Even though this Image Entertainment edition of The Human Condition trilogy has been on DVD since 1999, there aren't a lot of reviews available for it.

If you appreciate some of the greatest Japanese filmmakers, Kurosawa, Ozu, Mizoguchi, Naruse, you would probably enjoy this epic by another of Japan's greats, Masaki Kobayashi. Probably most famous for his Kwaidan.

You may also recognize the terrific actor who plays the lead in this trilogy, Tatsuya Nakadai. He was the crazed thug with the gun in Yojimbo, the superior swordsman in Sanjuro, and was also in Kagemusha, Ran, High and Low, as well as several other Japanese "classics".

The FilmNotes entry from the Pacific Film Archive:

It is rare when an episode of national history can be interpreted without the burden of illusions, both obsolete and nostalgic. And this is perhaps one of the great strengths of Masaki Kobayashi's The Human Condition, a nine-hour epic about Japan's occupation of China during the Second World War. The trilogy begins with an attack on the inhuman practices within the Japanese Army and ends with a bitter denunciation of Stalinism by the would-be-socialist hero, Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai), a Japanese soldier who has confronted the horrid face of war and found it unyielding. In grand Dostoyevskian flourishes, Kobayashi suggests the impossibility of an individual altering the ethical standards of a social system. Kaji, driven by an idealized vision of Japan redeemed by social reform, tries to overcome injustice and exploitation during a military conquest based solely on these principles.

Brutalized by the very country he defends, Kaji refuses to desert, for desertion implies relinquishing responsibility for his own homeland. Kaji's heroism lies in this exacting refusal to abandon Japan or his humanity. Part One finds Kaji working as a supervisor in a forced labor camp in southern Manchuria where he and his wife (Michiyo Aratama) attempt to better the dreadful lot of the enslaved Chinese workers. Kaji is accused of dissent, tortured, then inducted into the army.

In Part Two, Kaji is equally appalled by the horrendous treatment afforded recruits. Given the rank of officer, he tries to install more humane procedures but only succeeds in attracting the ire of his fellow officers.

By Part Three, the Japanese army is being routed by superior Russian troops. Fleeing to the south, Kaji is captured by the Soviet army and imprisoned. Here, he learns the bitter truth of the Red Army as liberators. Kobayashi's The Human Condition can be viewed as a single aesthetic entity, complete in its sweep of historical events and visual stylizations. The gargantuan undertaking to dramatize the wilful ironies of the Manchurian campaign never compromises Kobayashi's ability to define the human scale of injustice. Standing-in for the director, Kaji says, "Minor facts ignored by history can be fatal to the individual." It is Masaki Kobayashi's recognition of "minor facts" that joins the poetic to the journalistic in a scathing epic about the cruelties of war.

Directed by Masaki Kobayashi. Written by Kobayashi and Zenzo Matsuyama, from the novel by Jumpei Gomikawa. Photographed by Yoshio Miyajima. Edited by Keiichi Uraoka. With Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Ineko Arima, So Yamamura. Part One: (1958/59, 211 mins, Print from Films Inc.). Part Two: (1959, 181 mins, Print from Films Inc). Part Three: (1961, 190 mins, Print from Films Inc.). (In Japanese with English subtitles, B&W, Grandscope, 35mm)

Release Information:
Studio: Image Entertainment
Theatrical Release Date: January 1, 1958
DVD Release Date: June 22, 1999
Run Time: 205 minutes
Production Company: Image Entertainment
Package Type: Snap Case
Aspect Ratio(s):
Widescreen letterbox - 2.20:1

Discographic Information:
DVD Encoding: All Regions
Layers: Dual
Available Audio Tracks: Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
Available subtitles: English
Edition Details:
• All Regions
• Black & White, Widescreen
• Widescreen letterbox format
• ASIN: B00000ILES

The quality of the transfer is quite good, some few relics reflecting the age of the films, but overall, great widescreen images and pretty good subtitles, only a few words misspelled, but no "all your bases are belong to us" Mei Ah type of translation. Thankfully!

...ahhh!... finally!!... a man with exquisite taste in films!!!... you're the first person - except myself, of course! - on this or any other Forum that has mentioned this trilogy... many people seem to think that Japanese cinema = Akira Kurosawa (just as many appear to be under the impression that Swedish cinema = Ingmar Bergman)... whatever... I'm just very glad that image saw fit to release these discs... perhaps, someday, they'll get around to release a DVD of Kobayashi's Hara Kiri, or Kon Ichikawa's The Burmese Harp and/or An Actor's Revenge...

. . . . . .

I absolutely adored Kwaidan and so I can tell that Kobayashi is a director with some serious talent. I would love to get my hands on this, even though it sounds possibly grueling ...although I loved the slow, dreamy pace of Kwaidan, over a 9-hour period, I wonder if this stays compelling. I just might be able to find individual discs for rent.

Thanks Hendrik, looking at your 'wishlist' I can see you have some great taste yourself! I love the Burmese Harp and can just imagine how it would be on DVD, especially 'There's No Place Like Home'!

I hope more Mizoguchi, Naruse, Ichikawa, Kobayashi and Ozu also become available on DVD soon!

Yes, Jepthah, the Human Condition is grueling, but then that is the whole point of the film, and I've found it particularly interesting to see so many aspects of the Japanese occupation of Manchuria that I had not pondered before. There was a good bit of 'reaping what one sows' there, from how the Chinese and Korean women were treated by the Japanese, till the wheel turned and it was the Japanese women being treated as badly by the Russians.

I've always watched 'war' movies and wondered about the poor grunt, the guy who was conscripted and shared none of the ideas of military glory, especially that held by the Japanese and Germans. What could they do? Even when they fight the system in every way they can without being a traitor, then the other side captures them and treats them as if they were the most egregious criminals.

This trilogy treats this subject with some of the most thought provoking images and situations, one I'll be thinking about probably forever. So sometimes 'grueling' experiences can be very good for you!

...plus, of course, these three movies didn't actually come out all at once, but were released over a period of some two or three years...

...another long one (c. 9 hours IIRC) was Sergei Bondarchuk's epic War And Peace, which I saw in the (Soviet-owned) Kinopanorama cinema in Paris waaay back in 1967 (sigh), in four parts, shown on four successive evenings (this movie is one of 120 titles due for release on DVD on the RUSCICO label)...

. . . . . .

Hendrik, you are "The Man": the truest, bluest, grand-daddy of Art Film connosieurs on these boards. If I have a question about any movie from overseas or anything obscure on "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" you're my Lifeline call.

Thanks for the recommendation, Hendrik, War & Peace is a favorite, the best I've seen to date was the old PBS 12 part(?) adaptation with Anthony Hopkins. Would LOVE to see it Russian done and by Natasha's Daddy too? I'm gonna go broke over at Ruscico!

Ever heard of a Russian film called A Simple Death? It was made the actor turned director, lead in the Stalker, Aleksander Kaidanovsky, I'm trying to locate it.