will fulfill his heart’s desires and details a plan for Morito to kill Wataru and claim her once she’s widowed. Kesa returns home and behaves generously to Tone and Wataru. After everyone has gone to bed, Morito sneaks into the bedroom, dealing a decisive killing blow to a figure beneath the blankets. He is horrified to realize that he has killed Kesa. Realizing that Kesa sacrificed herself rather than subject herself or anyone else to his insanity, Morito fruitlessly begs Wataru to kill him in penance. As Wataru mourns his dead wife, Morito kneels in the courtyard, cuts off his topknot and vows to start over as a monk. Cast Kazuo Hasegawa – Morito Endo Machiko Kyō – Lady Kesa Isao Yamagata – Wataru Watanabe Yatarō Kurokawa – Taira no Shigemori Kōtarō Bandō – Rokuroh Jun Tazaki – Kogenta Koreya Senda – Taira no Kiyomori Masao Shimizu – Fujiwara no Nobuyori Tatsuya Ishiguro – Yachuta Kenjirō Uemura – Masanaka Gen Shimizu – Saburosuke Michiko Araki – Mano Yoshie Minami – Tone Kikue Mōri – Sawa Ryōsuke Kagawa – Yasutada Kunitarō Sawamura – Moritada Production Yoshinobu Nishioka - Art director Reception After the Japan Society sponsored a U.S. release of the film in December 1954, Bosley Crowther reviewed it for The New York Times. According to Crowther: The secret, perhaps, of its rare excitement is the subtlety with which it blends a subterranean flood of hot emotions with the most magnificent flow of surface serenity. The tensions and agonies of violent passions are made to seethe behind a splendid silken screen of stern formality, dignity, self-discipline and sublime esthetic harmonies. The very essence of ancient Japanese culture is rendered a tangible stimulant in this film. Awards Gate of Hell won the grand prize award at the 1954 Cannes Film Festival, a 1955 Academy Honorary Award for "Best Foreign Language Film first released in the United States during 1954", along with the Academy Award for Best Costume Design, Color, and the 1954 New York Film Critics Circle Award for "Best Foreign Language Film". It won the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival. Home video In the United Kingdom, Gate of Hell was released in 2012 on Blu-ray Disc and DVD as part of the Masters of Cinema line; the next year The Criterion Collection released it in the United States. See also List of jidaigeki films List of historical films