Jigoku (1960)

Jigoku (“The Sinners of Hell”)
Directed by Nobuo Nakagawa
Written by Nobuo Nakagawa and Ichiro Miyagawa
1960/Japan
Shintoho Film Distribution Company
First viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Enma, King of Hell: Hear me! You who in life piled up sin upon sin will be trapped in Hell forever. Suffer! Suffer! This vortex of torment will whirl for all eternity.[/box]

This vision of Hell is enough to keep even the most ardent sinner on the straight and narrow!

Shiro is having a series of very bad days mostly due to his constant companion, the clearly evil Tamura.  First he lets Tamura drive his car and immediately flees after hitting and killing a yakuza.  The mother and mistress of the yakuza are on a mission to kill both men. Then his fiancee dies in a taxi accident.  Shiro was the one that insisted on taking a taxi.

It goes on and on.  Every time Shiro shows up, somebody dies.  Tamura is always leering somewhere nearby.

Most of the other characters in the film are also guilty of sins that have gone undetected thus far.  Finally, Tamura takes Shiro on a grand tour of the Eight Buddhist Hells that will greet all sinners who have gone unpunished during life.

The plot and acting are not up to much.  It is the cinematography, color, and nightmare vision of Hell that make the film worth seeing.  It would make a fitting Halloween double bill with Nakagawa’s Ghost Story of Yatsuya (1959).

Trailer (no subtitles)