PORTRAIT OF HELL
Executive Producer TOMOYUKI TANAKA
Story by RYUNOSUKE AKUTAGAWA
Music by YASUSHI AKUTAGAWA
Art Director SHINOBU MURAKI
English Subtitles by TADASHU SHISHIDO
CAST
KINNOSUKE NAKAMURA as the lord
YOKO NAITO as Yoshika
SHUN ODE as Hiromi
with TATSUHEl SHIMOKAWA MASAO IMAFUKU
TATSUYA NAKADAI as Yoshihide the artist
Directed by SHIRO TOYODA
In old Japan, about ten centuries ago, in the Heian era
the Fujiwara clan ruled the county.
Adding to their poor administration,
famine and disaster plagued the land.
The people, except aristocrats, were in despair.
Even in the hearts of the aristocrats,
fear and anxiety grew heavier by the day.
They were fearful and uneasy about everything.
All right. I'll go home.
Get ready.
The lord is leaving!
Pay me.
Please pay me!
No!
Pay me! Please pay me!
I belong to the lord's clan!
The lord's ox!
I'll curse you my lord, even to my seventh life!
You impose heavy taxes on us and collect them mercilessly.
You force us to work like slaves.
We're condemned to live a dog's life.
Get out of here! The lord is leaving.
Come on! Move it!
Is Yoshihide here?
Yoshihide, come in.
I have received, from your county of Korea,
a coded message from the king.
But... I see
It's written on the crow feathers.
The feathers and the ink are black. No one can read it.
How do you read it?
You must know something we don't.
First, steam the feathers with boiled rice.
Next, apply silk cloth onto them to copy the letters.
That's how we read secret messages in Korea.
You heard him? Do it.
You've done very well, Yoshihide.
Take it.
You dislike gold?
I thought you sent for me
for an order of painting.
My lord. I, Yoshihide, am an artist.
Why don't you let me paint on the wall on your new temple?
Then, paint a picture that I like to see.
You modelled an Angel on a humble entertainer
and the God of Fire on an imprisoned outlaw.
I admit your pictures are marvellous.
But you dote on technique and think little of heart.
I want to see paradise on the walls of my temple.
But you're ignorant of Buddhism.
Your pictures are grotesque.
You paint what's dark and ugly.
Your pictures lack heart and warmness.
I portray
only the truths I see with my own eyes.
Only the truths. I cannot paint lies
The same old mule.
Then, portray a truth that will convince me.
Be quiet.
Or I won't feed you nuts.
What's wrong with you today?
Jealousy.
Oh, Hiromi!
Don't move, Yoshika.
Comb your hair in the stream like you did.
Beautiful!
Give my flute back! No.
Give it back Yoshika.
I won't! No I wont!
I'll play for you.
Yoshika!
What were you doing?
What were you... with this person?
I love him.
Master! Please!
No!
I expel you!
Yoshika!
Hiromi!
Yoshika!
Get away!
Hiromi!
Father! No!
Master, please!
No, father!
Please! Father!
Is this Hiromi's?
Is this his picture?
Master! Let me marry her.
Let me!
No!
Is it because I'm not a Korean like you?
Shut up!
No one shall have her!
Get out!
You look sad.
What happened?
You're silent and miserable. My sympathies. What's wrong?
Some just stay unhappy.
Others seek vengeance.
There's a place for the vengeful. Shall I take you there?
I'm a bandit.
A bandit?!
Afraid, flutist?
I'm a painter.
Does painting ease your pain?
No. My teacher kicked me out.
Then you can paint by yourself!
But...
He took the most precious thing I had.
Force him to give it back!
What counts is power!
Our power!
There'll soon be a lot of changes around here.
Come!
Afraid?
Coward!
Yoshika?
Yoshika!
Who opened the door?
Who?.
The monkey.
The monkey?
Hiromi! Play the flute!
Take me with you! Hiromi!
Play the flute!
Where you go I follow.
You read the letter?
Yes, my lord.
Truly an excellent shot!
This is the copy of the Korean letter.
The Korean king requests our cooperation to conquer
the Tartars who threaten his country.
What'll we write in reply?
Nothing.
That's unreasonable... We'll conquer both of them.
But this is a chance... Say no more!
Okay!
We're powerful enough to beat them alone.
Where did it come from? A nice target.
No! Don't shoot it!
It's mine!
Don't shoot!
The monkey is mine! -Get away from the lord!
Don't shoot my monkey!
You'll be punished for this! -Please! Not my monkey!
Wait.
No violence.
My lord!
Bring her.
What'll he do with my daughter?
I told you. The lord took a fancy to her at first sight.
He wants her as a concubine.
He's benevolent. Congratulations! No!
