Le Paon et le Serpent

Impressive work of art. The back cover of the Blu-ray states that this is the last film in the Animerama trilogy. In doing a little research I found that Animerama is defined as "...a series of thematically- related adult anime feature films originally conceived and initiated by Osamu Tezuka..." This third film was co-written and directed by Eiichi Yamamoto inspired by the book SATANISM AND WITCHCRAFT by Jules Michelet.

The animation is fairly basic. It's largely comprised of long paintings, done in watercolor. The effect reminds me of certain Japanese scrolls where, as they unwind, the story is told. In the case of this film, however, the camera slowly moves right to left along the painting, occasionally zooming in. There is also other limited use of cell animation where the camera is shooting each of the different cells and they are presented in sequence on film to show progression/movement...at a lower slower frame rate than, say, the average Disney cell animation. As mentioned, it's all fairly basic and yet still works well in combination with the other elements. Which are:

Narration, requiring reading of subtitles for those not fluent in Japanese.

And a great sound/music score that I wouldn't mind having on CD. It ranges from trippy to hauntingly beautiful with a few actual songs that are quite nice. And other chaotic or horrific or beautiful sounds and music. All complementing the imagery in a way that is very important to this type of animated film.

Who would I recommend this to. It deals with some pretty strong subject matter, not the least of which is rape. Horror fans may appreciate some of the darker aspects of the film. But beyond that: Do you appreciate art? Do you appreciate Japanese culture/history? Are you open to alternative forms of storytelling? If you answer yes to all then you will probably like this film. I thought it was one of those rare treats that I likely will revisit. I'm also now curious about the other two films in the Animerama trilogy.