The original title of Oshima's complexly self-referential film, He Died After the War, refers to the Tokyo War of 1969, when Japanese students were involved in violent anti-government demonstrations that led to a period of defeat in the early seventies. The film begins with the death of a student who jumps off a rooftop as he is being chased by police. His comrade believes that the boy's death was a suicide, and that the film in his camera is a last will and testament. But when he screens the film, he finds only street scenes of Tokyo. Obsessed with his friend's story, he begins to "claim" his life, beginning with his girlfriend, and eventually reconstructs the film itself, which in the end becomes a record of his own suicide. Shot in black and white, largely with a hand-held camera, Oshima's film seems to be the contribution of his main character, which we in turn must piece together.