I refuse!
This is delicious. What flavour.
Where is it from?
Deaf fool!
You said China?
Of course. Where else? Where else?
Yoshika is mine.
Give her back to me. She's my daughter.
She's my treasure. I brought her up single-handed.
A concubine, of all things!
Don't talk nonsense!
The lord is a man of fortune and power.
He'll make her happy.
Let me remind you that she left home to find her lover. She's nobody's daughter
She left home?
So she said...
That's a lie! A terrible lie!
That can't be true. That's ridiculous.
Look at these.
All her kimono are here.
Yoshika.
She's my only treasure.
Take anything but my daughter!
I'm a mere messenger.
If you disagree, tell the lord face to face.
The messenger is leaving!
You think you can steal my daughter from me? Yoshika.
Where's Yoshihide's daughter?!
My lord, she shut herself up in her room.
What an ungrateful girl!
It's her honour to live here. -Let her alone.
Soon she'll realize the honour.
I've caught the escapee.
Excuse me.
Never mind. That's entertainment.
My lord.
Yoshihide has brought a picture.
What is it like?
It's...
It's what?
It's horrible. -What do you mean? Out with it!
Yes.
A dead old man bleeding under cherry blossoms
Really?
A picture of a corpse?
What's more, I can smell putrid air from the picture.
I can smell it even here.
Where is it?
I'll see it.
My lord. My daughter?
No.
Please!
Hmm...
Please! Please!
I'll take care of your daughter.
No matter how you love her you're a bad father.
She'll live here with me like a queen.
No, my lord.
Give her back to me. -No.
Please! -No!
Yoshihide. Where is the picture?
Oh, here it is.
Burn incense to get rid of the smell.
Yoshihide.
Why did you paint that awful picture?
It was on a picnic for viewing cherry blossoms. -I know all about it.
The thunderstorm
My ox was terrified and killed an old man.
But he died thanking me for my benevolence, so I heard.
Light the incense. Be quick about it.
Every man and woman in town
worships me as Buddha in disguise.
A lie!
It proves nothing true of this world ever reached your ears.
Silly!
No.
The old man cursed you in anger as he died. -I rule this land as a gift from heaven.
But the people are suffering
from famine and poverty. -Don't say anymore!
Say no more! Leave!
My lord!
Didn't you understand what his eyes were saying?
His eyes?
Be gone!
It was a dream.
You still there?
An intruder!
Who?
A petty thief. Your pardon, my lord.
Yoshihide.
Tear up the picture.
Tear it up
What? I don't have to give reasons
Tear it up with your hands.
Are you saying no?
You really mean no?
Finished?
I can paint the picture again.
Yoshihide. Last night the old man in the picture appeared in my room.
You'd say my concentration of mind created the ghost.
You have nothing to fear, my lord. Least of all, a ghost.
Well said.
You're the best artist of our time, Yoshihide.
Portray Buddha.
Portray paradise on the walls of my temple.
You'll go down in history. -I can't.
Why?
You may be able to force me to do what I don't like, but
I'm not able to paint what I don't see. -Really.
Where can I see a perfect virtuous face?
Where can I see paradise?
Come.
Yoshihide.
Don't you think this city of Heian is a paradise on earth?
My lord!
A gang of bandits are raiding the house.
There are guards to protect us.
We'll all be killed!
Keep calm!
There's no danger.
The bandits are a mere mob. My guards will beat them.
It's dangerous!
Go to the north wing. Don't worry.
Yoshihide. Aren't you afraid of the bandits?
No.
What frightens me is the corruption you create rather than the bandits.
What...?
Say that again.
Ghosts haunt you and bandits raid your house.
That's the response to your glory.
Unless the ruler changes,
the bandits, if beaten once, will rise again.
I'll paint again too. -Korean pig!
My lord. Is that what you really think of me?
My sword!
Give my daughter back first.
No!
Get away!
Yoshika!
Get out of my way! Or I'll kill you.
You love him?
Even though he expelled your lover, you still love him?
Do you?
Do you love him still?
You're a good girl, after all.
Even in Korea, a daughter loves her father.
Yoshihide.
You never looked this happy before.
It's dangerous, my lord.
Take her away.
What are my guards doing?
Leave no bandit alive!
Shoot that man!
Hiromi...?
Hiromi!
l regret... I failed to kill the lord.
Hiromi.
Wish it hadn't missed.
How I regret it!
You shot at the lord?
You drove me away from your daughter
and gave her to the lord.
What have I done?
She'll be raped.
She'll be raped by the lord.
Hiromi!
For Yoshika!
Yoshika!
Intruder!
We've got him!
My lord.
What's the noise?
Somebody was hiding beside the pond.
