1968 | Japan | Fiction

Kôshikei (Death by Hanging)

  • Japanese 118 mins
  • Director | Nagisa Oshima
  • Writer | Tsutomu Tamura, Mamoru Sasaki, Michinori Fukao, Nagisa Oshima
  • Producer | Masayuki Nakajima, Takuji Yamaguchi, Nagisa Oshima

STATUS: Released

This film is currently not available.   

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.

Guilt Identity Racism Absurdity State‑Violence
Film Organizations
The Criterion Collection
DISTRIBUTION