Portrait of Hell

Portrait of Hell (1969)

This movie tells the tale of a Korean artist named Yoshihide who is trapped in the service of an uncaring lord. The lord named Hosokawa wishes him to create a marvelous work of art on the walls of his temple depicting heaven. Unfortunately the temperamental artist only paints the suffering that he sees around him, which displeases the lord. A subplot to this is the love affair that Yoshihide’s daughter Yoshika is having with one of his students. As difficult as he is an artist he is even more so as a father. He forbids the affair and kicks her love out of the school. His actions drive her to run away where she is found by the lord and added to his concubine. This drives Yoshihide to the brink of madness, which is reflected in his art, the subjects of which come back to life to haunt the Lord. In spite of that the Lord challenges Yoshihide to paint a portrait of hell. If the painting is good enough he will release Yoshika back to him. But both the lord’s and the artist’s pride spells their doom.

I love a good samurai movie and that is sort of what I was expecting when I popped this one into the DVD player. But what I got was a very cool little morality tale with a supernatural twist that I found extremely entertaining. The movie takes a lot of time establishing the characters and creating the personalities. This is completely necessary for the ending of the movie to make any sense at all. Without understanding the stubborn pride of both the artist and the lord then as an audience we won’t and can’t buy into the insanity of their decisions. Beyond that I also enjoyed the supernatural parts of the movie where the ghosts come from the paintings to stalk the lord around his home. These scenes are terribly scary, but I did find them creepy.

The cast is excellent, especially the two men the lead roles. The first I’d like to mention is Tatsuya Nakadai, who plays the artist Yoshihide. The character isn’t a heroic father figure, but is actually a possessive over protective father, who at the same time will sacrifice his child for his pride. There is an incredible range of emotion required for the role and he does a wonderful job with it. Almost more impressive is Kinnosuke Nakamura, who plays Lord Hosokawa. How do you play an immoral man without conscience who treats everyone around him as playthings for his amusement without going too far over the top? Well I’m not sure how you do it, but here is an example that it can be done. The only cracks in his façade come during the finale. I don’t want to spoil the movie, but watch his expression and more obviously his shaking hands as the disbelief of what has happened sets in. Both performances are great.

This isn’t a gory movie with limbs flying and blood spraying, so not much in the way of special effects. I do love the look of the movie, from the costumes to the excellent camera work. The sets and costumes are very bright and vibrant, which go hand in hand with the lighting to create a surreal feel that fits nicely with the story. Also the camera work is killer. There are several scenes that are shot in very unique ways. A good example of this would be early on in the movie where the camera is looking down from above and moves in while lotus blossoms are falling around. Trust me my description is inadequate, it is just an amazing shot.

I really can’t recommend this movie enough. It is hands down one of the most unique and interesting movies that I’ve seen so far from the fine folks at AnimEigo. For more information please check them out at www.animeigo.com/

3 ½ out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer