I originally queued Gate of Hell (1953) for Spooktober as a horror movie. I reconsidered when I looked at the description closer. But it wasn't far off.
It takes place in Japan in the 12th century during the Heiji rebellion, a struggle between the Taira and Minamoto clans for control of the emperor. When the rebellion is closing in on the palace, a samurai warrior, Hasegawa Kazuo-san, volunteers to take a decoy of the daimyo's sister out of the palace. Lady-in-waiting Kyo Machiko-san volunteers to be that lady.
When the rebellion has been put down, a lord offers Hasegawa-san any reward, and he asks to be allowed to marry Kyo-san. It turns out that she is already married, but he still wants her. He becomes obsessed with her, causing lots of gossip in the palace. So much so that Kyo-san tells her husband, Yamagata Isao-san, about it. He is a decent man, and tries to calm her fears.
As part of the victory celebration, there is a horse race, and Yamagata-san loses to Hasegawa-san. There is a party afterwards, a "race-forgetting party". (It is traditional in Japan to have drinking parties to erase the memory of bad feelings - year-end parties are called "year-forgetting parties", for example.) The guests do a little teasing that Yamagata-san ignores, but it infuriates Hasegawa-san, who wants to start a fight.
In the end he feels he can force himself on Kyo-san, threatening the lives of her husband and family. She feels she must submit, but switches beds with her husband so that Yamagata-san kills her instead of her husband. Shocked and dismayed, he finds Yamagata-san and begs him to kill him. But Yamagata-san knows that that won't bring back Kyo-san. So Hasegawa-san cuts off his topknot and vows to become a monk.
Right off. this film is gorgeous. It was one of the first Japanese costume dramas to be filmed in color, and the first to be shown outside Japan. It is full of beautiful Japanese brocade costumes in brilliant colors. It is also full of Japanese traditional music - a monk playing spooky biwa, classical gagaku at court, Kyo-san's beautiful koto playing, and a shrill shichiriki when Hasegawa-san is in the grips of madness. The movie is full of little touches, like silk curtains billowing in the wind and ripples spreading in water - to show perhaps, how easily things can be affected by chance and change.
The Gate of Hell is one of the gates to the palace where the heads of a previous rebellion were hung. It sports a fiery mural of Hell. But it isn't only rebellion that leads to Hell, it is also lust and violence. I had assumed that Hasegawa-san, the forthright noble warrior would win the damsel from her noble, foppish husband. But actually, he couldn't control his desires, while the husband was mild and trusting.
However, it must be said (and Yamagata-san says as much) that Kyo-san could have avoided a tragic end if she had leveled with her husband instead of martyring herself. That part I just can't work out.
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