Powerful

It is a performances centric movie

Good concept, poorly executed.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Part II of Masaki Kobayashi's "Human Condition" follows the noble Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai), now forced into military service, as he tries to hold on to his conscience despite increasingly absurd circumstances.If Part I was a POW drama with a love story sub-plot, influencing many that followed it, then Part II is one of the best and rawest of the original boot-camp films, planting seeds for, in particular, "Full Metal Jacket". In fact, Kaji's training with the Imperial Army makes US Boot Camp look like daycare, uninclined as director Kobayashi is to pull punches when it comes to the ritual sadism of the Japanese military, which he personally endured in real life. The film bravely confronts Kaji's attitude, an almost holier-than-thou morality than annoys bullying veterans. This forces Kaji to deeply transform as a character and as a human being, from preppy moralist to actual, worn hero, a transition Nakadai pulls off with tremendous effect and efficiency.But back to the bigger picture. Like Kubrick's similar – and, one should point out, lesser – film of the same genre, this is two pictures in one: a boot-camp film about the dehumanization of the military, and a war film. The first two thirds are all intensive training, with bullying veterans and hapless recruits. Here Kaji faces an interesting contradiction: he rejects the war with all his heart, yet he has it in him to be a perfect warrior. There is the inevitable inept recruit pushed to the brink subplot, but it is handled with more humanity and sense of absurdity than most other similar films could dream of.Finally, the film takes us to the front, where all the bluster and empty honor fades in front of a line of charging enemy tanks, a startlingly effective battle scene that separates the men from the boys, though not in ways they had anticipated. Kobayashi's film rejects the traditional "bridge syndrome" typical of middle installments in film trilogies, and gives us the perfect Part II: a self-contained enough story with enough substance and depth to stand on its own, while drawing from its predecessor and opening up interesting possibilities for the finale.Roll on part III.

Kaji is sent to the Japanese army labeled of Red and is mistreated by the vets. Along his assignment, Kaji witnesses cruelties in the army; he revolts against the abusive treatment spent to the recruit Obara that commits suicide; he also sees his friend Shinjô Ittôhei defecting to the Russian border; and he ends in the front to fight a lost battle against the Soviet tanks division. "The Human Condition – Parts III & IV" is the first sequel of the anti- war masterpiece by Masaki Kobayashi. The story is impressively realistic and magnificently shot with top-notch camera work, giving the sensation of a documentary. But maybe the most impressive is to see the treatment of the Japanese military with their soldiers. If they treated their own compatriots with such brutality, imagine how the enemies would be treated? My vote is ten.Title (Brazil): Not Available

Or, as with the Lord of the Rings books, part III and IV.Here is featured Kaji's military exploits in boot camp and the Manchurian front. As predictable based on the previous movie, Kaji beats heads with the military and comes out worse for wear from it. The better side of these movies is Kaji's critical thinking and intelligence, but this time around he makes some pretty foolish decisions considering that at this point he is not only without power, but completely suspect. Nevertheless, our headstrong hero manages to protect his everyman principles and save a few trainees from being severely beaten at boot-camp--this time largely by taking the beatings himself. I have to admit, there's only so many times you can watch Kaji getting beaten up before you begin to think that it's all getting pretty ridiculous. Not a whole lot was gained by his actions this time around for the amount of pain and humiliation he endures.A particular subplot of note involves the mentally unstable Obara, a Japanese Pvt Pyle from thirty years before Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, who meets a very similar fate. In fact, it's pretty certain that Kubrick saw this movie, though the effort may have been returned considering that some of the later battle scenes in this movie seem right out of Paths of Glory, which was made three years before this one. Of course, my Kubrick comparisons may simply have something to do with Kobayashi's widescreen compositions, where every amount of positive and negative space is used to careful, calculating effect.Meanwhile, the prolonged battle sequences at the end of Part IV are something unto themselves. After the long and political journey we've taken through Japanese nationalism and its corruption, Kobayashi doesn't shy in the least bit from showing dismembered limbs, blown up bodies, and madness taking away men's lives. And it's interesting to see that Kaji, no longer in a place to stand up to authority, no longer has the ability to control his own madness.These two parts are slightly looser than the first third of The Human Condition. A long sequence involving a hospital stay sticks out like a piece from a different puzzle especially, in what is for the most part a carefully crafted novelistic film. Not a whole lot is added by Kaji's experiences in the hospital except for a simple set-up of a later relationship and the death of a corrupt PFC. Of the entire 7hrs30mins the complete movie has run so far, I do believe a fair bit of Part III could have been cut out.So now we are left with Kaji's newfound guilt and battle experience as he becomes a POW to the Russians. Considering how ineffective he was at creating positive change in this second third as opposed to the first third, it's not looking like he's got a whole lot of ground left to stand on, and now he has to seriously question himself as well.--PolarisDiB

It's been a long time since I've seen "Ningen no joken II", the second of Kibiyashi's trilogy: "The Human Condition". One scene (and you'll know it if you see the film) is one of the most visually stunning and heart wrenching in movie history. The rest of the film isn't far behind it with Tatsuya Nakadai giving a brilliant performance playing a good man caught in the monstrous jaws of history. Deeply moving.