The Death Penalty

This film (drama)Also known as絞死刑，is aJapanProducerwomen sex，At1968Released in year 。The dialogue language isJapanese，Current Douban rating8.3(For reference only)。

The original material for the film's story is based on the life of Lee Jin-woo, a Korean national residing in Japan, who descends into a perverse state of mental delusion under racial discrimination. Not only does he kill two young women, but he also turns his experiences into a novel to participate in a newspaper's writing competition, and even calmly calls the newspaper after committing the murders. After being sentenced to death, a Korean female journalist in Japan corresponds with him, hoping to awaken his national consciousness. The film is based on this real event, but the plot almost transcends the story itself. The film begins with the sudden execution of Mr. R, without explaining the reasons. After the execution, Mr. R surprisingly does not die; he simply loses his memory and falls into a coma. The executioners decide to restore his awareness of his crimes before carrying out the second execution. Thus, they portray characters from Mr. R's life on the spot, attempting to awaken R's memories, even enacting the role of R's Minister of Education to kill a girl who suddenly appears. After being awakened, the victim girl turns into a middle-aged woman dressed in Korean national clothing, whom R refers to as sister, praising R's national consciousness and criticizing Japanese imperialism. The latter half of the film depicts R's imagined world. The executioners sit around holding a banquet, with R and the woman lying among them; their conversation content mirrors the correspondence between Lee Jin-woo and the Korean female journalist. R regains his memory but still believes he has not committed a crime, prompting the prosecutor to decide to release him. The moment R opens the door, he seems unable to bear the sunlight outside. The prosecutor criticizes the fantastical nature of his sense of innocence and places the concept of the nation above R's freedom of imagination. In the end, Mr. R returns to stand on the execution platform. This is Nagisa Oshima's pioneering work in low-budget narrative films—the origin of the 10 million yen film.