Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Jigoku (The Criterion Collection) DVD Review

Collapse
X
Collapse
  •  
    Ian Jane
    Administrator

  • Jigoku (The Criterion Collection) DVD Review

    Click image for larger version  Name:	cover.jpg Views:	1 Size:	38.0 KB ID:	405424

    Released by: The Criterion Collection
    Released on: September 19th, 2006.
    Director: Nobuo Nakagawa
    Cast: Shigeru Amachi, Yoichi Numata
    Year: 1960
    Purchase From Amazon

    Jigoku – Movie Reviews:

    The concept of the afterlife, and more specifically Hell (which is what Jigoku translates to in English and which is an alternate title for the film, which is also known as The Sinners Of Hell), is a common one that seems to appear in almost every major religion. It's been explored and discussed in thousands of different ways in films, books, paintings, and probably any other kind of media you can think of. Nobuo Nakagawa's Jigoku manages to remain a fascinating movie regardless of how overdone the subject may be, and despite the fact that the film is over forty years old.

    Shiro (Shigeru Amachi, who went on to appear in a couple of Zatoichi films) is a young Japanese student, who, while out driving with his friend Tamura (Yoichi Numata who played Takashi in Hideo Nakata's Ring) one night, inadvertently runs over and kills a drunk Yakuza on the way home from visiting his fiancé, Yukiko, who is the daughter of a local professor named Yajima. Shiro and Tamura keep mum about the accident, though Shiro's conscience catches up with him and he decides to tell Yukiko (who has just found out that she is pregnant with Shiro's baby) about the accident. The two go for a drive but end up in a horrible car accident themselves, and Yukiko is killed by the impact.

    Shiro is then summoned to visit his dying mother at a senior citizen's home, run by a crooked doctor. Here he finds out that his father is having an affair with a younger woman in the very next room to where his mother lays ill. Also living in the rest home is an alcoholic painter who is, at the same time, being visited by his daughter who happens to bear a striking resemblance to the late Yukiko. Unfortunately for Shiro, the mother and daughter of the dead Yakuza are out for vengeance and have found out who he is.

    Out of nowhere, Tamura shows up, just in time for the festivities to begin in the celebration of the rest home's tenth anniversary. Unfortunately, through a few strange twists, everyone in the home, visitor and tenant alike, end up dead and literally fall into Hell where they are judged for their actions. If the film wasn't weird enough up to this point, from here on out, it spirals into a bizarre fury of imagery, symbolism, bizarre sets and gore effects.

    In one sense, the film is reminiscent of Jose Mojica Marins' (a.k.a. Coffin Joe) masterpiece, This Night I Will Possess Your Corpse the way that it switches from the land of the living to the land of the dead, but Jigoku predates Marins' film by almost six years (though the films do share similar themes and a similar narrative). Interestingly enough, whereas Marins' vision of Hell was definitely influenced by the Catholic Church and his own bizarre imagination, director Nobuo Nakagawa paints his version of the inferno in colorful hues and fills them with traditional Japanese representations of the demonic and the spiritual which adds a unique cultural perspective to the movie.

    The finale through Hell takes up at least the last third of the film, but that's not to say that the film is only a series of loosely connected scenes of shock value. The gore set pieces are there, and are considerably fiercer than almost anything else from the era (as they predate not only Marins' work but also Herschel Gordon Lewis' infamous Blood Feast - considered by many to be the first 'gore' film - as well) but there is more to the movie than just sinners suffering for their sins. The end of the film confirms it for you if you don't see it coming, but manages to do so without feeling contrived or like a 'cop out' ending.

    Having a soft spot for religious horror might help with one's appreciation of this truly bizarre work, and an interest in surrealist filmmaking can't hurt either, but Jigoku is never the less a memorable and thought provoking movie. It brings about issues not so much relating to 'fire and brimstone' or the eternal suffering of one's soul but about how life can so easily spiral out of control despite our best intentions. In that respect, it was a powerful film with an amazing and unique visual style that captivates and disturbs at the same time.

