IMDb RATING
6.8/10
4.6K
YOUR RATING
A group of sinners involved in interconnected tales of murder, revenge, deceit and adultery all meet at the Gates of Hell.A group of sinners involved in interconnected tales of murder, revenge, deceit and adultery all meet at the Gates of Hell.A group of sinners involved in interconnected tales of murder, revenge, deceit and adultery all meet at the Gates of Hell.
Akira Nakamura
- Professor Yajima
- (as Torahiko Nakamura)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe film's production company was going out of business while the film was being completed, leading to budget-saving tactics such as the actors helping dig their own holes in the movie's set for Hell. Critics kidded that this film killed the Shintoho Studio.
- GoofsWhile Shiro is on the rope bridge, we see him at various times hanging on to the side handrails. Between shots, without him having changed position, these handrails quite noticeably change in diameter from thin cables to a much thicker cable, indicating that some shots were filmed on a real bridge, others were filmed on a studio mock-up.
- Quotes
Tamura: So you want to turn me in for manslaughter?
Shiro Shimizu: We're the ones who killed him. We caused it. Let's go together. Please.
Tamura: That might ease your conscience, but I'm not interested. It'd be stupid. He was drunk. He ran into the road. It was basically suicide. Besides, he was just some yakuza scum. He's not worth the best years of our lives.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Building the Inferno: Nobuo Nakagawa and the Making of 'Jigoku' (2006)
- SoundtracksComin' through the Rye
(uncredited)
Music: traditional
Japanese lyrics: unknown
Featured review
Kind of a mess
I picked this one up on a lark and I was pretty underwhelmed. The opening is both stylish and genuinely creepy with its laments, wrapped corpses, and surreal hellscapes, and it segués cleverly into a college lecture hall where our protagonist, a young theology student it seems, is listening to a lecture on concepts of hell. It's by no means fair to say that it's all down hill from there, but the movie only intermittently reaches the same heights. There are deeply unsettling and scary moments, but they're balanced by lot of ho hum bits and few others that almost set one to giggling. The plot is a complete mess it pulls credulity to bits and keeps on ripping and its all so rushed that there's neither time to build any real suspense or develop the characters. This is another problem: The female lead is a stereotypical picture of what I take to be a traditional Japanese idea of womanly virtue and the protagonist is just kind of wishy washy and uninteresting. His demonic friend and tormentor Tamura steals every scene he's in; the actor was clearly having a blast chewing up the scenery. And he succeeds wonderfully in what (I presume) he's supposed to do, which is making evil look a lot more fun than our hero's imperfect handwringing sort of virtue. But of course all the plot and real world stuff is just to set up hell right? Well the hell doesn't redeem it. It's often beautiful in a sick sort of way (Brueghel has a run for his money here) and viscerally repulsive, but while it might shock and perhaps even awe the viewer at points it's more gory and repulsive than unsettling. I suppose my reaction might be culturally conditioned, perhaps it would get under the skin of a Buddhist much more than it did a (somewhat lapsed) Christian like myself, but this brings me to another point: The theology is harsh as well you know. Almost everyone's evil and even the people who've committed fairly understandable and, I'd think, forgivable sins end up in hell. I grew up in an avowedly evangelical church and their theology was much more forgiving and understanding of human weakness. Sometimes we seem to have landed in the world of those terror tracts some churches in my home town used to pass out; there's a definite air of grim disapproval (whether affected or genuine I can't tell) for the sinful modern world hanging over the thing that's so stodgy it's more than a little funny. I'll give it high marks for the visual style and for the cool jazz that floats through and most of the actors acquit themselves quite well (though some don't have too much to work with). But to say that makes a complete mess of plot, pacing, and characterization is, if anything, kind.
helpful•76
- themadstork
- Jan 20, 2007
- How long is The Sinners of Hell?Powered by Alexa
Details
- Runtime1 hour 41 minutes
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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