Jun 2, 2018

Jigoku

Saw Jigoku, an early Japanese horror film (from the 60s). The protagonist is a personality-less college student who is friends with some seriously sinister dude who wears a lot of black and a lot of red and who I think is supposed to be the (or a) devil. So these two have a hit-and-run accident that throws them into a spiral of deaths, murders, and hidden crimes, escalating in the protagonist actually going to Hell.

The film is amazing. The protagonist is a bit weak, it's true, but horror protagonists are often merely faces to witness the crazy spectacle. And spectacular this film is. he ending third in hell, especially, is great. Jarring discordant jazz mixed with women screaming and jet engines fill the soundtrack, spot lighting makes the characters look like lost ghosts in an ocean of black. It's a bit tame by today's standards but it's worth a look.

I also liked the harsh, didactic world of the film, where all sins are punished and punished s cruel, bizarre ways. The melodramatic logic of the deaths is also nice, ticking along like a clock, each inevitably leading to the other. This isn't a scary movie so much a grotesque and imaginative one, but that's the type I like best anyway. Definitely worth a look!

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