    Jigoku – DVD Review:

    The 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer on this DVD is excellent even if it's not quite perfect. The colors in particular look amazing here, each hue and tone as vibrant and bold as the next and sometimes appearing to literally jump off of the screen at you, particularly during the final third of the film. While there is some very moderate print damage noticeable in a few scenes, the picture has been cleaned up nicely as this is only really apparent if you're looking for it and it serves not to distract but to remind you that you're watching a film in the first place. There are no problems at all with mpeg compression artifacts and edge enhancement is never an issue either. Flesh tones look very lifelike and very natural, which is good because you'll see a lot of them in the film, and the black levels stay strong and consistent. The image has plenty of both foreground and background detail present throughout, and overall, the movie looks great. The only issue that might irk some viewers is the grain – while this is an older movie that wasn't made with a massive budget and some grain is to be expected, Jigoku is just a bit grainier than you might expect from a Criterion transfer. With that being said, this transfer trumps the Japanese R2 NTSC release in pretty much every way and grain aside, the movie really does look quite good for an older DVD, but revisiting it will just make you wish there were a proper Blu-ray around to upgrade to.

    As is to be expected, Criterion presents Jigoku in its original Japanese language mono mix with optional subtitles available in English and English only. There's a faint bit of distortion in the high end of the mix but it's minor and not really distracting at all. For a forty year old film, Jigoku sounds pretty good on this DVD. The levels are well balanced and the background music and sound effects never overshadow the dialogue at all.

    The main extra feature on this DVD is a forty-minute documentary entitled Building The Inferno which covers the making of Jigoku and manages to give a nice career overview of the film's director, Nobuo Nakagawa. Interviewed in this featurette are actor Yoichi Numata, screenwriter Ichiro Miyagawa, Nobuo Nakagawa collaborators Chiho Katsura and Kensuke Suzuki, Kiyoshi Kurosawa (the director of modern Japanese horror hits, Cure and Doppelganger). With as many interviewees as there are in this piece, it proves to be very informative and interesting in that we not only hear from people who had first-hand involvement in creating the film and working on the set but also from one of Nakagawa's contemporaries who speaks of the movie's influence.

    Rounding out the supplements is a selection of poster art for Jigoku and other Shintoho Studios productions, the original Japanese language theatrical trailer for the feature itself, menus and chapter stops. Inside the keepcase is a fourteen page booklet containing liner notes from film critic Chuck Stephens who does a fine job explaining the importance of the film and it's cultural significance.

    Jigoku – The Final Word:

    A unique work of horrifying surrealist filmmaking, Jigoku is a hallucinogenic slice of morbid beauty and a distinctly Japanese attempt at addressing the afterlife. It's well acted and incredibly well photographed and there are scenes in this film that will stick with you for some time to come long after the end credits have hit the screen. Criterion has given the film a very respectable DVD debut in North American and this release comes highly recommended, but bring on a Blu-ray!


    Click image for larger version  Name:	01.jpg Views:	1 Size:	63.0 KB ID:	405425

    Click image for larger version  Name:	02.jpg Views:	1 Size:	47.4 KB ID:	405426

    Click image for larger version  Name:	03.jpg Views:	1 Size:	27.5 KB ID:	405427

    Click image for larger version  Name:	04.jpg Views:	1 Size:	46.5 KB ID:	405428

    Click image for larger version  Name:	05.jpg Views:	1 Size:	46.4 KB ID:	405429

    Click image for larger version  Name:	06.jpg Views:	1 Size:	49.2 KB ID:	405431

    Click image for larger version  Name:	07.jpg Views:	1 Size:	45.5 KB ID:	405430

    Click image for larger version  Name:	08.jpg Views:	1 Size:	70.6 KB ID:	405432

    Click image for larger version  Name:	09.jpg Views:	1 Size:	74.5 KB ID:	405434

    Click image for larger version  Name:	10.jpg Views:	1 Size:	52.8 KB ID:	405433

    Click image for larger version  Name:	11.jpg Views:	1 Size:	47.7 KB ID:	405437

    Click image for larger version  Name:	12.jpg Views:	1 Size:	43.8 KB ID:	405441

    Click image for larger version  Name:	13.jpg Views:	1 Size:	27.2 KB ID:	405435

    Click image for larger version  Name:	14.jpg Views:	1 Size:	80.1 KB ID:	405444

    Click image for larger version  Name:	15.jpg Views:	1 Size:	33.8 KB ID:	405440

    Click image for larger version  Name:	16.jpg Views:	1 Size:	25.5 KB ID:	405436

    Click image for larger version  Name:	17.jpg Views:	1 Size:	32.3 KB ID:	405439

    Click image for larger version  Name:	18.jpg Views:	1 Size:	55.3 KB ID:	405442

    Click image for larger version  Name:	19.jpg Views:	1 Size:	44.9 KB ID:	405438

    Click image for larger version  Name:	20.jpg Views:	1 Size:	54.3 KB ID:	405443
      Posting comments is disabled.

