Senya Ichiya Monogatari

(English)///(mas abajo en español)
Wrapped in veils of desire,
submerged in an hourglass, carrying nothing.
Yearning until reaching the climax of passion,
planning to live life on the edge: doing it all, doing it to each other.

And yes, this movie screams at you: sex, boobs, the 70s, psychedelia, drugs, and magic.

One Thousand and One Nights is the first film in the Animerama trilogy, brought to life by Osamu Tezuka and Eiichi Yamamoto. The trilogy consists of three films:

... – A Thousand and One Nights (Senya Ichiya Monogatari)
– Cleopatra
– Belladonna of Sadness

The goal behind all three was to break away from the idea that animation was only for kids—to explore sexuality, freedom, and the forbidden—and to prove that this medium could be just as provocative, poetic, and experimental as live-action cinema.

And A Thousand and One Nights kicks this off in a super hippie way. Let’s not forget: this film came out in 1969, right when counterculture was in full swing and the spirit of freedom, psychedelia, and creative rebellion was in the air.

THE ERA WHEN DRIVING A VAN AND GETTING HIGH WAS COOL.

The movie borrows names and some loose concepts from the original book but mixes them all up to create its own bizarre, erotic thing.

Put simply, it’s the story of Aldin, a water seller who falls in love with a slave girl being auctioned off. Since he has no money, he decides to steal her—and that decision triggers a string of magical, surreal (and very sexual) events.

On a broader level: this movie is super weird. Back then, eroticism was a way of rebelling against the traditional, and the film embraces that fully, making the sexual act the engine that drives everything. No surprise that the most memorable, experimental, and beautifully animated scenes are the sexual ones. If I had to describe this movie in two words, they’d be:

Sexually inconsistent.

And maybe that’s where its beauty lies...

The animation is incredibly experimental. Sometimes it looks strange, beautiful, surreal—like something out of an LSD-fueled wet dream. There are gorgeous sequences blending live-action with animation; others deform and abstract everything just to make you, as the viewer, feel “off,” in a good way. And yes, sometimes the animation seems to fall apart, clearly due to a lack of budget. It’s a bit annoying—hence the “inconsistent” part—but there are more highs than lows.

Beautiful to watch if you have an open mind and can appreciate eroticism as art—not just cheap titillation.

Sure, it touches on heavy themes, but only in a superficial way, just enough to keep the “plot” moving without too many consequences. It’s a provocative movie and a true pioneer in adult animation. You could compare it to Fritz the Cat (which I did in a mini-review [here]) because of the context, era, and how revolutionary both were for the medium.

By now, this film should be considered a classic. (Maybe in Japan they do give it the respect it deserves—idk.)

Anyway, I personally liked it for how weird and unapologetically horny it is. It feels long (and it is long—2 hours and 8 minutes), but it didn’t drag for me. I felt like part of Aldin’s journey—a lucky, shameless, horny protagonist I honestly really liked.

A visual orgy full of hypnotic colors, charming characters, and desert-flavored rock & roll music that gives the whole experience a unique kind of beauty...

I liked it a lot lol. It’s the kind of movie they’d play in a club full of hummus and no-rules orgies.

As the start of the Animerama trilogy, it’s truly one of a kind and really draws you into the vision cooked up by those two horny geniuses, Tezuka and Yamamoto.

Can’t wait to watch Cleopatra next lol.

((((Español)))
Envueltos en velos de deseo,
sumergidos en un reloj de arena, portando nada.
Deseando hasta alcanzar la cópula de la pasión,
planeando vivir la vida al límite: haciéndolo todo, haciéndoselo todo.

Y sí, esta película te grita: sexo, tetas, años 70, psicodelia, drogas y magia.

Las mil y una noches es la primera película de la trilogía Animerama, de la mano de Osamu Tezuka y Eiichi Yamamoto. Está compuesta por tres películas:

– Senya Ichiya Monogatari (Las mil y una noches)
– Cleopatra
– Belladonna of Sadness

Las tres tenían el objetivo de romper con la idea de que la animación era solo para niños; explorar la sexualidad, la libertad y lo prohibido; y demostrar que este medio podía ser tan provocador, poético y experimental como el cine puro y duro que ya se hacía.

Y Las mil y una noches inicia todo esto de una manera muy hippie. No olvidemos que esta película es de 1969, cuando la contracultura estaba en pleno auge y el espíritu de libertad, psicodelia y desobediencia creativa lo impregnaba todo.

¡ERAN LOS AÑOS DONDE ANDAR EN UNA CAMIONETA Y JUGAR AL FUMAROLA ERA COOL!

La película toma nombres del libro original y algunos conceptos sueltos, y los revuelve para crear su propia cosa toda bizarra y erótica.

