Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!

Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Sexyloutak Absolutely the worst movie.

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

WILLIAM FLANIGAN Viewed on DVD and Streaming. Restoration = ten (10) stars; cinematography = nine (9) stars; score = eight (8) stars. Director Masaki Kobayashi's two-part(complete with scored intermission), moderately-sized, propaganda epoch using coal mining in China as a backdrop. Scenes of high drama are often book ended by heavy-handed scenes that stretch credulity to the point of unintentional humor and self caricature. Four prime flavors of protagonists bounce off one another in the Director's tale: a newly-hired, mine management-team member who is a compassionate liberal; conservative mine managers/labor-enforcers; military mine guards/minders; and ethnic/semi-ethnic "Chinese." Kobayashi seems to be struggling to maximize the inclusion of events depicted in the original source material (a super-sized contemporary novel) that results in loss of dynamics and consistency especially in the second half of the movie (the latter is also too long). The Director provides a number of truly startling and indelible scenes including: half-dead/dead Chinese slave labors being disgorged/pulled from sardine-can military box cars; and the execution (by samurai-style beheading) of slaves who may (or may not) have tried to escape. Exterior scenes shot at an immense open-pit coal mine in China are spectacular (the coal mine is the real star of this film!). Kobayashi also displays many hard-to-swallow oddities starting with his film's central plot point: a conservative mining company hires a left-wing, college student (who thereby avoids military call up) to booster the management team of a brutal and labor-intensive mining operation in far off China. There are many more. Among my favorites: the absence of any freshly mined coal (just pieces of jagged light-colored "ore"); a 3,300-volt electrical fence (to prevent Chinese slaves from escaping) complete with an impressive high-power infrastructure, but no visible means to power it all; labored Chinese dialog phonetically delivered by Japanese actors (ethnic Chinese physical and voice actors seem to be among the missing); and Chinese "comfort women" depicted as seasoned pros who clearly seem to enjoy practicing their profession ("happy hookers") and are never fully booked (about 50 sex workers are supposed to be servicing 10,000 non-slave and 500 slave labors!). Acting is OK but trends toward the histrionic and hammy in the second half of the film. Cinematography (wide screen, black and white) and scene lighting are excellent. Score is very good, but tends to have too many redundant phrases in its orchestration. Subtitles can be a bit long given their rapid flash-by rates. Most signs, armband, etc. are translated. Audio distortion mars the orchestral recording for the opening credits. Restoration is as good as it gets--the film looks like it was just released! Just go with the flow in this partial rewrite of history. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

mevmijaumau 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.No Greater Love introduces the main character Kaji, a pacifist during the chaotic mess that was Japan during WW2. To avoid being drafted, he moves to Manchuria with his wife, where he becomes a labor camp supervisor and clashes with the oppressive nature of camp officials and their lower-ranked men.Masaki Kobayashi's films often feature individuals against an oppressive and totalitarian system, be it the feudal Japan in Harakiri and Samurai Rebellion, or WW2 occupied Manchuria in The Human Condition. Kobayashi himself was drafted into the army and sent to Manchuria during the war, meaning that the character of Kaji is not far away from the director himself. Some people accuse the trilogy to be too melodramatic - well, if that's how Kobayashi saw the situation, and he was there, I don't have much of a big problem over it.Kaji is brilliantly portrayed by Tatsuya Nakadai, one of the most versatile Japanese actors. He handles the role fantastically and lives up to the challenge of carrying the entire 9,5-hour plot on his back. Michiyo Aratama, who played Michiko, is perhaps more well-known for her role in Kobayashi's Kwaidan.The Human Condition offers some brilliant widescreen composition and magnificent B&W imagery, as most Kobayashi films do. The film has some problems, though, most of which are of strictly technical nature. First, some of the violent scenes were filmed awkwardly, like the whipping scene listed under IMDb "Goofs". Second, because the entire cast was Japanese, the Mandarin spoken by the miners is very unrealistic (doesn't bother me personally, but it's still there). Third, the mining conditions are surprisingly underplayed and were even harsher in real life. Fourth, the music is sometimes too annoying, loud and even useless in several scenes.But overall, this is definitely a film you have to check out if you're into Japanese cinema, WW2 films, or epic films in general.8,5/10

