Jigoku (The Sinners of Hell) poster & wallpaper

Utako Mitsuya, Shigeru Amachi, Yoichi Numata

A high school student has a friend who is pure evil. Him and his friend are outdriving one night when they hit a drunkard and the friend leaves him to die. The student's life then goes down hill from ...( read more  read more... )there.

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67% liked it

906 ratings

Unrated, 100 min.

Directed by: Nobuo Nakagawa

Release Date: January 1, 1960

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Flixster Reviews (101)

  • sanjurosamurai
    June 7, 2009
    sanjurosamurai
    while being an incredibly flawed film in many ways, jigoku is also utterly profound in its message and entirely effective in its execution. a film about a "good" man who through a series of poor choices finds himself in hell, this film builds well in its first two acts until a f...( read more)inal act that enthralls completely. while ones world view may get in the way of their ability to be effected by the portraits of hell in the film, one cant escape the empty feeling that the film provides of a godless existence. a great and creative horror film the likes of which is rarely seen in this genre anymore.
  • DrBenway
    October 30, 2008
    DrBenway
    Jigoku is supposed to be the first picture that used gore as a serious special effect, making it the grandfather of movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Hellraiser and such. Of course, you can't watch the end of the movie without the beginning, so you really have to make the...( read more) choice of suffering through the first half of tedious exposition so you can enjoy the last half before giving up on it, entirely.

    I can't tell you not to see Jigoku, just that it's no longer the terrifying journey it apparently was back in the sixties. The first hour is long enough that I feel confident saying I don't really think I'll ever feel compelled to sit through it again. Western cinema such as Hellraiser owes a great debt to the stylization of the torture sequences, but they are tame in comparison to Clive Barker's far more sexual and visual depiction's two decades later. It is more interesting from cultural and religious perspectives than from a horror angle, but not very.
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  • mjgildea
    May 21, 2008
    mjgildea
    If Mario Bava was Japanese instead of Italian this is what you just might have ended up with--astonishing visuals (namely the last third) and great shoestring special effects. Oh, and some great gore. Unfortunately you'd also end up with a godawful story (or poor cultural transla...( read more)tion) that just may be the very definition of weak. Aside from the gorgeous freakshow at the end my faith in the folks at Criterion is indeed shaken.
  • Stinger839
    February 2, 2008
    Stinger839
    the most visually astonishing vision of hell to ever be rendered on screen
  • FangsFirst
    October 22, 2007
    FangsFirst
    A random Criterion purchase that I forget my reasoning for acquiring; I vaguely recall that it was trying for their first tier pricing (29.99) for some reason at work, but I have no real idea. Might have just randomly done it.

    Anyway, I knew very little about it, I've got to say...( read more), except the title, its meaning, and that director Nobuo Nakagawa is considered (by Criterion, at least, who I guess I find rather reliable) to be the father of modern Japanese horror. I'd read plenty about how the first half or so was pretty standard (or even sub-standard) and some said "boring." I read far more about how the last forty minutes was "harrowing," "disturbing," "filled with human degradation and torture," and that it would not "leave you."

    Well, coming from a history of film littered with all of the above, I was not impressed on that front. But that has never been a front I particularly aim for; while there is a sort of appeal in a film having the capability to disturb, it's not something I actively seek out (and even avoid in some instances). I have an aversion to real violence (including the kind directed toward animals) and so do not touch films like Salo or the like. So, in truth, while I was let down by not experiencing a toe-curling experience which will stick with me for days, weeks or months (do I really want that, anyway?) I still enjoyed (is that the right word?) the film anyway.

    Shiro Shimizu (Shigeru Amachi) is a theology student (we see him in a class where the professor is discussing concepts of Hell throughout the world) who is planning to marry said professor's daughter. As he sits through this lecture, a blossom drops onto the paper in front of him, and suddenly next to him is Tamura (Yoichi Numata), whose appearance he questions. At Professor Yajima's house, Shiro announces his intention to marry Yukiko, Yajima's daughter, and the family is pleased--until Tamura arrives unannounced, oozing menace, amorality and disinterest in those around him. He is driving Shiro home after this when a drunken yakuza gang member stumbles in front of their car. Tamura drives over him and refuses Shiro's requests to stop, insisting it was the man's own fault for being drunk and jumping right in front of them. Unbeknownst to either, the dead member's mother has witnessed the incident and noted their license plate number. She neglects to tell the police, instead telling her daughter, after she tells her how little the police did for her husband, who was also killed by a vehicle.

    Shiro spends the next chunk of the movie watching many people around him die suddenly and mysteriously, seemingly by pure chance and thanks only to his presence. Eventually he finds himself in a nursing home where his mother has taken ill, and a character drama of sorts ensues, circumstances leading to the death of essentially everyone in the entire home. From here we reach the imagery that was so highly touted as disturbing. We see hell, as Nakagawa envisions it, usually in a very dark space lit only by strips of land and characters, as if the elements and instruments of torture and their victims are floating in an endless void. We see the tortures and pain visited upon a great number of people, demons hammering out teeth (this is pretty harrowing, actually, I'll admit) as other victims are dismembered or run through.

