Archive

Ishii Teruo: King of Cult

Hell

Ishii Teruo

Japan1999 101min 35mm Color

Synopsis

Among those Ishii Teruo directed in his later years, Hell is the most Ishii-like film. It may be based on the Buddhist's world view, but what runs across the whole feature film is a simply one thought: Ishii's uncontrollable anger towards the bombing attack committed by Aum Shinrikyo that shocked the whole Japanese society. Hell deals with a case still being in trial, so the Korean audience may have to approach it with a little more discretion.

Diretor

Ishii Teruo

More vital than most men half his age, eighty-year-old Teruo Ishii continues to make films that witness their creator's colourful personality. Still best known for his series of Edo-era torture films from the late 60s, Ishii has worked in a vast range of genres in the course of his six-decade long career. From his early Super Giants films for Shin Toho, through his gang and biker films for Toei and his recent independently made ero-gro spectacles, his work has remained as youthful in spirit as the man who made them. Midnight Eye met up with Ishii at the Étrange Festival in Paris, which paid tribute to the man who is referred to at home as the King of Cult.