Claudio Carvalho In the World War II, the pacifist and humanist Japanese Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai) accepts to travel with his wife Michiko (Michiyo Aratama) to the tiny Manchurian village Loh Hu Liong to work as supervisor in an iron ore mine to avoid to be summoned to the military service. Kaji, who defends communists principles, works with Okishima (Sô Yamamura) and he implements a better treatment to the laborers and improves the mine production.When the feared Kempetai (The "Military Police Corps", the military police arm of the Imperial Japanese Army from 1881 to 1945) brings six hundred Chinese POWs to the mine, Kaji negotiates with their leaders expecting them to control their comrades. However the methods of Kaji upset the corrupt system in the site, and the foreman Furuya (Kôji Mitsui) plots a scheme to use the naive Chen (Akira Ishihama) to turn off the electrical power of the barbwire fences to allow the prisoners to escape. When seven prisoners are falsely accused of an attempt of fleeing, a cruel Kempetai sergeant uses his sword to behead the prisoners. When Kaji protests, the POWs react sparing the lives of four prisoners but Kaji is arrested and tortured. When he is released, he is summoned to join the army and accused of being Red. "The Human Condition – Parts I & II" is 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. I bought the box released by the Criterion approximately one year ago, and only today I have just watched the two first DVD with about 400 minutes running time. Tomorrow I will finish watching this masterpiece. My vote is ten.Title (Brazil): Not Available

Theo Robertson Sometimes you watch a film that literally touches your soul . THE HUMAN CONDITION trilogy is one of these films . I saw this on Channel 4 in 1985 and never forgot it . A few years ago I mentioned seeing this to a professional film critic who seemed surprised that he wasn't the only person who'd seen it and was disappointed when I said I didn't have a video or DVD copy of the trilogy . In a film class I mentioned to the tutor that every scene in the trilogy was a scene of absolute beauty . My tutor , a film historian and myself then engaged in such an enthusiastic conversation that ALL the other students in class started taking notes determined to see this movie masterpiece . Recently I was involved in a conversation with a student who had enrolled in a class involving Japanese cinema and recommended the trilogy to him . I then mentioned that perhaps it's a good thing I'd hadn't seen it for 25 years and perhaps I'd never watch it again in case it was nowhere as wonderful as I remembered . After seeing part one of THE HUMAN CONDITION last night after a gap of 25 years I was left with the distinct impression that perhaps I should have taken my own advice and hadn't re-watched it It's still a beautifully framed and shot film down to director Masaki Kobayashi and cinematographer Yoshio Miyajima but the inherent problem with the film starts in the opening scene where Kaji refuses to pop off to a dormitory to have sex with his wife to be . Why not ? well it's never really revealed . Nor is it ever revealed what motivates Kaji in to being such a saintly and pious personality and the more the film goes on the more morally upstanding Kaji becomes so much so that it almost ruins the film since he's difficult to take seriously . I don't think I've heard of anyone more moral since that mythical figure from Bronze Age Palestine . Does anyone seriously believe that someone like that would be put in charge of a Manchurian labour camp ? And the portrayal of the camp leads to a second body blow for the film . Try and imagine SCHINDLERS LIST where the Nazis weren't all that bad ! The inmates of the labour camp receive the occasional beating but that's about it as far as crimes against humanity is concerned . . We see Korean " comfort women " who it seems volunteered to become prostitutes and if anyone escapes from the camp then there's no summary retaliation taken against the remaining prisoners . Google " The Rape Of Nanking " or " The Burma Railway " or " Bataan Death March " and you'll get just tiny fraction of the atrocities committed by the Japnese from the period . The only difference between Nazi war crimes and Japanese ones is that the Nazis used gas There is a subplot where the Kempeitai- the Imperial Japanese version of the Gestapo - take over the running of the camp and execute some prisoners by beheading ( This is done because the prisoners attacked a guard and tried to escape so there's reason for them to be executed ) but this is included to give us yet another overwrought angst ridden melodramatic scene showing us what a wonderfully humanistic , noble person Kaji is And perhaps THE HUMAN CONDITION is best described as " overwrought melodrama " . It still remains a good film but I have seen many good films and very few films have stayed with me for 25 years so in this respect it's somewhat a bitter disappointment . It's like meeting an erstwhile love of your life only to realize they weren't the person you remembered them as