{"id":97207,"date":"2024-06-01T15:50:44","date_gmt":"2024-06-01T22:50:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=97207"},"modified":"2024-06-02T10:23:53","modified_gmt":"2024-06-02T17:23:53","slug":"death-by-hanging-1968","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=97207","title":{"rendered":"Death by Hanging (1968)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;For human beings, death comes when one consciously accepts it.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-by-Hanging-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-by-Hanging-Poster-204x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"204\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-97208\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-by-Hanging-Poster-204x300.png 204w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-by-Hanging-Poster-87x128.png 87w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-by-Hanging-Poster-183x270.png 183w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-by-Hanging-Poster.png 631w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 204px) 100vw, 204px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nWhen a Korean-born Japanese man (Yung-do Yun) who has been sentenced to death by hanging &#8220;refuses&#8221; to die, his captors debate the ethics of killing him again, and try to get him to remember his identity and his crimes.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Black Comedy<\/li>\n<li>Death and Dying<\/li>\n<li>Japanese Films<\/li>\n<li>Nagisa Oshima Films<\/li>\n<li>Race Relations and Racism<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nThe second film by Japanese director Nagisa Oshima listed in Peary&#8217;s <em>GFTFF<\/em> &#8212; after the disappointingly talky <a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=3283\"><em>Night and Fog in Japan<\/em> (1960)<\/a> &#8212; is this much more intriguing dark comedy about the ethics of life, death, crime, race, and capital punishment in post-WWII Japan. The film starts off in a documentary-like style, as we&#8217;re walked through the process of how &#8220;death by hanging&#8221; is carried out in Japan: no details are spared, from a description of the section of the prison where the execution chamber is located, to what&#8217;s inside the chamber, to the final rites and rituals offered up to the man who is about to die (including &#8220;his last cup of tea and last cigarette&#8221;). <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Noose.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Noose-1024x555.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"347\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-97210\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Noose-1024x555.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Noose-300x163.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Noose-128x69.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Noose-768x417.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Noose-498x270.png 498w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Noose.png 1287w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Everything seems to be going according to routine &#8212; but the first surreal plot twist in the film comes when the men in charge of overseeing this process discover that the criminal&#8217;s heart won&#8217;t stop beating; in other words, the man&#8217;s body seems &#8220;unwilling&#8221; to actually die. What to do next? Nobody seems to agree, or to want to take ultimate responsibility. The perverse dilemma is summed up in the following exchange: <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Sir, allow us to execute him again.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Execute him again? He wasn&#8217;t executed!&#8221; <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Indeed. What does it even mean to &#8220;be executed&#8221;? We learn that according to Japanese rules, the condemned man&#8217;s &#8220;noose can&#8217;t be undone until five minutes after death&#8221; &#8212; but since he &#8220;hasn&#8217;t been executed yet,&#8221; the noose can&#8217;t come off. He can&#8217;t receive another &#8220;prayer and hymn&#8221; since &#8220;he&#8217;s already received his last communion.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Execute-Again.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Execute-Again-1024x549.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"343\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-97223\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Execute-Again-1024x549.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Execute-Again-300x161.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Execute-Again-128x69.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Execute-Again-768x412.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Execute-Again-504x270.png 504w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Execute-Again.png 1302w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Given that &#8220;his soul is with God&#8221; but &#8220;his body&#8217;s alive,&#8221; is he &#8220;mentally incapacitated&#8221; &#8212; in which case &#8220;the execution must be halted&#8221;? (After all, the team would &#8220;get in trouble for executing someone who&#8217;s unconscious&#8221; given that &#8220;the point isn&#8217;t just to take his life; the prisoner&#8217;s awareness of his own guilt is what gives execution its moral and ethical meaning.&#8221;) The men try to resuscitate the prisoner, leading to such darkly humorous and perverse justifications as, &#8220;Warden they&#8217;re trying to revive him so they can kill him again!&#8221; and &#8220;Let&#8217;s revive him first; the execution is a separate issue.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Body.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Body-1024x540.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"338\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-97215\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Body-1024x540.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Body-300x158.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Body-128x67.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Body-768x405.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Body-512x270.png 512w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Body.png 1298w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Eventually the story takes yet another weird turn, as the prisoner (Yun) is revived but claims not to remember who he is or what he&#8217;s done. When Yun is told about what he &#8212; &#8220;R&#8221; &#8212; has done, he claims &#8220;I don&#8217;t feel I&#8217;m R at all.