In the year 1968 student movements throughout the world were trying to change their respective societies. In America, in France, in Japan, etc. students and those of similar minds took to the streets to change the old order. Activities by the student organizations the Zengakuren, 全学連, and especially the Zenkyoutou, 全共闘, are readily available to readers of the writers Oe Kenzaburo and Murakami Haruki whose viewpoints differ, but who give the reader a detailed account of the student movement. During these years of protest, the Japanese film industry suffered a number of financial setbacks so the old guard of film directors, such as Kobayashi Masaki and Kurosawa Akira, rarely produced films and directors of pink films ruled the roost. However, some of these directors, although their films also contained sex and violence, tried to produce films that had more of a message. One of the most prominent of the Japanese New Wave directors during this time period was Oshima Nagisa whose films The Man Who Left His Will on Film, Violence at Noon, The Ceremony, etc., were quite acerbic towards the establishment. While his films are considered a bit heavy-handed by a number of film critics, Oshima, like Imamura Shohei, was quite concerned with people belonging to the lower strata of society especially during a time period in which they were often left behind by Japan's rapid growth. In his film Death by Hanging Oshima points his camera towards Japan's Resident Korean population.
Death by Hanging opens with the Narrator, Oshima Nagisa, asking the audience if they support the death penalty and he goes on to say that more than seventy percent of the Japanese public supports the death penalty. However, he then asks the audience if they have ever seen the inside of the death chamber itself. We, the viewers, then receive a step by step introduction to the environs of the death chamber and we are treated to the hanging of a condemned Korean man who raped and killed two Japanese women. However, there is a problem and that problem is that the body of the condemned man R refused to die. Obviously being that someone who is hanged is supposed to die the prison officials are not sure what to do. It is decided that they will hang him again after he comes to, but after he does he has amnesia. Believing that it would be wrong to hang a man without knowledge of his crime, the prison officials try to recreate the rape and murder scenes for R so that his memory will be revived in order for them to execute him once more. However, this task is not easy .
Filmed in 1968 only three years after Japan reopened relations with South Korea and ten years after thousands of Koreans were repatriated to North Korea, Death by Hanging details a number of the discriminations faced by Resident Koreans during the 1960s: poverty, unemployment, poor educational opportunities, and a general sense of disdain by the Japanese populace, although, of course, this was not universal. Death by Hanging also attempts to show the political ideologies of the Resident Koreans, mainly those affiliated with North Korea, in the personage of R's "sister" who says that R's crimes and violence in general is the only way for the Resident Koreans to fight back against Japan. However, after his first execution, R does not seem to still hold onto these same views. A truly bizarre film with some dark humor, Death by Hanging should be watched by those who have an interest in Japanese New Wave films or minority issues in Japan
Death by Hanging opens with the Narrator, Oshima Nagisa, asking the audience if they support the death penalty and he goes on to say that more than seventy percent of the Japanese public supports the death penalty. However, he then asks the audience if they have ever seen the inside of the death chamber itself. We, the viewers, then receive a step by step introduction to the environs of the death chamber and we are treated to the hanging of a condemned Korean man who raped and killed two Japanese women. However, there is a problem and that problem is that the body of the condemned man R refused to die. Obviously being that someone who is hanged is supposed to die the prison officials are not sure what to do. It is decided that they will hang him again after he comes to, but after he does he has amnesia. Believing that it would be wrong to hang a man without knowledge of his crime, the prison officials try to recreate the rape and murder scenes for R so that his memory will be revived in order for them to execute him once more. However, this task is not easy .
Filmed in 1968 only three years after Japan reopened relations with South Korea and ten years after thousands of Koreans were repatriated to North Korea, Death by Hanging details a number of the discriminations faced by Resident Koreans during the 1960s: poverty, unemployment, poor educational opportunities, and a general sense of disdain by the Japanese populace, although, of course, this was not universal. Death by Hanging also attempts to show the political ideologies of the Resident Koreans, mainly those affiliated with North Korea, in the personage of R's "sister" who says that R's crimes and violence in general is the only way for the Resident Koreans to fight back against Japan. However, after his first execution, R does not seem to still hold onto these same views. A truly bizarre film with some dark humor, Death by Hanging should be watched by those who have an interest in Japanese New Wave films or minority issues in Japan