Directed by Nagisa Oshima • 1968 • Japan
Genius provocateur Nagisa Oshima, an influential figure in the Japanese New Wave of the 1960s, made one of his most startling political statements with the compelling pitch-black satire Death by Hanging. In this macabre farce, a Korean man is sentenced to death in Japan but survives his execution, sending the authorities into a panic about what to do next. At once disturbing and oddly amusing, Oshima's constantly surprising film is a subversive and surreal indictment of both capital punishment and the treatment of Korean immigrants in his country.
In this piece, produced in 2015, Asian-film critic Tony Rayns discusses DEATH BY HANGING and its continued social relevance.
Directed by Nagisa Oshima • 1965 • Japan
Director Nagisa Oshima investigates Japanese-Korean relations in DEATH BY HANGING, a subject he earlier explored in this experimental 1965 documentary, the heartrending portrait of an impoverished South Korean boy.
