← Back to Directory
The Inferno
Movie

The Inferno

1979 • Unknown

Woke Score
2
out of 10

Plot

Hell manifests itself through the sins, shame and desires of an upper class rural family and a mother's grief from beyond the grave.

Overall Series Review

The Inferno, a 1979 Japanese horror film, serves as a visceral exploration of sin, shame, and the inescapable consequences of moral transgression. The story follows Aki, a young woman whose existence is a byproduct of her mother's tragic death and adultery, as she returns to a corrupt, wealthy rural family in a cycle of revenge. The plot is driven by a deterministic moral framework where individual acts of sin—including infidelity, murder, and incest—lead to a literal, graphically depicted punishment in a Buddhist/folkloric vision of Hell (Jigoku). The film critiques the corruption and depravity within the family unit and the upper-class structure in which it resides. The narrative is focused on universal concepts of karma and divine retribution. Character motivation stems from personal desire, lust, and the need for revenge, all of which are presented as sins to be paid for in the afterlife. The movie is a moral cautionary tale centered on the inescapable nature of spiritual law.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics2/10

The narrative conflict is driven by transgressive acts like infidelity and murder within a Japanese family and class structure. Characters' fates are determined by their individual sins and a karmic cycle, not by an intersectional hierarchy of race or immutable characteristics. The film does not include themes of vilifying whiteness or forced diversity, as it is a Japanese production focused on Japanese society.

Oikophobia2/10

The film is a product of Japanese cinema and critiques the morality, shame, and sin of an upper-class Japanese family and rural society. It does not display hostility toward Western civilization, its institutions, or its ancestors, which is the definition provided for this category. The focus is on the corruption and decay within its own local cultural structure.

Feminism4/10

The lead female character is an autonomous daredevil racer, a surface-level 'Girl Boss' trope, but her actions are fatalistically driven by a family curse and revenge. Her sexuality is presented as a tragic, bewitching lust which bewitches men. Motherhood is framed as a birth-in-hell curse, which aligns with anti-natalism, but the narrative punishes both male and female sin, making it a complex moral drama rather than a gendered political lecture.

LGBTQ+1/10

The sexual focus is overwhelmingly on transgressive but traditional male-female relationships, such as adultery and incest. The plot does not center on alternative sexualities, the deconstruction of the nuclear family through gender ideology, or issues of sexual identity beyond the private acts of sin. Traditional male-female pairing is the normative structure for the conflict.

Anti-Theism1/10

The entire plot is a horror story driven by a clear, objective, and transcendent moral law where sins lead directly to explicit, gruesome eternal punishment in the Buddhist/folk vision of Hell (Jigoku). The film serves as a dramatic visualization of a higher moral authority and karmic retribution, reinforcing the concept of Objective Truth rather than promoting moral relativism.