grotesque protruding tooth. The unfortunate kid is being dragged up in an old town that is being literally usurped by the modern world and all the alienation and pollution that such advances often bring.” -
nosebleedhaver – ★★★★
“This thing is a fucking spectacle in every sense. Being my second Hiroshi Harada work, it also really helped to distinguish what about Midori is his vision and what is limitation, as well as what he was drawn to in Shoujo Tsubaki to begin with. Midori feels all the more like a deliberate allusion to/extension of Kamishibai theater, now having seen this film.” -
Aaron Kearns – ★★★★½
“The Death Lullaby is the coming-of-age of the concept of alienation itself, starting with interpersonal child abuse and ostracization, building up to a large-scale late-capitalist embodiment with the story of a small village that’s forcibly demolished for the construction of a bullet train, both narratives being congruent with the history of the construction of Narita airport.” -
chribren – ★★★★★
“‘Nido to Mezamenu Komori Uta,’ also called ‘Lullaby to the Big Sleep,’ is a short, experimental anime film directed in 1985 by Hiroshi Harada. This short film runs for 27 minutes. Basic plot: This film is a take on child bullying and national violence, as well as the environmental pollution problem.”
Meta Description:
A surreal and disturbing animated short, The Death Lullaby (1985) explores themes of child bullying, societal violence, and environmental destruction. Directed by Hiroshi Harada, this dark anime stands as a raw critique of modern Japan’s rapid urbanization and alienation.
