No one does 'descent into madness and despair' better than Tatsuya Nakadai. And when it comes to theatrical lighting, expansive settings, and slow-fi supernatural poetics, no one does them better than the Japanese, who had the benefit of a few centuries of kabuki experience before Mario Bava and Roger Corman got there with their cobwebs and color filters. All the elements are in place then and Shiro Toyoda delivers with utmost impunity. In part a not-so-distant cousin of the kaidan genre of spooky ghost stories that proliferated all through the first half of the 60's in Japan, complete with deformed ghostly apparitions that come and go as they please, yet also a bit of a prestige film that can afford beauty for beauty's sake without having to cram plot points in the short running time of a second-bill film, this reflected in the stars of the film (Tatsuya Nakadai and Kinnosuke Nakamura) and the lush sets Toho Studios put in Toyoda's disposal, the vivid colors and accomplished camera-work that suggest a director more talented than his nonexistent reputation in the West implies, all these elements coming together to create a dramatically unsubtle, not really horrifying but tragic and macabre, parable on the unyielding monomania of a perfectionist. A Korean painter is summoned by his Japanese lord to paint a portrait of Buddhist heaven. The Japanese lord becomes smitten by the painter's daughter and takes her for his concubine. The Korean painter pleads for his daughter, this coming across as more the whim of a possessive father than genuine love. Finally he settles for painting a portrait of hell. You just know Tatsuya Nakadai's face is gonna be a mask of utter despair and torment by the end and it's worth the ride getting there because the conclusion is truly ferocious.

A title that the film delivers the goods. Not the Hell of western imagination but the Hell of Buddhist thought. This is a tough film that really stick in the mind long after it's over.Nakadai plays a Korean court artist to a ridiculous Japanese Lord who is blind to the growing poverty of his domain. The Lord wants a mural of Buddhist paradise but the artist doesn't know what that looks like. He can only paint death and misery. The artist himself is no great example of humanity as he's a full blown bigot. Caught in the middle is the artist's daughter and her innocent Japanese lover. This film would not be possible without Nakadai who uses his ability to portray deep despair to it's fullest here. At points he looks like his character in "Ran" almost exactly. The points covered here include vanity, racism, pride, and other human traits that create a hell on earth. There's no happy ending here so be warned.Wonderful sets and a theatrical style of lighting create an atmosphere unlike most other films. Recommended

I knew nothing about PORTRAIT OF HELL when I gave it a shot, and I'm glad of that now. An interesting tale of the consequences of greed, pride, stubbornness, and racism - all told through the story of an artist and an emperor. The story takes place at a time in feudal Japan where the aristocrats and rulers were rich, but the local people were starving in the streets. This "feast-or-famine" society is the backdrop for the film...Yoshihide is the most talented artist in the area. He's also a stubborn hard-ass who has nothing but contempt for the local ruler - but realizes that he is under his command and thus stays in his "place" for the most part. The Paramount Lord is a greedy and self-centered bastard who thinks he is Gods gift to the world, literally - but understands Yoshihide's talent, and thus let's him get away with a little more than the average citizen. In a strange way, the two have a begrudging "respect" for each other, though they really hate each other's guts. Yoshihide runs off his daughters boyfriend, and during a chance encounter, the Paramount Lord meets her and makes her his concubine. This of course does not sit well with Yoshihide, who begs the Lord for his daughter back. The Lord refuses - unless Yoshihide can paint a suitable mural for his mansion. The Lord wants a portrait of heaven and paradise - whereas Yoshihide wishes to paint a hell-scene, as he is downtrodden by the treatment of the local people. The Lord eventually grants Yoshihide the opportunity to paint whatever he would like, but as the two do battle through words and trickery - the price that either may end up paying may far outweigh the saving of their pride...PORTRAIT OF HELL is a strong film that deals effectively with several subjects at once. Both Yoshihide's and the Paramount Lord's pride and stubbornness ultimately become their downfall - which has always been a fitting lesson. The side-story of Yoshihide's refusal for his daughter to date a non-Korean boy, and the results thereof, is a brief touch on the consequences of racism. But even with all the "moral-of-the-story" type things going on in the film, it never becomes overbearing. PORTRAIT OF HELL is still an entertaining film with a strong "twist" ending that brings everything home. Overall, I would recommend this film to fans of "classic" Asian cinema or those who would just like a break from the norm. Also of note are the beautiful sets, very good acting, and some very decent visual FX for the time-frame. Definitely worth a look - 8.5/10

19 years after Kurosawa's "Rashomon" a very different director took another story by the inimitable writer Ryunosuke Akutagawa and adopted it for a movie. "Jigokuhen" is a more complicated tale than even "Rashomon" and consequently must have been more difficult to film. @Be warned that I am giving away the story.@This is a story of a medieval painter (Nakadai) commissioned to paint the portrait of paradise on the wall of a palace of Lord Hosokawa (Yorozuya) the most powerful aristocrat of the time. (He is powerful enough to name the next emperor.) The nobleman wants the mural to demonstrate the glory of his power. The artist, who unlike the aristocrat sees the squalor of the world just outside of the palace, refuses. He would rather paint a portrait of hell. Confronted by the only man who would dare contradict him, the arrogant nobleman challenges the artist to paint a portrait of hell, on the strength of which he will decide whether paradise or inferno will be painted on his palace walls. The painter is the sort of genius-madman who would cut off his ears to paint a better self-portrait. Obsessed with his art, he goes to great extremes, such as actually torturing his apprentices to capture the expression of agony. In the end, even that is not enough. He wants the nobleman's gold-plated carriage set on fire so he can see what the fate of vanity in hell really looks like. The carriage is a symbol of the nobleman's power and position, but he cannot refuse because he is too proud to backtrack on his promise to provide anything the painter needed. The aristocrat instead puts the painter's daughter (whom he has taken under some pretence as his sex slave) bound in chains inside the vehicle and proceeds to have the carriage dowsed in oil. Then he hands a torch to painter and dares him to set the carriage on fire. The aristocrat is triumphant for only a few seconds. As she burns to her death, the daughter screams "I knew it would end this way!" Some time later, a finished portrait of hell is delivered to the palace. The painter commits suicide the same day and the nobleman, haunted by the ghost of the painter, is driven to madness. Only the brilliant artwork, a picture of hell, remains.This is a treatise on the nature of art and the conflict between the artist and the patron. It is also a story about the pride of an obsessed artist and the hubris of the man who thinks he owns him. A very complicated tale.The movie gets sidetracked by an unnecessary sub-plot involving rebels. Also the prolonged wandering of the painter through famine-ravaged Kyoto could be rather dull if you did not understand that much of the pantomime represent other stories by Akutagawa set in the same period (including Rashomon).Otherwise, this is a great movie and a rich experience to watch.One pet theory of mine is that the garish colors of the films of the 50's and 60's actually helped Japanese cinema. The Caucasian woman is the most beautiful kind of human in a black-and-white movie, which probably helped consolidate their position as the epitome of human beauty. The Japanese, strangely, look very good in the hues of early Technicolor. It may have contributed to the popularity of Japanese films of the era. You will see what I mean when you see this exceptionally beautiful movie.