Machiko Kyo - publicity portrait from the 1953 film “Gate of Hell”
Originally released as Jigokumen, Gate of Hell was one of the most popular Japanese imports of the 1954-55 American film season. Set in 12th-century feudal Japan, the film stars Kazuo Hasegawa as Moritoh, a samurai whose courage in defending his ruler is to be rewarded with anything he desires. He desires the beautiful, aristocratic Lady Kesa Machiko Kyo who happens to be already married to another samurai, Wataru (Isao Yamagata). Moritoh attempts to persuade Kesa to leave her husband but her devotion is unshakeable. The winner of two Academy Awards and a Cannes grand prize, Gate of Hell is perhaps the most dazzling example of Japanese color photography of the 1950s. The film was based on a well-known play by Kan Kikuchi.

Machiko Kyo and Kazuo Hasegawa in a scene from the 1953 film Gate of Hell
Originally released as Jigokumen, Gate of Hell was one of the most popular Japanese imports of the 1954-55 American film season. Set in 12th-century feudal Japan, the film stars Kazuo Hasegawa as Moritoh, a samurai whose courage in defending his ruler is to be rewarded with anything he desires. He desires the beautiful, aristocratic Lady Kesa Machiko Kyo who happens to be already married to another samurai, Wataru (Isao Yamagata). Moritoh attempts to persuade Kesa to leave her husband but her devotion is unshakeable. The winner of two Academy Awards and a Cannes grand prize, Gate of Hell is perhaps the most dazzling example of Japanese color photography of the 1950s. The film was based on a well-known play by Kan Kikuchi.

Machiko Kyo
Born: Mar 25, 1924 - Osaka, Japan 
Brought to films in 1949 on the strength of her beauty and dancing skills, Machiko Kyo unexpectedly proved to be an actress of unusual power and intensity. Only 18 years old when she burst onto the international film scene as the humiliated wife in Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon (1953), she followed this triumph with such roles as the ghostly Lady Wakara in Kenji Mizoguchi`s Ugetsu (1953) and the much-desired Lady Kesa in Teinosuke Kinusaga’s Gate of Hell (1954). In 1955, she essayed the title role in Princess Yang Kwei Fei, one of her several collaborations with director Kenji Mizoguchi. Her English-language film debut came in 1956, when she was cast opposite Marlon Brando and Glenn Ford in the Okinawa-based Teahouse of the August Moon. Retiring from films in 1976, Machiko Kyo made one last screen appearance in 1985’s Kesho.

Rashomon - Japan. 1950
German Movie Program - Illustrierte Film-Bühne: Nr.1573