Gate of Hell, A Page of Madness

Teinosuke Kinugasa's Gate of Hell (Daiei Pictures, 1953) was on Turner Classic Imports good and late last night. "...In 1928, intrepid 32 year old Teinosuke Kinugasa embarked on the long voyage across Asia with a print of his second self-financed feature, Crossroads (Jujiro) under his arm. After touching base with Eisenstein and Pudovkin in Moscow, he made his way to Berlin where he was able to sell the film to a German distributor. Thus the German Expressionist-influenced period piece Crossroads became the first Japanese film to be seen in Europe by quite a long margin, and went on to play in Paris, London, and New York (under the title The Slums of Yoshiwara." Teinosuke Kinugasa is also responsible for A Page of Madness (1927) - a Japanese expressionist silent film I MUST see. Also... a great Score for A Page of Madness by In The Nursery.