Jigoku

I like amateurish, crowd-pleasing weirdness, so take that into consideration when contemplating the 7 "stars" I'm granting.

Contrary to what other reviewers have stated, none of the three "Jigoku" films in IMDb have anything to do with the others. None are remakes, they just all happen to be called Jigoku, or "Hell." I'm also taken aback by someone else's description of this film as "pornographic." Okay, so the gate to hell looks like a vagina, but it's hardly prurient; otherwise, a few bared breasts linger before the cameras at regular intervals. Not what I'd call porn, though the lengthy view of a very young girl's underpants is in highly questionable taste, especially since the girl is a child molester's target.

(Those familiar with Japanese comics, cartoons and movies will know that underage pantie shots are a staple in Japanese exploitation; some strange schizophrenia allows the Japanese to both exploit and condemn child sexuality. Here, the molester is punished with an eternity of repeated dismemberment. But I guess there's nothing wrong with the camera lingering on an 8-year-old's white cotton briefs.)

The "old lady" other reviewers refer to is Enma, the Queen of Hell (King Enma is, in Buddhist tradition, the judge who determines where the wheel of karma will take your soul). Enma's decision to grant young Rika a glimpse of hell is reminiscent of the Roman Catholic myth of the young girls who were granted a vision of hell by "Our Lady of Fatima," and certainly Dante's Inferno has had an influence here (sinners sinking into their own excrement is a direct lift).

Hell is quite the fun place; Enma's bestial minions (actors wearing bizarre masks, fright wigs and boar-tusk dental appliances) detest the sins of their charges, and take great delight in executing divine justice.

The movie shifts gears considerably when, about a third of the way through, it becomes a soap-operatic docudrama about life within the Aum Shinriku cult, the religious conspiracy responsible for the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in 1995. It helps here to know that Jigoku is the combination of two films that were begun before financing collapsed, combined through a bit of extra filming and a lot of creative editing. The tone here is much like the exploitation gem "The Ebola Syndrome," exaggerating a true-life evil to play upon the fears of the audience. This is nowhere near the gross-out fest that "Ebola" is, but is similarly preposterous in the extremes of demonization it uses to amuse.

For the third act we return to hell, and Enma helps young Rika realize that to pray to an eternal being with a pure mind will bring about her salvation. She and a bunch of other girls then have a naked prayer session.

I think both of these movies would be quite enjoyable had they been finished. 80 year old director Teruo Ishii has been amusing international audiences for half a century; his best known film in the states is probably "Attack of the Flying Saucers" in 1964. The old guy probably doesn't have a lot of films left in him, but I do hope his next backers let him finish one.

This is a rare low budget gem that fans of Asian splatter will likely get a kick out of. Gory eye candy is on display for much of the running time, and includes some great graphic dismemberment as well as other forms of mutilation. Like another reviewer pointed out, the middle portion of the film goes on too long and could have been shortened to make for a better paced and more enjoyable watch. The whole cult angle is a bit over played but the movie pretty much redeems itself.

Bottom line: If you like stuff such as the guinea pig movies or Story of Ricky then this will be an entertaining flick. There is tons of weird imagery, extreme gore, and the monsters are cool to watch. You may have a hard time finding it, but there's usually one or two available on ebay.

Not quite as good tale of a girl granted visions of hell in the hopes that she will warn people into being good. Similar to the 1960 film Jigoku (Hell) this film shows us what happens to various bad people once they get to hell. Watch a cult leader kill hundreds, watch a child molester kill young girls then watch them tortured in hell, on and on with little variation.

One of the problems with the film is its so matter of fact. It starts, we are put into the basic situation which is just repeated over and over again. Its so matter of fact that there is no emotional involvement, there is no connection. The effects are just middling with any effect in the viewer borders on laughter since they often are more silly rather than horrifying. If you compare this film to the original you see the opposite. You get an emotional involvement and a sense of horror, despite the quaint effects, because of it. For all its flaws the original is far superior to this film.

Rental the original and skip this remake.

Okay, let's see? Where to begin, the demons in this movie is wicked cool, I didn't know this was a remake when I saw it on Netflix, but now that I do I want to see the original. The acting is cool, the subtitles are easy to read. The moral makes sense, no matter what, if you commit a horrible crime like murder then you will never escape punishment. A good moral to all would be killers out there. Now for the bad part, I think they didn't do enough in Hell. That's right I would have loved to have seen more of Hell and less of the cult. Even though the cult part was based on a real event that I remember too well, I think that could have been told in a whole movie by itself. But that's my only major complaint. The effects were incredible and if you like movies like "SAW" then you'll love taking a trip to Japanese HELL. 7 STARS.