Jigokumon

by

Teinosuke Kinusaga

review by Shawn Barron

In 1951 Japanese film made a big impression with western audiences when Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon won the Golden Lion at the Venice film festival. Three years later the film’s producers Daei studios made their next big splash internationally when Teinosuke Kinugasa’s Jigokumon(Gate of Hell) won the Palme d’Or. For most of the sixties and seventies Rashomon and Gate of Hell were discussed together when film historians discussed Japanese film. While Kurosawa was able to follow up Rashomon with the international hits of Seven Samurai, Kagemusha, and Ran, Kinugasa however was never able to have another big international hit. With a current DVD/Blu-Ray release in the U.K. this seems like a good time to reevaluate the film.

Jigokumon is an example of the Japanese genre know as Jidaigeki, roughly meaning period film, the films take place in the centuries preceding the opening of Japan in the late 19^th century. A few titles popular in the west are Kill! By Kihachi Okamoto, Harakiri by Masaki Kobayashi, Ugetsu by Kenji Mizoguichi and Hidden Fortress, Yojimbo, and Ran by Akira Kurosawa. Most of the films feature swordplay, political intrigue, and a romance. The genre is still very popular and the current king of cult movies in Japan Takahsii Mike has made a few.

The film tells the story of Moritoh, a Samurai who refuses to join his comrades in a coup. Moritoh is given the task of escorting a woman, whom he thinks is the princess, out of the city. The woman is in fact a handmaiden of the princess named lady Kesa. When Moritoh learns of her real identity he becomes determined to marry her. She refuses as she is already married, but Moritoh becomes more obsessed. Moritoh’s master attempts to force them together with tragic results.

One of Jigokumon’s most interesting qualities is the way it seamlessly switches between genres. The film begins with a violent siege of a castle in progress. People are being shot with arrows, burned in fires, and slashed by swords. From the first scene the film is explicit with its violence but never excessive. There is no time when the film glorifies violence; instead it shows the physical as well as emotional impact violence. After the first third the film changes tones and becomes more of a Shakespearean drama like Othello or Hamlet. The interiors and theatrical use of tight space are truly wonderful in the second part of the film.

One of the film’s most striking qualities is its use of color. Jigokumon was the first color film released by Daei studios, and the first Japanese color film to gain distribution outside of Japan. While there are some scenes in the film featuring the gaudy Technicolor commonly associated with this era, there are also many scenes with striking innovation. Many interior scenes feature a far more subdued use of color than is typical of films of the 1950s. In the exterior scenes the green of the trees and the blue of the water still pop out 60 years later. 

If there is any message to this film it seems to be a criticism of Samurai culture. Like the more famous Harakiri released a decade later, Jigokumon portrays Samurais as vain, ignorant, opportunistic, mercenaries. Several of the clichés of Jidaigeki, are mocked throughout the film, at one point a character attempts to commit suicide to redeem himself and is told that killing himself is pointless since it won’t actually fix the problems he caused. The film does a great job of at first showing scenes of very exciting violence, but then taking time to show the audience the impact of that violence.

The cast and crew of Jigokumon help truly bring this film to life. Moritoh is played by Kazuo Hasegawa; a prolific actor in Japan who appeared in over 300 films, he is most famous to western audiences for his lead role in Kon Ichikawa’s cult film An Actor’s Revenge. Hasegawa performance dominates many of the scenes he is in, he truly embodies the roll of a man possessed by an impossible desire. Moritoh’s object of desire, Lady Kesa, is played by Machiko Kyo. She is an icon of Japanese film of the 1950s. She appeared in several legendary films of the era such as Rashomon, Ugetsu, Street of Shame, as well as the American film The Teahouse of the August Moon; later in life she would win a lifetime achievement award from the Japanese academy. Her performance in Jigokumon provides an interesting combination of feminine gentleness with a bold strength of will.

The film’s director Teinosuke Kinusaga had a rather interesting career, he began as an Onnagata in silent film in Japan, which is an actor who plays the part of the female, a style which originated in Kabuki. When studios started using female actors for female parts he switched to directing. In 1926 Kinusaga quit his job as a studio director to launch his own independent company. He directed Page of Madness, a film about a janitor in an insane asylum, using an avant-guard theatre troupe as the cast. After completing the film Kinusaga lost the only print for over four decades before finding it while cleaning out a shed. 

Fun stuff huh?

After WWII he returned to filmmaking, directing several costume dramas for Daei. Kinusaga’s avant-garde experience really shines through with the films use of sound, in moments of tension during the film a slowly rising background noise, somewhat like a polic siren, slowly emerges only to disappear when the tension ends.  

Jigokumon is a film about the pointlessness of violence and the cruelty by which those in positions of power can manipulate those weaker than themselves. It is to the credit of Kinusaga that this film never becomes preachy and instead keeps its messages very subtle. This is a truly great film that has been unduly overlooked, hopefully now it will finally get the love of cine-piles around the world that it deserves.
10/ 24/2012