It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Sinners find themselves at the gates of Hell. Tokyo theology student Shiro is getting a ride from Tamura who callously runs over drunken pedestrian Kyoichi Shiga. The next day, Shiro reads that the dead Kyoichi was a gang leader and Tamura is remorseless. Kyoichi's mother vows to track down and kill the driver recruiting his girlfriend Yoko. Tamura's nightmare gets darker and darker.The opening credit has semi-nude ladies posing and I wonder if this is going for erotic artistry. The director is definitely going for a lot of style in this early Japanese horror. Honestly, I can see where the tradition of Japanese horrors comes from. It's art-house poetry and crass sexuality. There are no jump scares but plenty of grotesque especially in Hell. It's a wild atmosphere. It's old school non-slasher horror which is new again. The mannequins thrown off the bridge are laughable while there are some other great artsy moves. It becomes a crazy long party and a gruesome torturous Hell. This is unlike most movies at the time.

It certainly helps that I'm often quite fond of Japanese movies, since I can see how this movie does not appeal to just everybody.This is basically one unique viewing experience, that can get quite artistic and unusual to watch. But that's just Japanese cinema for you. It's simply just a very different culture, with also a different style of cinema. I admit that you perhaps have to be a bit into (old) Japanese cinema, in order to fully appreciate- and perhaps also understand this movie.You could divide this movie in two parts. First you have a dramatic movie, with supernatural and horror elements in it, while the last part of the movie is purely set in hell, in which all of the movie its sinners have to pay for their sins.But it's Japanese hell, so it's not really something you are accustomed to seeing, when thinking off hell. It's nightmarish and very visually orientated. It plays on fears and torturing pains, while the movie at all times remains a classy and artistic one to look at.For an 1960 movie, it feels and looks surprisingly modern. It also isn't afraid to handle some daring themes and to feature some erotic moments. I can definitely see how this movie inspired later genre movies and Japanese film-makers. Its story gets told slowly, as is often the case with Japanese cinema. The story can get a quite hard one and confusing one to follow but not nearly as confusing as some people try to make you believe. Seriously, as far as old fashioned Japanese movie go, this one is pretty much straight-forward and understandable enough for western people, when you have subtitles available of course.But above all things this movie still manages to impress the most with its visuals. I really liked the directing approach of this movie, which also provided the movie with some at times artistic shots, that you are more accustomed to seeing in a good '70's movie. The editing on the other hand can get quite dodgy, if I really have to say something negative about this movie.A great movie, for the lovers of old fashioned and daring Japanese cinema at least.8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

As for me it is principle question: who was the first in modern horror genre?Italy or Japan?Father of Italian horror Mario Bava was first who explore sex and violence theme ("The Vampires"," The Mask of Satan ").Most cinema products of Italy interest (at 50s) rather "historycal" adventures than tits and blood.Front edge of Japanise genre cinema was Godzilla (at 50s).Without sexual tits too.It seems that Nobuo Nakagava one of the first directors who knowingly using shocking images (blood,tortures) and naked bodies for creation of modern sad Gothic movie - "Jigoku" (1960).May be some times "Jigoku" is too much slow movie.But always impressive style (espetualy in second part of the film).

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.