Synopsis
Hell manifests itself through the sins, shame and desires of an upper class rural family and a mother's grief from beyond the grave.
1979 ‘地獄’ Directed by Tatsumi Kumashiro
Hell manifests itself through the sins, shame and desires of an upper class rural family and a mother's grief from beyond the grave.
A child born from violence. A spiteful mother's quest for revenge forged in the fires of grief and animosity. Morality lost, evil embraced. Tarnished souls consumed by desires they cannot explain. Possessed by hatred and jealousy. Destinies forever altered by the sins of the past...
This 1979 reimagining of of the Japanese horror classic Jigoku is, in my opinion, superior in nearly every way to the original. Gorgeous cinematography and set design, particularly in the purgatory sequences. Fantastic performances from a fully committed cast. Emotionally connective narrative, with more poignant subtext. More competent special effects, that add a layer of believability to the visuals. I was underwhelmed when watching it's inspiration, but I am overwhelmed with how much I fell…
Tatsumi Kumashiro's loose remake of Jigoku follows that same formula of grimy melodrama pissing all over morality until it's submerged into the depths of hell. Kumashiro pushes things even further with his take, leading us through a sprawling account of sin and subterranean punishment.
The film begins with Miho and Ryuzo, two adulterous lovers, as they're hunted down by Miho's husband. Ryuzo is killed while the pregnant Miho is bludgeoned and left for dead, giving birth to Aki before descending into hell. Fast-forward to Aki as a grown woman and race car driver who is being followed by mysterious forces that are trying to kill her. This lures her into the arms of a man who she does not know…
The Inferno is a bit long and slow moving at times. What stands out here is the very imaginative and well-executed depiction of hell. Those scenes are among the best in the movie. The rest of the plot plays more like a drama than horror. I also liked Mieko Harada’s lead performance here. She gets a lot to do and can show many different sides of her. She can be seductive, vulnerable, determent and vengeful. She and the visuals are the highlights of the film and her performance carries the movie even in the slow parts. This movie was directed by Nikkatsu Roman Porno veteran Tatsumi Kumashiro. So there is quite a bit of sex and nudity here but not…
This film might be trying to convince me it is a sleazy exploitation horror film. I'm not falling for it though. This is a soap opera feeling drama. It all surrounds a family and the many sins done by that family. First by the elders then by their children. Generational sin tainting any possible future of the children.
When the children find out about it. That is the clincher here. When and what they did.
That is where the horror and supernatural elements come in. Seems an adulterous couple are fleeing from a vengeful husband. Who happens to be the brother of the man in the couple. Murder happens when he catches them. Now that isn't the end. The female…
The Inferno is the Japanese Fall of the House of Usher, symbolizing the figurative and literal crumbling foundation beneath a cursed family that more overtly indulges in themes of incest than Poe's story. It was even a remake of an earlier film, Jigoku, which released the same year as Roger Corman's adaptation of House of Usher with Vincent Price. Coincidence? I THINK NOT! This plot veers into The Divine Comedy for the stunning climax, presenting by my estimation one of the greatest depictions of Hell in any visual medium.
The main reason this caught my eye was Harada Mieko. Ran is my favorite film, ever. To almost steal a film from Nakadai Tatsuya is no mean feat, but Harada’s Lady Kaede nearly pulls it off.
Also, I love me some trip to hell flicks, and no, I haven’t seen Nakagawa Nobuo’s Jigoku yet, though I have seen other films from him. I guess I’m just too cheap to drop $20 bucks on the old Criterion DVD.
Now, I wish I could love this as much as the others I follow on here, but it just was too slow for me. The characters are all awful people or nuts. Which, to be fair, is pretty much the case in Ran…
Nobody does revenge like Japan, they’ve done every possible angle on it, including ones you couldn’t imagine.
But this movie… this just might take the cake. A daughter born right after her mother’s murder (which means she’s born in death, in HELL!) must avenge said mother by spreading sin among the culprits and their loved ones. In doing so she can take them all back to hell to suffer for eternity. Yep, it’s as awesome as it sounds.
Now granted, the movie isn’t as moment to moment batshit as that synopsis would imply. This is a slow character drama with other worldly elements simmering beneath the surface. It’s still gorgeously crafted (the set design is fucking fantastic) and very effective,…
I expected this to be somewhat low quality, maybe closer to Pink films than anything. While it does have some qualities akin to Pink films, it’s really a very good drama about familial trauma for like 90 minutes and then turns into a gonzo journey through Hell. The journey through Hell is obviously the highlight and it’s gorgeously made. The sets are interesting enough but it’s the (somewhat dated but in a fun way) special effects that were really exciting. People being boiled alive, giants picking people up, people turning into trees, just absolutely gorgeous material here especially the final moments that genuinely create this beautiful crescendo in the midst of the gruesome hellscape.
The long-winded road to hell. I do forget that it wasn’t just Nikkatsu Roman Porno saving cinema during the 1970s. Toei also made films: and poached Nikkatsu talent. Director Tatsumi Kumashiro has always been a mixed-bag for me: just like Chūsei Sone, he’s visually inventive, but often badly paced and tedious. I wish this film was chopped and edited, matching the pacing of Kumashiro’s “Pleasure Campus: Secret Games” (1980). If a Toei horror film could follow the 1 hour pacing and Pinku story beats of Nikkatsu, that’s a marriage worth saving from hell. But with Toei, I stray 💍 Toei’s greatest erotic films during this period are probably “Deep Throat in Tokyo” and “A Haunted Turkish Bathouse.”
Kumashiro had used…
This is AMAZING!!!!!!
Possibly a great example of a remaking being as equally as good, or possibly a tad bit better.
Nobuo Nakagawa revisited through the pink frame (I'm not writing eye), this time examining "hell", which is the scars of rape, sexual violence, repression, incest and abuse within a family.
The budget on this is impressive, as this looks lavish and the scenes of hell in the first half is very good. Slowly the plot moves in a stately and controlled way, telling this totally f**ked up story. When this starts to enter the psycho Norman Bates bit in the prison cellar, this then moves up a few more gears to final all out insanity.
The finale in hell reminds me of Cecil DeMille, Goya and Kenneth Anger. The final 35 mins is brutal and does kinda piss all over from a great high any of Ishii's ero-guro
Well, this was wild.
TRUCK RASCALS Madonna Meiko Harada stars as a woman condemned to hell from birth, born from the corpse of an adulterer. She is drawn back to her place of birth where she unknowingly (at first) seduces her half-brothers and causes general havoc for their family.
The web of relationships between all the family members is interesting, but add this element where Harada is perhaps possessed by her mother, at the very least guided by her, and it creates this fascinating supernatural tale. This isn’t simply a story of a group of wrong-doers getting their comeuppance, nor is it a demon spawn terrorizing a bunch of innocents.
I like Harada. She’s maybe not the best actor, but…
I've been planning to watch this movie ever since I finished Nobuo Nakagawa's Jigoku as part of 3 themed films and titled Hell/Jigoku that I want to watch.
Focusing on the sins of infidelity and incest (probably murder also), then how these sins affect life and give pain to the living and the dead.
This film really gave me goosebumps since the opening, it really emphasized that they didn't play around with this sinful act plus it was supported by a very slick story with poignant, emotional and desiring dialogues.
This film has a bizzare atmosphere, it's hard to explain it but because of the atmosphere, the sins that Miho/Aki, Unpei, Shima, Ryuzo, Yukio and Kumi made me nervous even…