MUBI

Gate of Hell won the top prize at Cannes in 1954, an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 1955, and is considered (alongside Rashomon) to be one of the first films to introduce American audiences to the bounty of classical Japanese cinema. So why is it so overlooked nowadays, more a trivia question than a subject of avid discussion? Unfortunately, it may be because time has not been kind to it. From 2011, it looks like a stuffy and dated pageant, not unlike America’s Best Picture winners of the time. It makes broad appeals to western exoticization, its plot hinges on contrivances, and its most notable quality (the vivid color photography) is impressive but not as novel today as it was to the Cannes jury 60 years ago. So let Gate of Hell be a lesson: today’s toast of international cinema could be tomorrow’s curio—and vice-versa.