Teinosuke Kinugasa

(On Cable TV, March 2022) If Gate of Hell does well when compared to the slew of samurai films in 1950s Japanese film history, you can point to two factors—writer-director Teinosuke Kinugasa’s use of colour cinematography, for one, never missing an opportunity for bright colours everywhere, adding a very different dimension to a familiar setting. (Unusually enough for the 1950s, Gate of Hell won two Oscars: one for best foreign film, and another for best costume design.)  Each character wears bold clothing, which adds to the second distinction that the film can make for itself: it’s a strongly romantic tragedy, chronicling the all-consuming obsession of one victorious samurai for a woman who will never be his. From a conventional war story, the film goes on to become a tragic downfall, all the way to big dramatic gestures toward the end. I don’t think anyone will be fully happy with the way everything unfolds, but Gate of Hell distinguishes itself in a crowded field and is distinctive enough to make a few fans out of viewers that may not necessarily be all that enthusiastic about more conventional samurai films.