TALES FROM THE CRITERION CRYPT
Oct 30, 2009In the spirit of the season, we asked a select coven of horror mavens (including a couple of our own) to write about their favorite Criterion scarefests. 445 . . .
Synopsis
Shocking, outrageous, and poetic, Jigoku (Hell, a.k.a. The Sinners of Hell) is the most innovative creation from Nobuo Nakagawa, the father of the Japanese horror film. After a young theology student flees a hit-and-run accident, he is plagued by both his own guilt-ridden conscience and a mysterious, diabolical doppelgänger. But all possible escape routes lead straight to hell—literally. In the gloriously gory final third of the film, Nakagawa offers up his vision of the underworld in a tour de force of torture and degradation. A striking departure from traditional Japanese ghost stories, Jigoku, with its truly eye-popping (and -gouging) imagery, created aftershocks that are still reverberating in contemporary world horror cinema.
Cast
| Shiro Shimizu | Shigeru Amachi |
| Yukiko/Sachiko | Utako Mitsuya |
| Tamura | Yoichi Numata |
| Professor Yajima | Torahiko Nakamura |
| Mrs. Yajima | Fumiko Miyata |
| Gozo Shimizu | Hiroshi Hayashi |
| Ito Shimizu | Kimie Tokudaiji |
| Kinuko | Akiko Yamashita |
| Ensai Taniguchi | Jun Otomo |
| Dr. Kusama | Tomohiko Otani |
| Journalist Akagawa | Koichi Miya |
Credits
| Director | Nobuo Nakagawa |
| Screenplay | Ichiro Miyagawa and Nobuo Nakagawa |
| Producer | Mitsugu Okura |
| Cinematography | Mamoru Morita |
| Production Design | Haruyasu Kurosawa |
| Editing | Toshio Goto |
| Music | Chumei Watanabe |
| Lighting | Hiroshi Ishimori |
| Sound | Kihachiro Nakai |
| Assistant director | Keinosuke Tsuchiya |
Disc Features
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer
- Building the Inferno, a new documentary on director Nobuo Nakagawa and the making of the film, featuring exclusive interviews with actor Yoichi Numata, screenwriter Ichiro Miyagawa, Nakagawa collaborators Chiho Katsura and Kensuke Suzuki, and Cure and Doppelganger director Kiyoshi Kurosawa
- Theatrical trailer
- Galleries of posters from selected Nakagawa and Shintoho Studios films
- New and improved English subtitle translation
- Plus: A new essay by noted Asian-cinema critic Chuck Stephens
From the Current
Jigoku: Hell on Earth
by Sep 18, 2006Never mind that damnation to the fires of Hades is said to be eternal. For some of us, the wait we’ve already endured for a glimpse of hell has been plenty long enough. Director Nobuo Nakagawa’s Hell, that is, otherwise known as Jigoku (1960), the legendary—and for Western audiences . . .
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Has anyone had problems playing the disc ?
2 posts by 2 people updated 10 months ago