En términos simples, es la historia de Aldin, un aguatero que se enamora de una esclava que estaban subastando. Como no tiene dinero, decide robársela, y esa decisión desencadena una serie de eventos mágicos y surreales (con resultados sexuales).

Y ahora, yendo a términos generales: es una película súper rara. En esa época el erotismo era una forma de mostrar rebeldía contra lo tradicional, y la película aprovecha muy bien eso, haciendo que el “acto sexual” sea todo lo que mueve a esta historia. No por nada las escenas más memorables, experimentales y mejor animadas tienen que ver con sexo. De hecho, si pudiera describir esta película con dos palabras, serían:

"Sexualmente inconsistente"

Y ahí radica su belleza, creo…

La animación es muy experimental. Hay veces donde todo se ve extraño, bello, surreal y parece sacado de un sueño húmedo post-viaje de LSD. Hay escenas guapísimas donde se combina acción real con animación; también hay momentos donde todo se deforma y se abstrae para que uno, como espectador, se sienta “extraño”, por así decirlo. Y otras veces la animación parece romperse porque claramente les faltaba plata. Un poco molesto, sí, por eso digo que es inconsistente, pero hay más momentos buenos que malos.

Bellísima de ver si tenés la mente abierta y apreciás el erotismo como arte, y no como simple morbo.

Claro, toca temas densos, pero de manera superficial, y solo lo hace para que la “”“trama”“” avance sin muchas repercusiones. Es una película bastante provocadora y una de las pioneras en este campo de la animación para adultos. Podría compararla con Fritz the Cat (a la cual le hice una mini-reseña aquí) por el contexto, la época y la revolución que ambas fueron para el medio.

A este punto, esta peli debería ser considerada un clásico. (Creo que en Japón sí le dan el lugar que merece, idk.)

Pero en fin, personalmente me gustó por lo extraña y subida de tono que es. Se siente larga (de hecho es larga, dura 2 horas y 8 minutos), pero no se me hizo pesada. Me sentí parte del viaje de Aldin, que por cierto es un protagonista suertudo, sinvergüenza y horny que me cayó muy bien.

Una orgía visual llena de colores envolventes, personajes simpáticos y con música de rock and roll con toques de desierto que dotan a esta experiencia de una belleza singular…

Me gustó mucho xd, es ese tipo de películas que pondrían de fondo en clubes donde hay humuus, y sexo desenfrenado sin reglas...

Como inicio de la trilogía Animerama, es muy único y realmente te sumerge en lo que nos plantearon esos dos cachondos de Tezuka y Yamamoto.

Ya quiero ver Cleopatra xd.

The first in a trilogy of movies adult animation films by Tezuka's Mushi Production known as Animerama, it is very loosely based on One Thousand and One Arabian Nights and features Aladdin as its main character. This version of Aladdin is cowardly and perverted, but also ambitious, adventureous, and unflappable. The film focuses on his adventures, starting when he finds the beautiful slave girl Miriam. Like the other films in the Animerama, it prides itself as "adult animation," and features plenty of female nudity and sexual content, but nothing explicit is ever shown. In place of traditional sex scenes there are some wonderful ... dreamlike psychedelic scenes that would be used to full effect in Belladona of Sadness. There is a large admixture of irreverent humor mixed alongside the serious plot, but unlike in Cleopatra it does not clash with the tone. The heart of the film seems to be in this mix of humor with a serious adventure film, and the film does a decent job with that. It's not an amazing film and it's a little long for what it is, but it's still a good film for what it is. Serious themes, especially rape, torture, and murder, are depicted in the film. The protagonist Aladdin is generally amoral and self-serving, but he still contrasts to the villain, Badli, who is a heartless murder and rapist. The animation is generally good for the time period, and stands up rather well. Overall a decent film, and much better, balanced, and coherent than the later Cleopatra, though not up to the level of Belladona of Sadness.

I don't know what is weirder, a tiny female genie rubbing her breasts for magic purposes or Tezuka's fetishistic side blatantly displayed in the sensual pink panther sequence. For better or worse, the movie is littered with moments that defy common sense and beg the question “why” at every turn. The problem is however that a supposedly adult movie that does have various sequences of clearly adult content is littered with such misplaced bullshit. If his intention was to make something lighthearted and ultimately devoid of pretense, there shouldn't be entire dramatic segments that are far from self-aware, let alone subverted. He can't focus, his ... tone and pacing are always all over the place. Les Réusltats du Féminisme from fucking 1906 managed to be both absurdist, thoughtful, and the most ahead of its time film in history, which believe it or not, can be done. What this movie represents is basically utter waste of talent on a project that sucks from its very conception. Considering Belladonna came just a bit later, this is just inexcusably lame even for the period it came out.