#Shima Yoshizane

[manganic-malaria]

Jigokumon (Gate of Hell), 1953

[byneddiedingo]

Machiko Kyo in Gate of Hell (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1953) Cast: Kazuo Hasegawa, Machiko Kyo, Isao Yamagata, Yataro Kurokawa, Kotaro Bando, Jun Tazaki, Koreya Senda. Screenplay: Teinosuke Kinugasa, Masaichi Nagata, based on a play by Kan Kikuchi. Cinematography: Kohei Sugiyama. Production design: Hiroshi Ozawa. Film editing: Shigeo Nishida. Music: Yasushi Akutagawa. Can a movie be too stylish for its own good? As Pauline Kael says of Gate of Hell, "It's as if the director, Teinosuke Kinugasa, had read those critics who compare every Japanese movie to a Japanese print and had decided to give them more pictorial effects than they could handle -- delicately choreographed battles, the flow and texture of garments, and everywhere the grace of movement and composition." What gets lost in Gate of Hell is the simple dignity of its story about a wife who sacrifices herself for her husband's sake. The film won an Oscar* for costume design, and it certainly deserved it. But when the eye is continually caught by the color and texture of surfaces, the film risks being superficial. Fortunately, the wife, Kesa, is played by the superb Machiko Kyo, who makes the character into more than a mannequin for exquisite robes. *The award was presented to Sanzo Wada, whereas the credited costume design is Shima Yoshizane. I haven't been able to discover whether Sanzo Wada is the same person as the credited "color consultant" for the film, Mitsuzo Wada, but Sanzo was a noted designer and the author of the six-volume Dictionary of Color Combinations, so it seems likely.

[manganic-malaria]

Jigokumon (Gate of Hell), 1953

[manganic-malaria]

Jigokumon (Gate of Hell), 1953

[manganic-malaria]

Jigokumon (Gate of Hell), 1953

[manganic-malaria]

Jigokumon (Gate of Hell), 1953

[manganic-malaria]

Jigokumon (Gate of Hell), 1953