"Hear me! You who in life piled up sin upon sin will be trapped in Hell forever. Suffer! Suffer! This vortex of torment will whirl for all eternity.
When a theology student, Shiro, and his friend, Tamura, hit and kill a man in the street in their car, he is constantly burdened with guilt. What seems to be his best friend, but may be much more than that, begins to torment him about the accident he confesses his mistake to his fiancee. After deciding he will confess to the police he calls a cab. The same cab is involved in an accident and kills the woman in turn.
Shiro's life falls apart quickly, and before long his own life comes to an end.
What horrors will hell be host to? Jigoku means to show us just that.
Shiro, now in hell, journeys through the abysmal realm witnessing the true sight of horror.
What he sees in hell is what really separates the film from the rest. Unlike Christianity's version of the hell, the film takes the viewer into a Buddhist inferno which is based on the concept of Karma. Technically the film is brilliantly constructed with an amazingly beautiful vision of hell, accompanied by the shots to make it work. The editing is smooth but quick, and the colors transitions are perfect. The set design is enough to make you watch the film, but Nakagawa won't leave you walking away with being much more than aesthetically satisfies. Fifty years later, Jigoku is a film that withstands the test of time.
However what's really captivating about Jigoku is its set and its depiction of those who dwell hell.
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