1959 ‘人間の條件 第１部純愛篇／第２部激怒篇’ Directed by Masaki Kobayashi
During the Second World War, Japanese conscientious objector Kaji works as a supervisor in a Manchurian prison camp. He hopes to avoid duty as a soldier, but he also hopes to be helpful to the welfare of his prisoners. But an escape attempt by Chinese prisoners results in Kaji's arrest for collusion. He faces the possibility of transferral to combat--or worse.
Tatsuya Nakadai Michiyo Aratama Chikage Awashima Ineko Arima Sō Yamamura Akira Ishihama Kôji Nanbara Seiji Miyaguchi Tōru Abe Masao Mishima Eitarō Ozawa Kōji Mitsui Akitake Kôno Nobuo Nakamura Kyū Sazanka Eijirō Tōno Shinsuke Ashida Keiji Sada Yasushi Nagata Yoshio Kosugi Toshiko Kobayashi Taiji Tonoyama Akira Tani Junji Masuda Torahiko Hamada Teruko Kishi Takamaru Sasaki Akio Isono Jun Ōtomo Show All…
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Finland
Germany
Japan
Netherlands
Portugal
USA
I have experienced many films this year that have greatly enriched my life for having witnessed them; Mizoguchi, Bergman, Bertolucci, Teshigahara and Tarkovsky have all touched me more than most film-makers with masterfully significant works, but one auteur in particular has staked his flag at the pinnacle. After the delirious master-class of Harakiri, the elegance of Samurai Rebellion and startling Kwaidan, Masaki Kobayashi has crushed my soul and moved me to tears with his greatest achievement - 'The Human Condition', and while I am only one third through a 10 hour epic journey, I am already willing to claim this as the greatest film I have ever seen.
Without the playful narrative structure of Harakiri, 'No Greater Love' delivers it's…
'I'm boarding this run-down truck, but you're trying to catch the train of humanism before it's too late. You seem willing to pay the fare, no matter how high.'
I'll never not be fascinated by the Japanese, their open-mindedness to cross-examine themselves as a nation and their selfless willingness to paint themselves in a less favorable light in movies. It is an act of infinite humility that elicits the most noble of reactions from me – my utmost respect.
The Human Condition's Kaji is of the same mindset: he is not blinded by patriotism for his country and sees the crimes his people have committed in an objective light. He doesn't distort reality for the worse but aims to alter…
"You'll either be revealed as a murderer wearing the mask of humanism, or as one worthy of the beautiful name...'man'."
"Freedom? You must be a poet." - Prison Guard,
Wow....
I honestly don't believe that I can do this film justice with a review so I'll simply say it's a really interesting and powerful script that's backed up by great performances and Masaki Kobayashi's masterwork. I'm so glad I finally watched this. The film lived up to all of my expectations and overwhelmed me a bit. I was intimidated by the length of The Human Condition I but honestly the pacing is really great and the story is so engaging that it didn't bother me at all. Also the themes of socialism, pacifism, and anti-colonialism are right up my alley.
It's phenomenal.
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Film #28 of the "Scavenger Hunt" Challenge!
Task #21 : A film you find in one of your letterboxd followers top 4 favorite films!
letterboxd.com/naughty/list/scavenger-hunt/
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This review is for Part One of a 9 hour 47 minute long Epic Trilogy The Human Condition!
I was totally floored by the honest portrayal of a young impassioned man with ideals and desires to improve productivity at a labor mining camp by implementing more humane treatment of the laborers whom have been subjected to great pain, suffering, abuse and brutality!
We soon learn right alongside the main protagonist Kaji that having ideals is not enough! It requires the wisdom, knowledge, cooperation and trust from all parties involved and the power to…
Humanity amongst war - explored by Masaki Kobayashi. What a massive commentary on the dehumanizing effects of war! There is a reason it is called The Human Condition and the director unfolds the disquieting tableau of human existence so beautifully in this war drama.
Kaji, a name I'll never forget. Masaki Kobayashi just flawlessly painted the depths of moral realities during war. A war within - of what is right and what is wrong and furthermore what is just and what is not. Each frame delivered and each charcater preformed to their best.
'I want to live as a human being'
The above line is enough to express the profound yearning for humanity that this film gracefully showcased, that too…
I feel like there's an adage that sums this up. Something about being a good man in a bad world. I can't think of it now. Maybe it's not an adage; maybe it's just a Terry Pratchett quote. Regardless, this film is painfully bleak a depiction of the noble struggle, and the concept of a good man fighting within a dirty, broken, ignoble, violent, oppressive regime for even a fraction of compassion is one that resonates, even if I am not a fraction of the human being Kaji is. Every facet described there--the concept, the resonance, and the fact that I am not worthy--makes this film all the more scathing, difficult, and powerful.
This nigh futile effort is repeatedly shown…
Finally, a film that captures the complex struggles and emotions of being a Discord Mod
Nice guys finish last: the movie.
The first third of Kobayashi’s mammoth 9-hour anti-war trilogy is a deeply pessimistic and tragic ode to the pragmatism of morality in an increasingly corrupt, broken, and evil world.
The Human Condition is characterized by the incessant uncompromising pursuit of what ought to be in the face of what is, it’s the rejection of cruelty, the defiance of sin, and the objection to tyranny. Kobayashi seemed to have a firm grasp on what being human means, but on the other side of the coin, he was acutely aware of what being human can lead to. So far (at least in the first installment of the trilogy), it seems Kobayashi is framing fear as the…
“Force has meaning only when overcoming tyranny.”
In form this is as sweeping and anti-nuanced as any text over subtext Hollywood epic, a kind of “Gone With The Wind” in its use of large vista imagery, swooning emotional romantics, and sometimes torturously on-the-nose dialogue - that also, just as often, arrives at profoundly impactful declaratives regarding the flaws of humanity.
“What is a man? Not poetry or morality. He’s a mass of lust and greed that absorbs and excretes.”
Amazing.
The difference is that very few of those large, heartfelt, Hollywood spectacles, if any, employ their tools of mass appeal to a subject so bold - an anti-nationalist damnation of wartime imperial Japan’s behavior in occupied Manchuria - and a…
English Version below
Neu-DuBFaL-Must-see-Weeks-Film Nr 2.
Fassung: DVD, sechs Disc drei Teile
Gesamtlaufzeit: deutsche Fassung 411 Min.; japanische Fassung 569 Min.
Disc 1: 206 Minuten (japanische Fassung)
Zu Beginn meiner „Die 120 Tage von Sodom“-Review, begann ich mit dem Kontextfassen des Filmes, schwenkte zu dem verwischen von der Person Pier Paolo Pasolini und dem Regisseur Pier Paolo Pasolini mit dessen Verweben in das skandalüberschattende Werk „Die 120 Tage von Sodom“ und endete mit meiner eigenen Meinung und dem Grund wie und wann ich auf dieses Werk gestoßen bin und was es für mich zu einem Must-see macht. Mit meinem zweiten Beitrag bei den Must-see, möchte ich „The Human Condition I: No Greater Love“ von hinten aufzäumen.
Die Entdeckung ging mit…
