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context: movies > some films
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Nakadai in Portrait of Hell |
Portrait of Hell
1969. Original title: Jigokuhen. Director: Shiro Toyoda. Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai.
This old horror movie isn't among the greats of Japanese cinema, but it's a film I like. Its style and quality is something like equivalent to, say, Hammer Horror, and I especially enjoy it because Tatsuya Nakadai gives us the fierce performance we never quite got from Christopher Lee in those, as a painter working for a despotic lord. He's asked to produce an image of heaven for the lord's halls, but with insane integrity he insists he can only paint hell under this ruler, and his passionate belief in the honesty of its work leads to the predictable horror movie results.