Gate of Hell (Jigokumon)
Directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa
Written by Teinosuke Kinugasa and Masaichi Nagata from a play by Kan Kukichi
1953/Japan
Daiei Studios
First viewing/Hulu
[box] “I have little left in myself — I must have you. The world may laugh — may call me absurd, selfish — but it does not signify. My very soul demands you: it will be satisfied, or it will take deadly vengeance on its frame.” ― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre[/box]
Gate of Hell presents a dark tale of obsession in glowing colors and a sumptuous setting.
It is 1160. Lord Kiyomori travels to help put down a rebellion elsewhere and the Emperor’s residence in Kyoto is besieged by two other lords. There is a great battle and a general decides it is necessary to hide thefather and sister of the Emperor. He asks for a volunteer to serve as a decoy for the sister. Lady Kesa (Machiko Kyô) steps up. She sets off in a palanquin guarded by General Moritô and his men. They are promptly attacked by rebels. Moritô vanquishes the attackers. Lady Kesa then resides in Morito’s castle until it is safe to return home.
Lord Kiyomori rewards Moritô’s loyalty by offering to give him anything he wants. After extracting a promise that the Lord really means what he says, Moritô asks to marry Lady Kesa. But unbeknownst to him, she is already married to Wataru, chief of the castle guard. Morito is undeterred and the Lord says he will allow the marriage if Lady Kesa consents. But Kesa seems to be very happily married indeed.
Moritô, who started out as the hero of the piece, simply will not take no for an answer. He takes ever more drastic steps to win his lady, resulting in tragedy for all concerned.
This film grabs the viewer with its stunning sets, costumes, and use of color from the first frame. The story got off to a slow start for me but by mid-way through I was thoroughly involved and so mad at Moritô that I was yelling at the screen. The ending is really moving. Recommended.
Gate of Hell won a well-deserved Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Color. It received an Honorary Oscar for Best Foreign Film.
Clip
You have featured so many quality Japanese films considering what I thought was the overwhelming dominance of Hollywood and Europe at this time. My movie knowledge is sadly lacking it would appear. Thanks again Bea, I’m, really appreciating your blog.
Thanks for de noice woids 🙂
Funnily enough, on the Japanese theme and including the fifties (and later), I was watching NHK tonight and instead of the expected program there was a show on current Japanese cinema. Included was a piece on a coming doco on Toshiro Mifune, thought I’d mention it as perhaps one you might want to keep in the back of the mind for when it debuts stateside if it interests you-
http://akirakurosawa.info/2015/09/10/mifune-the-last-samurai-shown-at-the-venice-film-festival/
This sounds so great! I love Mifune. If you are interested there is a very interesting sort of double biography on Kurosawa and Mifune called The Emperor and the Wolf.
That does look good, thanks!
Now that I’ve had the time….this is something I thought I’d mention as a “thanks again” on the off chance it’s passed you by. It is handy++ IMHO….just added a price watch on “camelcamelcamel” for this book at an outrageously stingy level(s) (“ya never know your luck in the big city”). The 3 camels as it’s sometimes called is extremely handy for Amazon. Basically add a desired price (if available – up to 3 separate prices; Amazon, 3rd party, 3rd party used) for a product via pasting in the Amazon product URL and you’ll be emailed if your price is hit (or lower of course). The site also includes up to 3 graphs of past price history for the product if sold in the past via that URL. Handy! Google camelcamelcamel….sorry for being offtopic movie blog again. Warning, will hurt wallet LOL. No spam threat in my 3 yr experience.
Thanks for the tip!