Midori
MIDORI (1992)
地下幻燈劇画：少女椿 (ちかげんとうげきが：しょうじょつばき)
– Directed by Hiroshi Harada (Eternal Paradise, Lullaby to the Big Sleep)
– Also known as MR. ARASHI’S AMAZING FREAK SHOW.
– Based on the ero guro manga by Suehiro Maruo, which is subsequently based on the narrative of Shoujo Tsubaki, a character who emerged during the Showa era revival of kamishibai. Kamishibai is an 800-year-old form of storytelling used paper scrolls to illustrate spoken stories told to an audience.
– The story tells of a young girl who loses her parents and is taken in by a traveling carnival. She is then abused and forced to work as a slave.
– The film had somewhat of a troubled production and distribution history. Director Harada almost single-handedly created the entire film, due to a the film’s subject matter scaring off potential investors and severely affecting the project’s budget. The production took five years and all of the directors savings.
– MIDORI is considered a partially lost film due to being seized by the Japanese government when it was discovered that the movie contained illegal depictions for the time. The original master reel was destroyed.
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