Gate of Hell (1953)

Original title

地獄門

Directed by

Teinosuke Kinugasa

Genre

drama film

Country

Japan

Runtime

1h 28m

Rating

7.1 of 10 from 98 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A samurai rescues a woman and wants to marry her, but he learns she is already married. His obsession leads to a painful situation for everyone involved.

romanticmelancholictensevisually lushclassicaltragicdelicateelegiac

What happens

Gate of Hell (Japanese: 地獄門, Hepburn: Jigokumon) is a 1953 Japanese jidaigeki film directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa. It tells the story of a samurai (Kazuo Hasegawa) who tries to marry a woman (Machiko Kyō) he rescues, only to discover that she is already married. Filmed using Eastmancolor, Gate of Hell was Daiei Film's first color film and the first Japanese color film to be released outside Japan. It was digitally restored in 2011 by the National Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and Kadokawa Shoten Co., in cooperation with NHK. It was based on the play Kesa's Husband by Kan Kikuchi. The film won Best Costume Design and Best Foreign Language Film at the 27th Academy Awards and the Grand Prize (the top prize of that year) at the 1954 Cannes Film Festival. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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