    What separated this, for me, from gut-wrenching, eye-twitching stuffs, was that it was all very surreal. Of course, having seen so much of Jodorowsky's work, I'm a little more wary of (mis)using the term when things are not all that surreal. But they are infused with coloured light elements (bringing to mind the work of Dario Argento that would appear decades later) and strange shadows, as well as that background void. Jump-cutting and demonic images and so on help to create an atmosphere far separated from reality but competently produced. Sometimes one can feel the intended effect of a cut, edit or flash of some kind without the effect actually coming across correctly; Nakagawa clearly knows what he wants and is doing, even if sometimes the technology of the time is too limiting for him to completely achieve it.

    I really feel I should mention Numata's wonderfully crazed, manic performance as Tamura, who I still believe was indeed some kind of demon, spirit or otherwise evil entity, though the film seems to imply he was merely an evil human being--but human all the same. He bleeds out the exact kind of presence one would expect from such a pure immoral evil, human or otherwise, and is a joy to watch in this role--certainly his last lines are probably the best deliveries of those words I can imagine. At least, accounting for my inability to translate comments about Hell out of Japanese.

    I should note, though, that my inundation with horrific images in film is probably the only thing saving me from nightmares here, so I would caution those unprepared that my statements should be taken with that grain of salt.
  • VOS410
    September 22, 2009
    VOS410
    You can't really call yourself an Asian-Horror-fan until you have seen this Japanese Classic.

    Director Nobuo Nakagawa, memorably acclaimed for his work in this torture fest where all whom sin will fall into the depths of eternal glorifying hell starring Shigeru Amachi and the ...( read more)beautiful Utako Mitsuya.

    Synopsis: Shiro Shimizu (Shigeru) takes a drive with his friend who commits a hit-and-run putting most of the blame on Shimizu. His guilt drives him mad and attempts to go to the police with his future wife Yukiko, but gets into a serious accident. Soon thereafter, a series of murders become imminent which leads to Shimizu being plunged into the depths of the unbearable hell.

    Nobuo Nakagawa made his directorial debut in 1938, but it was to be in 1960 where he would be most remembered for in his partake of a well lid screenplay written by Ichiro Miyagawa. It would be Shintoho's last production and may have been the reason behind the whole film looking to have been rushed, but for a demanding movie deadline, this one did quite well. Not only is the story interesting enough, but the making of the film was tremendous and possibly a bit advanced for its time. The budget reputably being low didn't seem it was at all, the special effects were done quite more than expected and the cinematography supported it threw it's hundred and one minute run time.

    I loved Utako Mitsuya in this film and wouldn't hesitate to catch more of her classic films, and thought the whole living world and the dead world - as they presented it - was amazing and kept myself wondering the true meaning of time and eternal. Time and eternity are two different paths where in the living world (earth) time exists and in the realm of the dead time does not.

    I'd like to share a note towards this film pertaining to the Bodhisattva (bode-eh-SAWT'-vah) that was demonstrated by the spirits in the realm of hell. When I saw these scenes I did not assume them to be all sinners, I don't think that was the point of the outlook. These characters did not do so wrong, but are Bodhisattva's - like Jesus a true Bodhisattva - that praises for those in need, and in return for their evildoing, they suffer for the sinners that are bound to stay for eternity that is hell. If you understand this, you will better comprehend the story and Shigeru Amachi's character.
  • exureimundo
    July 8, 2009
    exureimundo
    Imagine you take acid and then go through a carnival fun house, and then base a film about Hell around it. That's was this reminded me of... not bad for surrealism with a religious theme in 1960.
  • jimbotender
    July 8, 2009
    jimbotender
    When Jigoku came out,it was like a thunderstruck for a new wave of J-Horror diamonds to appear in the 60's,something which as an unofficial movement,has stood the test of time till today.Nakagawa might not be the most smart film-maker but by all means,he absolutely knows how to g...( read more)ive us creepy realism!The inferno parts are not the only highlight,one must see it as a tragedy of errors in spite of the "thriller" hype.And Numata is such a bad-ass evil dude!
  • reytutiver
    June 6, 2009
    reytutiver
    Visually memorizing. In terms of plot, it would be like Bowie, coked out, dreaming that he was Japanese...
  • engrymfilm
    September 30, 2008
    engrymfilm
    I love it when Director's put there vision of hell on camera. This is probably my favorite so far.

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  • This Japanese horror film directed by Nobuo Nakagawa translates 'Hell' or 'The Sinners of Hell'.  Answer »
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