Simply A Masterpiece

One of my all time favorites.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The Human Condition (Ningen no jôken) is a 9,5 hour long epic film trilogy directed by Masaki Kobayashi, based on the six volume novel by Junpei Gomikawa. The trilogy stays true to the novel's composition by being divided into six parts, meaning that each of the three installments are split in two parts, in between which are intermissions. Both parts in the first film begin with the same opening credits sequence, showing us some stoneworks portraying dramatic imagery (the similar intro opens all three films). The three movies, each long 3 hours or more, are called No Greater Love, Road to Eternity and A Soldier's Prayer.Okay, now, I enjoyed the first film despite some historical inaccuracies. I liked the second movie but it didn't leave much of an impact on me. But this one, A Soldier's Prayer, is just brilliant.Unlike the first two films, ASP is much less repetitive and a lot more diverse stuff goes on. We follow Kaji on his long path to his wife Michiko. First he tries to flee the war zone accompanied by other soldiers and civilians, then they encounter Chinese forces, from which they escape through a burning wheat field. They stumble upon an encampment which gets besieged by the Soviets, after which Kaji ends up as a worker in a Red Army camp, mirroring his position in a Manchurian work camp from the first film. He escapes and meets his doom in a snowy outback, where he dies out of hunger or exhaustion.That's basically the plot, although a lot of other things happen and a lot of characters are introduced. Throughout the film, you feel 100% immersed in every obstacle Kaji faces and that feeling never lets up. Tatsuya Nakadai gives us one of the best, most believable performances I've ever come across (and I don't even think this is his best). Kobayashi: "When I made The Human Condition, most actors at that time were either of prewar or mid-war generations. I was looking for a person who could convey the feeling of the new generation. Nakadai was able to convey this new, strong, energetic side of postwar youth."Of course the supporting cast is great too, and there are even some big names accompanying the unknown portion of the cast. There's Kyoko Kishida as Ryuko, Chishu Ryu as the man in the encampment and Hideko Takamine as the unnamed woman who's also situated there.The cinematography is even better than in its two predecessors; some shots from this movie you'll remember for a long, long time - Kaji standing by a huge field with scavengers flying around, him being interrogated at the Soviet work camp HQ and finally getting stranded in the middle of nowhere for example. It's interesting to note that the first two films begin with a snowy scene, while the third movie ends with one.The trilogy doesn't take any sides as far as nations themselves are concerned and even portrays the Japanese military in an unbelievably negative light for the time it was released. It's an universal anti-war film that brilliantly concludes the trilogy. Kobayashi also argued against the militaristic system while he was in the army, which must be why he later said: "I am Kaji."Kobayashi: "I spent four years making The Human Condition. While making it, I received many letters from people requesting me not to let Kaji die in the end. I had considered that possibility, but to me, his death was actually a resurrection. He had to die there. With his death, he lives in the minds of people for a long time, as a symbol of the hope that we can eradicate the human tragedy of war."Kaji's beliefs are often challenged and inverted throughout the trilogy. According to the director, he said he wanted to portray the tragic dual nature that the Japanese people experienced back then.

This trilogy was a grueling and rewarding. It was chilling to watch but I persevered. It was about the conflict between nationalism and the individual struggling for humanism. If you transfer yourself to post WW2 Japan you could see how powerful this film was. It was necessary for the soul searching that was to heal the results of the war.It is as important today as it was then.This trilogy affected me deeply after watching it.There is hardly a frame in the ten hours that does not have any sub-text associated with it.The ten hour film format has some merits maybe it will catch on.

The Japanese troops are defeated by the Soviets and Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai) heads with three survivors to South Manchurian expecting to meet his wife. Along their crossing through the enemy line in the Manchurian land, other Japanese survivors join Kaji's group, but they need to fight against the Chinese militias and the Soviets.When they reach a Japanese village with women and one old man, a militia arrives in the place and Kaji and his men surrender to the Soviet to spare the women. The POWs are sent to a labor work camp and Kaji sees no difference between the treatment of the Japanese fascists and the Soviet communists, in which principles Kaji believed. He decides to escape from the camp to meet his beloved Michiko again."The Human Condition – Parts V & VI" is the last sequel of the heartbreaking 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. I have seen many powerful movies about war, such as "Der Untergang", "Taegukgi hwinalrimyeo", "La Battaglia di Algeri", "Paths of Glory" and "Apocalypse Now" among others. But "The Human Condition" is certainly the most scathing antiwar movie that I have seen and I did not feel the 574 minutes running time in a black-and-white movie spoken in Japanese, Mandarin and Russian with English subtitles. It is impressive to see the treatment spent by the fascist Japanese soldiers for the rookies and how Kaji grows-up and learns how his idealistic concept of communism is shattered when he becomes a POW and swaps his initial position of supervisor to the one of prisoner. The hopeless conclusion fits perfectly to this masterpiece and shows that in times of war, people are far from the condition for being human to survive. My vote is ten.Title (Brazil): Not Available

If you have any remote interest in film go see this right away. Don't bother watching if you are too scared to attempt the entire 10 hours in one sitting. It's worth it and then some. The actor playing Kaji was terrific and each part turns out better than the last (everything really, the acting/camera work... all the bells and whistles just sound better the further in you get). It definitely struck me as something Adolfas Mekas would totally dig, which says a lot. This is a must see. If you decide to bring the wife and kids (or husband and mother-in-law or what- have-you) just be warned: this movie involves a fair amount of human suffering, on and off the screen. -Ed Hellman.