Directed by:
Masaki KobayashiScreenplay:
Masaki KobayashiCinematography:
Yoshio MiyajimaComposer:
Chûji KinoshitaPlots(1)
This mammoth humanist drama by Masaki Kobayashi is one of the most staggering achievements of Japanese cinema. Originally filmed and released in three installments of two parts each, the nine-and-a-half-hour The Human Condition, adapted from Junpei Gomikawa’s six-volume novel, tells of the journey of the well-intentioned yet naive Kaji - played by the Japanese superstar Tatsuya Nakadai - from labor camp supervisor to Imperial Army soldier to Soviet prisoner of war. Constantly trying to rise above a corrupt system, Kaji time and again finds his morals to be an impediment rather than an advantage. A raw indictment of Japan’s wartime mentality as well as a personal existential tragedy, Kobayashi’s riveting, gorgeously filmed epic is novelistic cinema at its best. (Criterion)
(more)Cast
Tatsuya Nakadai
Japan
Best movies:
Zatoichi at the Fire Festival (1970)
The Human Bullet (1968)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Sō Yamamura
Japan
Best movies:
Japan's Longest Day (1967)
Tokyo Twilight (1957)
Revenge (1963)
Akira Ishihama
Japan
Best movies:
Immortal Love (1961)
Harakiri (1962)
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
Keiji Sada
Japan
Best movies:
Immortal Love (1961)
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity (1959)
Tōru Abe
Japan
Best movies:
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
Shogun (1980) (series)
Tokyo Story (1953)
Michiyo Aratama
Japan
Best movies:
Eijirō Tōno
Japan
Best movies:
Revenge (1963)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Bushido, Samurai Saga (1963)
Kōji Mitsui
Japan
Best movies:
Japan's Longest Day (1967)
Woman in the Dunes (1964)
High and Low (1963)
Seiji Miyaguchi
Japan
Best movies:
Japan's Longest Day (1967)
Early Summer (1951)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Kazuo Kitamura
Japan
Best movies:
Japan's Longest Day (1967)
The Man Who Stole the Sun (1979)
High and Low (1963)
Eitarô Ozawa
Japan
Best movies:
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
Zatoichi Challenged (1967)
Steel Edge of Revenge (1969) - narrator
織本順吉
Japan
Best movies:
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
Three Outlaw Samurai (1964)
The Fall of Ako Castle (1978)
有馬稲子
Japan
Best movies:
Tokyo Twilight (1957)
Bushido, Samurai Saga (1963)
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
山茶花究
Japan
Best movies:
High and Low (1963)
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
Yojimbo (1961)
Yûsuke Kawazu
Japan
Best movies:
The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961)
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
Red Angel (1966)
Shinsuke Ashida
Japan
Best movies:
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
Red Angel (1966)
The Shogun's Samurai (1978)
Fujio Suga
Japan
Best movies:
Tokyo Twilight (1957)
Revenge (1963)
Zatoichi's Cane-sword (1967)
Akio Isono
Japan
Best movies:
Ryûji Kita
Japan
Best movies:
Japan's Longest Day (1967)
Bushido, Samurai Saga (1963)
Zatoichi's Cane-sword (1967)
Junji Masuda
Japan
Best movies:
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
Early Spring (1956)
Scandal (1950)