7.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
In the midst of epic, violent intrigue in twelfth-century Japan, an imperial warrior falls for a lady-in-waiting; after he discovers she is married, he becomes frenzied in his attempts to win her love.
Starring: Kazuo Hasegawa, Machiko Kyô, Isao Yamagata, Yataro Kurokawa, Kôtarô BandôForeign | 100% |
Drama | 66% |
Romance | 9% |
War | 5% |
History | 4% |
Period | 3% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Japanese: LPCM Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 5.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 1.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Winner of the prestigious Grand Prix Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Japanese director Teinosuke Kinugasa's "Jigokumon" a.k.a "Gate of Hell" (1953) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. There are no supplemental features on this release. Included is an illustrated booklet featuring an essay by film historian Stephen Prince. In Japanese, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".
Lady Kesa
Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Teinosuke Kinugasa's Gate of Hell arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.
The following text appears inside the booklet provided with this Blu-ray release:
"This new digital master was created from the 2011 2K restoration undertaken by the national Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo and Kadokawa Shoten Co., Ltd., in cooperation with NHK. For the restoration, a new digital transfer, supervised by cameraman Fujio Morita, was created in 4K resolution on an IMAGER scanner at Imagica from a 35mm duplicate negative and several 35mm master positives; the original camera negative no longer exists.
Transfer supervisor: Fujio Morita.
Sound restoration supervisor: Mototsugi Hayashi."
The high-definition transfer uses as a foundation the recent restoration of Gate of Hell by The National Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and Kadokawa Shoten Co., LTD. in cooperation with NHK. The same restoration was also used for Eureka Entertainment's recent release. Unsurprisingly, the two releases look virtually identical. There are only two very small discrepancies that I noticed. On the Criterion release brightness levels appear to have been toned down a bit, but the difference is indeed so small that it is essentially irrelevant. The reds also feel marginally better saturated on the Criterion release, but again the difference is too small. Detail and depth are excellent. Clarity is also outstanding, with the daylight sequences in particular looking very impressive. There are no traces of problematic degraining and sharpening corrections. There are no serious stability issues either. Finally, there are no large cuts, debris, damage marks, or warps. All in all, the recent restoration of Gate of Hell has given the film a new life. I think that it looks absolutely spectacular in high-definition. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).
There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray disc: Japanese LPCM 1.0. For the record, Criterion have provided optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature.
The dialog is crisp and stable. Some extremely light background hiss occasionally sneaks in, but it never becomes distracting. Overall dynamic movement is rather limited, but this should not be surprising considering the age of the film and the conditions under which it was shot. There are no audio dropouts or distortions to report in this review. The English translation is very good.
There is a good reason why Martin Scorsese has stated that Teinosuke Kinugasa's Gate of Hell is one of the ten most beautiful color films ever made - the film overflows with lush, at times overwhelmingly beautiful colors. Recently restored, Gate of Hell now also looks healthier than ever before. The story it tells is very simple, but it is profoundly moving. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
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