An intelligent young Korean man, known as ′R′, faces death by hanging for committing two sex-murders in Japan. But on the day of the execution, the hanging fails: R′s body refuses to die. The prison rule-books do not cover this eventuality. In seven blackly comic chapters, Oshima explores the ramifications of this fantasy, questioning everything from the legitimacy of capital punishment to the attitudes of Japanese to Koreans. The film was inspired by the real-life case of a Korean high-school student who raped and killed two girls in 1958 and was executed when he reached the age of responsibility in 1963. Oshima recalls that intellectuals of his generation were fascinated by the case because the boy′s published letters (written from prison) revealed his exceptional intelligence - and his complete lack of remorse. (Tony Rayns)