The Human Condition
Actor : Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Tamao Nakamura, Yûsuke Kawazu, Chishu Ryu
Director : Masaki Kobayashi
Masaki Kobayashi’s mammoth humanist drama is one of the most staggering achievements of Japanese cinema. Originally filmed and released in three parts, the nine-and-a-half-hour The Human Condition (Ningen no joken), adapted from Junpei Gomikawa’s six-volume novel, tells of the journey of the well-intentioned yet naive Kaji (handsome Japanese superstar Tatsuya Nakadai) from labor camp supervisor to Imperial Army soldier to Soviet POW.
Constantly trying to rise above a corrupt system, Kaji time and again finds his morals an impediment rather than an advantage. A raw indictment of its nation’s wartime mentality as well as a personal existential tragedy, Kobayashi’s riveting, gorgeously filmed epic is novelistic cinema at its best.
Remastered Print
1961 BLK/WHT Fullscreen 3 Disc Box Set
Japanese with English subtitles
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