Kill him.
I caught him. It was Yoshihide.
Yoshihide?
What'll we do?
Bring him.
What brought you here at this hour of night?
He played the flute.
He had this picture too.
Who was this?
The man raided your house today and was killed.
He was my apprentice.
Your apprentice became a bandit?
I wanted my daughter to see how he died. So I painted it.
Why?
Leave us.
Was this man in love with Yoshika?
But this picture is ugly.
My lord.
It's too much to ask you to see beauty in ugliness, but
The concentrated mind of a man... -Concentrated mind?!
The man's last words were addressed to my daughter.
She shall never hear of this man's death.
Time will rapidly erase her memories of him.
My lord. What are you going to do with my daughter?
My lord. Give her back to me. -No!
No matter what, you'll never have her back.
I know very well what is in your mind, my lord.
How can I portray paradise with you as the ruler? -Kick him out!
My lord! My lord!
My lord!
I know very well.
I know very well!
I know! I know very well!
Come, Yoshika.
No.
Yoshika.
Come.
I'm engaged to somebody.
Come.
Get rid of the ghost!
Sound the alarm!
Get rid of the ghost!
Sound the alarm!!
It was our ancestors who brought
all kinds of craft and culture to Japan.
What do you see now?
Painting, for instance, is in Japanese style.
Your traditional Chinese-style painting is neglected.
Work is hard to find nowadays.
Living isn't easy.
That's the point. Naturalised people like us are poor.
But...
Living is much easier back home in Korea these days.
So what?
Yoshihide.
Recently, many of us are longing to return to Korea.
Only I can paint on the walls of the new temple.
No Japanese painter has the power of achievement.
The fact mortifies the lord. I'll fight him...
I'll fight him with my art.
Yoshihide!
Do us a favour.
The lord thinks much of you.
Ask him to permit us to set sail for Korea. Please Yoshihide!
Please! Please!
No!
Don't you even dare think of returning to Korea.
What you should be doing is working at your post and keeping quiet.
But we're neglected by your people.
What are you getting at?
They're probably envious of our superior blood. -Such insolence!
How conceited!
Your fathers used to be our prisoners.
Recently, we have our own great scholars. Literary court ladies too.
Are the jobs of the Koreans finished then?
Be sensible.
If so, you'll go back too?
Answer me Yoshihide.
I can't go and leave my daughter behind.
Good.
Follow me, Yoshihide.
Right then.
Yoshihide.
Paint a picture on this screen.
You'll tear it up again.
I refuse to paint
My grotesque pictures fail to please you.
You don't understand.
I don't?
Then, Yoshihide, paint a picture of hell on it.
Hell?
The theme of the grotesque suits you.
I wonder.
Well? Why not answer me?
Just as I thought. Even you cannot portray hell.
My lord. I'd like to paint on the walls of your temple.
What?
Yoshihide!
I've been waiting for those words.
Portray Buddha.
Portray his blessing.
Portray his land of bliss! -I mean I'd like to paint...
... a portrait of hell.
Fool!
But Yoshihide, it doesn't make sense.
You portray only what you see with your eyes.
Yes. Only the truths I see and that convince me.
Have you ever seen hell?
Yoshihide. You surrender? -No.
If I want, I can see hell anywhere.
You're no Buddhist. You know no hell.
Hell is everywhere. In town... in the countyside...
And in this house.
You are unable to understand.
You are unable to see these things.
All right then...
Portray hell on this screen first.
If it's good...
I will give you back Yoshika.
You mean it? -I mean it.
Then paint it in my temple.
I'll be waiting.
Master!
What's happening?
What are you doing?
Master!
Master! You're hurting me!
Master! Master! Master!
You're killing me!
Please don't! Please!
Not enough.
This is nothing like hell.
Let me go, master! Let me go!
Master!
Unchain me!
Master!
Please let me go!
Master...
Please master! Let me go!
Please, master! Please!
Master... Master!
A snake!
Master!
Help!
Master... Master!
Help me!
Somebody!
Listen everybody.
I've written a poem.
As I have always wanted,
my daughter, who married the emperor, bore a prince.
Isn't that wonderful?
This is my poem.
The world is mine. Moon, be full and shine.
Nothing more for me To add to my prosperity.
The world is mine. Moon, be full and shine.
Nothing more for me To add to my prosperity.
The world is mine. Moon be full and shine.
Nothing more for me To add to my prosperity.
The world is mine...
Come!
I'm waiting. Come!
In your carriage... Drive your carriage here!
Come!
Come to hell!
To the hell of fire!
To the hell of heat!
Master!
Yoshika. Come here.
What are you waiting for?
What's wrong_.
Damned monkey!
