20 April 2019

Jigoku (Japan, 1960)

A group of sinners involved in interconnected tales of murder, revenge, deceit and adultery all meet at the Gates of Hell.

Jigoku (a.k.a. The Sinners of Hell) was the last movie made by the studio Shintoho, thus it became a very rushed production due to budget cuts and all the actors having to help with the sets. Even still, Jigoku turned out to be a bold and different film for its time and is now considered to be a cult classic. It deals with heavy buddhism themes involving hell and how one must atone for sins. The effects and make-up are very dated naturally but the whole depiction of hell and the amount of suffering the sinners has to go through is as effective and horrific as it was way back when, and it goes to show that even with limited means director Nobuo Nakagawa could create a long standing movie because of his visions and ideas.


Genre: Drama/Horror