    Latest Articles

    Collapse

    • Hot Spur (Severin Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Severin Films
      Released on: April 30th, 2024.
      Director: Lee Frost
      Cast: Joseph Mascolo, Virginia Goodman, John Alderman
      Year: 1969
      Purchase From Amazon

      Hot Spur – Movie Review:

      Director Lee Frost and Producer Bob Cresse's film, Hot Spur, opens in Texas in 1869 with a scene where a pair of cowboys wanders into a bar where they call over a pretty Mexican waitress and coerce her into dancing for them. She obliges, but
      ...
      03-22-2024, 11:53 AM
    • Death Squad (Mondo Macabro) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Mondo Macabro
      Released on: April 9th, 2024.
      Director: Max Pecas
      Cast: Thierry de Carbonnières, Jean-Marc Maurel, Denis Karvil, Lillemour Jonsson
      Year: 1985
      Purchase From Amazon

      Death Squad – Movie Review:

      Also known as Brigade Of Death, French sleaze auteur Max Pecas’ 1985 film, Death Squad, opens with a night time scene outside of Paris in the Bois de Boulogne Forest where cars pass by a small gang of transsexual
      ...
      03-22-2024, 11:46 AM
    • Roommates (Quality X) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Quality X
      Released on: February 28th, 2024.
      Director: Chuck Vincent
      Cast: Samantha Fox, Vernoica Hart, Kelly Nichols, Jerry Butler, Jamie Gillis
      Year: 1982
      Purchase From Amazon

      Roommates – Movie Review:

      Directed by Chuck Vincent and released in 1982, Roommates opens with a scene where a young woman named Joan Harmon (Veronica Hart) gets a hotel room with an older man named Ken (Don Peterson, credited as Phil Smith),
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:10 PM
    • Night Of The Blood Monster (Blue Underground) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Blue Underground
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Jess Franco
      Cast: Christopher Lee, Maria Rohm, Dennis Price
      Year: 1970
      Purchase From Amazon

      Night Of The Blood Monster – Movie Review:

      Directed by Jess Franco, The Bloody Judge (or, Night Of The Blood Monster, as it is going by on this new release from Blue Underground) isn't quite the salacious exercise in Eurotrash you might expect it to be, and while it
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:07 PM
    • Phase IV (Vinegar Syndrome) UHD/Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Vinegar Syndrome
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Saul Bass
      Cast: Nigel Davenport, Michael Murphy, Lynne Frederick, Alan Gifford, Robert Henderson, Helen Horton
      Year: 1974
      Purchase From Amazon

      Phase IV – Movie Review:

      Saul Bass’ 1974 sci-fi/thriller Phase IV is an interesting blend of nature run amuck stereotypes and Natural Geographic style nature footage mixed into one delicious cocktail of suspense and
      ...
      03-15-2024, 01:02 PM
    • The Bounty Hunter Trilogy (Radiance Films) Blu-ray Review
      Ian Jane
      Administrator
      by Ian Jane


      Released by: Radiance Films
      Released on: March 26th, 2024.
      Director: Shigehiro Ozawa, Eiichi Kudo
      Cast: Tomisaburo Wakayama, Minoru Ôki, Arashi Kanjuro, Bin Amatsu, Chiezo Kataoka
      Year: 1969-1972
      Purchase From Amazon

      The Bounty Hunter Trilogy – Movie Review:

      Radiance Films gathers together the three films in Toie Studios’ Bounty Hunter Trilogy, starring the inimitable Tomisaburo Wakayama. Here’s how the three movies in this
      ...
      03-13-2024, 11:30 AM
    Working...
    X