Jigoku (1960)

Director:

Nobuo Nakagawa

Writers:

Nobuo Nakagawa (written by) &
Ichirô Miyagawa (written by)

Release Date:

30 July 1960 (Japan)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

A graduate-school student has a friend who is pure evil. His friend and he are out driving one night...

Plot Keywords:

Hell | Ghost | Adultery | Hit And Run | Devil

Cast

Shigeru Amachi	...	Shirô Shimizu
Utako Mitsuya	...	Yukiko / Sachiko
Yôichi Numata	...	Tamura
Hiroshi Hayashi	...	Gôzô Shimizu
Jun Ôtomo	...	Ensai Taniguchi
Akiko Yamashita	...	Kinuko
Kiyoko Tsuji	...	Kyôichi's Mother
Fumiko Miyata	...	Mrs. Yajima
Torahiko Nakamura	...	Professor Yajima
Kimie Tokudaiji	...	Ito Shimizu
Akiko Ono	...	Yoko
Tomohiko Ohtani	...	Dr. Kusama (as Tomohiko Ôtani)
Kôichi Miya	...	Journalist Akagawa
Sakutaro Yamakawa	...	Fisherman (as Sakutarô Yamakawa)
Rei Ishikawa	...	Old Man with Tatoo
Hiroshi Shinguji	...	Detective Hariya (as Hiroshi Shingûji)
Hiroshi Izumida	...	Kyôichi 'Tiger' Shiga
Yôzô Takamura	...	Devil Torturers
Yuzo Harumi	...	Devil Torturers (as Yûzô Harumi)
Katsuzô Kitamura	...	Devil Torturers
Eiichi Shinobu	...	Devil Torturers
Kazuki Nishi	...	Devil Torturers
Shinji Suzuki	...	Devil Torturers
Takashi Yamaguchi
Akira Katô
Minoru Miyake
Takamitsu Watanabe
Tatsuhiro Oka
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Kanjuro Arashi	...	Enma, King of Hell (uncredited)

Directed by
Nobuo Nakagawa

Writing credits
Nobuo Nakagawa		(written by) &
Ichirô Miyagawa		(written by)

Produced by
Mitsugu Ôkura	....	producer

Original Music by
Michiaki Watanabe

Cinematography by
Mamoru Morita

Film Editing by
Toshio Gotô

Production Design by
Chian Kurosawa

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Keinnosuke Tsuchiya	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Kihachiro Nakai	....	sound recordist

Production Companies

• Shintoho Company

Distributors

• Criterion Collection, The (2006) (USA) (DVD)
• Shintoho Film Distribution Committee

Also Known As:

Hell (USA) (original subtitled version)
Jigoku (USA) (DVD title)
Story of the Great 8-Tombed Hell
The Sinners of Hell (International: English title)

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Company:

Shintoho Company

Trivia:

The 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.

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.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Building the Inferno: Nobuo Nakagawa and the Making of 'Jigoku' (2006) (V)

Soundtrack:

Comin' through the Rye

Hell is equally life and afterlife

This movie spends half of its time in the real world and half in the afterlife. During the first half you ask "where the hell is hell anyway?". After it goes to the "real" hell, you realize that hell is all the things that went undone in the mortal coil.

You realize that if you don't want to live in hell later, don't live in "hell" now.

A great psychedelic trip without psychedelic trappings.