In 2006, the French company Ciné Malta obtained the rights to release the film on DVD in its original form. Directly after, a ban was placed on the film at the request of the police, which lasted eight more years in Japan. Nonetheless, it was specially screened at the Tokyo International Fantastic Film Festival in 2004, where it won first place in a fan vote. When the tapes were returned to Japan, they were seized and destroyed by Japanese Customs at Narita Airport it was thereafter banned from domestic imports and screenings in Japan. In 1999, the film was screened at the San Sebastián Horror and Fantasy Film Festival in Spain. ![]() During this time, there were no home releases. From 1994 to 2006, the film could only be viewed in its heavily censored state at film festival screenings and theaters. These performances would complement the film in succeeding years, before its ban.Ĭhika Gentou Gekiga: Shoujo Tsubaki was screened unedited until 1994, when Japanese film censor board Eirin made 26 cuts and alterations. Underground theater group Aka Neko Za performed stunts from the film and interacted with the audience throughout its duration. It was accompanied by realtime special effects, including confetti and smoke bombs. The film premiered in May 1992 under a large red tent at the Mitake Jinja Shinto Shrine in Tokyo. The early marketing for the film was deliberately cryptic, and Harada intended for it to only be viewed at specially held screenings. Due to the film’s graphic imagery, the production received no sponsors and was instead funded using Harada’s life savings and retirement fund. Production began in 1987, the film took five years to produce, and it consists of over five thousand hand-drawn sheets of animation. This, in turn, was adapted into the animated film Chika Gentou Gekiga: Shoujo Tsubaki, which roughly translates to "Underground Projected Dramatic Pictures: The Camellia Girl." The film is known simply as Midori in releases outside of Japan.Īside from the music, sound effects, and an uncredited voice cast, the entirety of the film was created almost exclusively by Hiroshi Harada under the pseudonym "Hisaaki Etsu," who handled directing, scripting, drawing, and animating. One incarnation of the character features in a short story, also titled "Shouji Tsubaki," within an anthology-eventually repurposed as a full-length graphic novel by Suehiro Maruo, known as Mr. The character typically manifested as a young and impoverished female adolescent who sold camellia flowers on the streets. Smitten by Midori's beauty and innocence, Masamitsu takes her under his wing but even as their love grows, dark times loom ahead for Midori and her fellow freaks.Įdit BackgroundThe "Shoujo Tsubaki" or "Camellia Girl" character was a common stock protagonist regularly featured in Japanese street theater throughout the 1920s. Suffering and uncertain of what will become of her, she finally begins to feel at ease when Wonder Masamitsu, a master illusionist, joins the lineup. ![]() ![]() Not only is she responsible for caring for her colleagues and cleaning up after them, but she also is frequently belittled and cruelly abused. Midori compares her new fairground lifestyle to hell. To her horror, she discovers that she has been conned into joining his circus troupe, Aka Neko Za-a traveling freak show consisting of vulgar and deformed performers. When her bedridden mother succumbs to an illness, and with no one else to turn to, Midori visits the man's address. Midori finds little success until, one day, she is approached by a gentleman who offers his sympathy and aid. ![]() In the 1920s, a poverty-stricken 12-year-old girl named Midori resorts to selling camellias in the slums of Tokyo.
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