In this lauded Japanese drama, the samurai Moritoh Enda performs a heroic act by rescuing the lovely Lady Kesa from a violent uprising. The warrior falls in love with Kesa, but becomes distraught when he finds out that she is already married to a man named Wataru Watanabe. Unable to shake his obsession with Kesa, Moritoh grows increasingly unstable and will not stop in his pursuit of her, no matter what the consequences.

A winner of Academy Awards for best foreign-language film and best costume design, Gate of Hell is a visually sumptuous, psychologically penetrating work from Teinosuke Kinugasa. In the midst of epic, violent intrigue in twelfth-century Japan, an imperial warrior falls for a lady-in-waiting; after he discovers she is married, he becomes frenzied in his attempts to win her love. Kinugasa’s film, an early triumph of color cinematography in Japan, is an unforgettable, tragic story of obsession and unrequited passion.