A comic attack on Japan's racism, Three Resurrected Drunkards makes interesting use of Oshima's technique of deliberate repetition (with slight alteration) of key scenes. The story involves three students who have their clothes stolen while swimming, and are then believed to be Koreans who have entered the country illegally. Variety's 1968 review notes, “Pic is mainly a wild chase with many imbroglios including a mysterious girl and her older husband and the Koreans, ending with a sudden sharp allusion to public political killings in South Vietnam.... It has the right comic and satirical edge to have its sudden shafts of seriousness splintered into the telling.”
David Owens of the Japan Society notes, “Oshima cast rock music star of the day Kazuhiko Kato as a member of his hapless trio (he's the tall one). The antics are reminiscent of Richard Lester's Beatles movies, and the music of the Monkees, but this anarchic comedy gets in some much more serious digs.... Then just for good measure, Oshima starts the film over again about half way through.”