Jigoku [Criterion Collection]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

When a young college student had his sadistic friend leave a respected yakuza to die after inadvertently running him down on a lonely stretch of road, their fate is sealed in director Nobuo Nakagawa's Japanese horror classic Jigoku. Shiro's life seems to be going well; he's in love with pretty Yukiko and just received her parent's permission to take her hand in marriage. When his roommate, Tamura, runs down a drunken yakuza and refuses Shiro's plea to return to the scene of the crime and help the man, Shiro's conscience burns, and he soon admits his crime to Yukiko. As the two rush to Yukiko's father for advice, their taxi crashes and Yukiko dies in Shiro's arms. Overwhelmed by the tragedy that surrounds him, Shiro's life descends into a haze of alcohol and loose women until he receives word that his mother is gravely ill. Though he makes it to the senior citizens community in time to see her before she dies, Shiro is followed to the community by both Tamura and Yoko, a prostitute out to avenge the death of her yakuza boss. As Shiro is sent screaming into hell, his horrifying journey into darkness has only begun. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Cinemascope)
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Screen: Color, Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Subtitle: English
• Features:
  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer
  • "Building the Inferno," a 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

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Director:

  Nobuo Nakagawa

REVIEW:

• A stylish and frightening look at hell both figuratively and literally, director Nobuo Nakagawa's influential 1960 masterpiece remains effective not only because of its shocking journey into the underworld, but also for its remarkable attention to character detail. As the film opens and the viewers become acquainted with college-age protagonist Shiro and his young fiancée, Yukiko, the future is looking decidedly bright until their seemingly perfect relationship is thrown into chaos with the introduction of Shiro's evil friend, Tamura. Following the incident in which Tamura and Shiro run down a notable yakuza on a lonely stretch of road, Shiro's life quickly descends into hell on Earth as his morals crumble and those around him suffer and die. It's important that the viewer identify with everyman Shiro as he begins to wind down the slow road to hell, and by the time he does arrive at his final destination, it's easy to understand why he made the decisions that he did. Standing in stark contrast to the comparatively naturalistic Earth-bound scenes, Nakagawa's vision of hell is a surreal and technically masterful vision -- glowing with lakes of fire and shimmering with the flayed bodies of countless tortured souls. Nakagawa's hell is not a vision for the faint of heart or easily disturbed. It is here that Shiro's journey becomes both heartbreaking and horrifying as he makes his way through a phantasmogoric netherworld in search of his lost love and his unborn child -- all while suffering the endless torments of the damned. It's truly unsettling how Jigoku can remain so contemporary well into the new millennium, and though this isn't likely the first trip genre or fantasy fans have taken into the underworld, it's likely to be the one that remains most vivid and effective long after memories of What Dreams May Come have faded. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

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