Yoshika. Yoshika! Yoshika!!
Hiromi!
Why didn't you come sooner?
I'm no longer what I used to be.
Yoshika.
What do you mean you're no longer what you used to be?
Tell me, Yoshika.
What is it?
Tell me, please.
The lord had you.
Yoshika.
Let's escape from here.
What can be so bad as to prevent that?
Why bother escaping? It's too late.
I can't face Hiromi again. -He's dead.
Dead?
Dead.
Yoshika.
I hate you too.
I wanted Hiromi to have me.
Yoshika!
He wasn't a Korean.
That's why you didn't let me marry him.
That's why.
Why are you still prejudiced?
You and the lord.
I don't understand.
Do you know what happened to the other Korean craftsmen?
They were caught in a secret attempt to return to Korea.
Oh no!
Come!
You too!
To hell!
Yoshihide.
Have you finished your picture of hell?
Almost...
My picture is almost done.
How could you see the expressions of people suffering in hell? -I could see them everywhere in the streets.
Here?
In this city of Heian I rule?
Yes.
The hell hounds?
I modelled them on those who show off under your influence.
Yoshihide!
Yes?
Show me this picture.
Show me the portrait of hell you're so proud of.
But one thing...
There's just one significant item missing.
What's that?
My lord.
The hell of heat.
So what?
A richly decorated carriage is
falling from the sky, wrapped in flames.
The man in the carriage must be choked with the smoke, writhing in agony,
looking up at the canopy at the empty sky.
His hands must be clutching at the rattan blind
in a shower of sparks.
And around the carriage,
dozens of ominous hell birds are flying,
clattering and rattling their beaks!
But you can't paint that unless you can see it?
Exactly, my lord.
Burn a gorgeous Chinese-style carriage in my presence.
That is my request.
You want to send me to hell together with the carriage?
You want me to be in the burning carriage?
What do you think?
Yoshihide.
Come.
Is that why you want to paint the picture that much?
Yes.
I'll keep you informed. Get up.
Thank you, my lord.
Yoshihide.
Look.
That is the carriage I ride in everyday. Remember?
Yes.
It'll soon be set on fire and I'll die in it.
That's the heat of hell you'll portray. It should fire your imagination!
What a remarkable talent.
But Yoshihide...
Contrary to your wish
the person in the carriage won't be me.
I'm going to be here.
A prisoner is there in my place.
The person will be burned alive and suffer the excruciating pains of death.
Watch it and imagine I'm in it. Watch carefully.
It'll be the show of the ages.
Lift the blind so Yoshihide will see who's inside
Yes!
Yoshihide. Are you looking?
Shall I burn it?
This can't really be happening!
Shall I set fire to the carriage?
You want to see the hell of fire?
How about it?
Or, will you humbly apologise to me?
Apologise, Yoshihide.
Apologise!
Never! I'll never yield to you!
Monster! Now you've revealed your true nature!
To hell with you! To hell with the lord!
All right. If you think you can burn her, try it and see!
See if you can set it on fire!
You see? You can't.
Even you can't set fire to the carriage!
You Korean pig!
Burn it to hell!
He said my father would yield if he saw me in the carriage!
But I knew!
I knew this would happen!
I knew you two!
I knew you too well!
May you burn in hell!
Yoshika!
Hiromi!
Yoshika! Forgive me!
Forgive me!
Hell...
I am... hell.
This is hell.
I'll show them who wins!
Upon my soul...
I'll show them!
I'll win!
Upon my soul, I'll show them!
You finished the picture?
The portrait of hell must be great.
It cost your daughter's life and jeopardised yours.
Now I'll see the picture.
Stand up, Yoshihide.
Show me.
Why the look? What do you want?
l see. You want Yoshika back as we promised?
All right.
l have fulfilled my commitment.
The reason she is ashes...
Yoshihide.
It's your fault.
The fault of your stubbornness!
You were in ecstasy watching her die.
You are no human, you are hell itself.
Because you didn't cast off your pride,
she had to fall into hell.
Master.
I delivered the portrait of hell to the lord's mansion.
Master. Are you asleep?
Master...
When I saw the picture,
I was stunned.
It's your masterpiece.
A copy of the existing hell.
Master...
My lord!
He hanged himself!
Who? -Yoshihide.
Impossible. -It's true!
Nonsense. He's here with me.
Yoshihide.
Yoshihide!
Yoshihide was here.
That... that was...
... his spirit!
What happened to the picture?
Where is the portrait of hell?
Marvellous!
Great, Yoshihide!
That's me!
Me in there!
Me!
Me in hell!
Help!
Somebody! Help!
Life is more hellish than hell. -Ryunosuke Akutagawa
THE END