Kinugasa's bold experiments with Eastmancolor in Gate of Hell have been hailed as “the most beautiful color photography ever to grace the screen” (Anderson and Richie, Japanese Cinema). However, for many years Gate of Hell has been available only in faded monochromatic red or pink prints. Tonight's print, newly struck from an original negative, is not perfect, due to the inevitable deterioration of Eastmancolor (as opposed to the Technicolor process); but it is the only print in the country to even approach the rich color experimentation of the original. See it now, before it fades!
Gate of Hell was one of the most popular postwar Japanese films abroad, winning the Cannes Festival prize as well as an Academy Award (for costume design). The story, set in 12th century Japan amid a bloody civil war, is a melodrama of court intrigue and passionate love presented in a formalized Kabuki style of acting. Hasegawa Kazuo and Machiko Kyo have been acclaimed for their portrayals of the samurai Morito and Kesa, the devoted courtier's wife whose husband Morito threatens to kill if Kesa does not submit to him.