Criterion is releasing in mid-September a fantastic horror movie from 1960 called Jigoku, or Hell. I have a copy that I bought from a dealer on ebay a few years ago, and I will definitely upgrade to this edtion. It's about a student who is involved in a hit and run accident, who becomes riddled with guilt. He encounters a person -- his doppleganger?-- who is pure evil, and goes with him and his girlfriend to a party, where they are all poisoned and killed. They all end up in the afterlife, which is one firey pit of evil, where all the really bad people are tormented. There is graphic violence that is decades ahead of its time, even a couple of years ahead of Hershall Gordon Lewis. But the vision of the afterlife as imagined by Nobuo Nakagawa, the director, is vivid and disturbing; a social commentary and a spit in the eye to the then contemporary Japanese movie scene. Letterboxed and looks to be in gorgeous color, based on some preview sites. Highly recommended!
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Jigoku, a Japanese horror masterpiece
Criterion is releasing in mid-September a fantastic horror movie from 1960 called Jigoku, or Hell. I have a copy that I bought from a dealer on ebay a few years ago, and I will definitely upgrade to this edtion. It's about a student who is involved in a hit and run accident, who becomes riddled with guilt. He encounters a person -- his doppleganger?-- who is pure evil, and goes with him and his girlfriend to a party, where they are all poisoned and killed. They all end up in the afterlife, which is one firey pit of evil, where all the really bad people are tormented. There is graphic violence that is decades ahead of its time, even a couple of years ahead of Hershall Gordon Lewis. But the vision of the afterlife as imagined by Nobuo Nakagawa, the director, is vivid and disturbing; a social commentary and a spit in the eye to the then contemporary Japanese movie scene. Letterboxed and looks to be in gorgeous color, based on some preview sites. Highly recommended!
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