Jigoku (1960) *** 1/2
(First Viewing)

A high school student has a friend who is pure evil. Him and his friend are outdriving one night when they hit a drunkard and the friend leaves him to die. The student's life then goes down hill from there.

One word can sum this movie up pretty accurately: beautiful. What a fantastic roller coaster ride this was. A lot of black backgrounds with wonderful music and extraordinary use of lighting. I love the concept of the movie because I haven't seen many films that deal with the depths of Hell in great detail. I'm not sure how many movies are made that do explore Hell but that's what makes this so original for me. Personally, this is definitely one of, if not THE best Japanese movie I've ever seen (and yes, that's including any and all of Akira Kurosawa's work that I've seen thus far).