&#8221; Very convenient &#8212; to claim one no longer &#8220;relates&#8221; to the acts one has carried out, given that the lethal consequences of said acts remain very much real. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-by-Hanging-Yun-Cross.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-by-Hanging-Yun-Cross-1024x538.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"336\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-97219\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-by-Hanging-Yun-Cross-1024x538.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-by-Hanging-Yun-Cross-300x158.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-by-Hanging-Yun-Cross-128x67.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-by-Hanging-Yun-Cross-768x404.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-by-Hanging-Yun-Cross-514x270.png 514w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-by-Hanging-Yun-Cross.png 1290w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a> <\/p>\n<p>However, R can&#8217;t (or shouldn&#8217;t) be executed if he&#8217;s not consciously aware of his crimes &#8212; therefore the hanging team begin re-enacting his life and crimes, during which time we learn that he had a rough childhood as a Japanese of Korean descent growing up in a large, impoverished family. (<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Japan%E2%80%93South_Korea_relations\">Korea was a colony of Japan from 1910 to 1945<\/a>.) It seems that the executioners may even be gaining some perverse enjoyment out of recreating Yun&#8217;s toxic crimes of passion and vengeance: <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Strangling.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Strangling-1024x540.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"338\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-97213\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Strangling-1024x540.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Strangling-300x158.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Strangling-128x67.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Strangling-768x405.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Strangling-512x270.png 512w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Strangling.png 1294w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8230; and the fact that everyone heads out of the prison itself during the reenactments speaks to how surreal things have become. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Running-Bridge.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Running-Bridge-1024x540.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"338\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-97216\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Running-Bridge-1024x540.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Running-Bridge-300x158.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Running-Bridge-128x68.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Running-Bridge-768x405.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Running-Bridge-512x270.png 512w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Running-Bridge.png 1289w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Discussions of Yun&#8217;s racial identity take center place in the final third of the film, especially as he engages in discussions with someone referred to as his sister. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Sister.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Sister-1024x540.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"338\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-97221\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Sister-1024x540.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Sister-300x158.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Sister-128x68.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Sister-768x405.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Sister-512x270.png 512w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Sister.png 1296w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>By the film&#8217;s finale, we have a bit more sympathy for how and why Yun ended up as a criminal &#8212; which perhaps was Oshima&#8217;s primary goal; and meanwhile, we&#8217;ve certainly been made to reflect more deeply on what it means to consciously take someone&#8217;s life in exchange for their crimes against others. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Yasuhiro Yoshioka&#8217;s cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Window.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Window-1024x556.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"348\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-97212\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Window-1024x556.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Window-300x163.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Window-128x69.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Window-768x417.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Window-498x270.png 498w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Death-By-Hanging-Window.png 1292w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes. Listed as a Personal Recommendation in the back of Peary&#8217;s book. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Foreign Gem<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0063198\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.qnetwork.com\/review\/3543\">Q Network Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1974\/02\/15\/archives\/screen-japanese-death-by-hangingyoung-korean-rapist-survives.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=SBeIwaYswO0\">Oshima&#8217;s Theater of the Avant-Garde video overview (Cinema Nippon)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;For human beings, death comes when one consciously accepts it.&#8221; Synopsis: When a Korean-born Japanese man (Yung-do Yun) who has been sentenced to death by hanging &#8220;refuses&#8221; to die, his captors debate the ethics of killing him again, and try to get him to remember his identity and his crimes. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Black Comedy Death and Dying Japanese Films Nagisa Oshima Films Race Relations and Racism Review: The second film by Japanese director Nagisa Oshima listed in&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=97207\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97207"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97286,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97207\/revisions\/97286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}