Issei Sagawa: Excuse Me For Living (1993)

  • NR
  • 11/21/1993 (GB)
  • Documentary
  • 50m

Overview

A filmed biography of Issei Sagawa, the Japanese student who shot his Dutch girlfriend, cut her up with a meat carver and boiled the remains. He then ate her. Several months later he was declared insane. While in a psychiatric hospital in France he wrote an account of his crime `In the Fog' which sold 200,000 copies. The French released him in 1984 on the condition that he remained in a mental hospital in Japan. One year later the Japanese hospital released him. Since then he has written five books on crime and is a minor celebrity lionised by the avant garde. Sagawa speaks extensively in the programme and reads passages from his books.

Yoshi Tezuka

Director

Nigel Evans

Director, Writer

Cast

Issei Sagawa's headshot

Issei Sagawa

Self
Colin Wilson's headshot

Colin Wilson

Narrator
Suguru Kubota's headshot

Suguru Kubota

Self
Tetsuo Amano's headshot

Tetsuo Amano

Self
Renée Hartevelt's headshot

Renée Hartevelt

Self (archive footage)
Bernard Marchetli's headshot

Bernard Marchetli

Self

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