Adulterous Miho (Mieko Harada), pregnant by her lover Ryuzo (Ken Nishida), is killed by her husband Unpei (Kunie Tanaka), but gives birth to daughter Aki shortly after dying. Aki, unwanted by her family, is sent to an orphanage and replaced by another child, Kumi.
Twenty years later, Aki (also played by Harada) returns to the village where she was born and unwittingly acts as an instrument of vengeance for her mother, who is suffering in Hell for her sins.
I wasn't a big fan of the 1960 film Jigoku, which I felt was overlong and extremely tedious, the only good thing about it being its gory depictions of punishments in Hell during the final act. This 1979 loose retelling from Toei is even longer (by about half an hour) and its vision of hell less impressive, making the film even more of an endurance test. The only real positive about the film is Mieko Harada, who is extremely attractive and takes her clothes off a fair bit: it's not hard to see how she could lure most men to their death.
3.5/10, rounded up to 4 for the people-grinding machine, Miho impaling her hands and feet on spikes, and the funny flesh-eating bugs.
