Up until now, I have rarely watched movies as long as this one, but the more I look into foreign cinema, the more ambitious I get. At exactly 9 hours and 39 minutes long, The Human Condition is one of the longest movies to ever exist. It technically doesn't count as one movie, because there's actually three of them, each one focusing on a new segment of a single story. The storyline follows a japanese man named Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai) and the difficulties and horrors he must go through as his country is pulled into world war 2. Because each one of these movies is over 3 hours, there is a lot of change between each one. This first entry (made in 1959), focuses on Kaji and his wife Michiko (Michiyo Aratama) moving to Manchuria, a region of northern China, to escape being drafted into the japanese army. In real life, Manchuria was savaged and looted by the japanese, because japan itself is a fairly small country lacking in natural resources. The army needed a wide open area with a lot of raw materials, so they aggressively took it from the chinese in the early 1930s. Many argue that world war 2 begins here. This new japanese occupied Manchuria, called Manchukuo, is where countless chinese laborers are ruthlessly enslaved by the japanese in order to further their own military quotas. This is where Kaji's character comes into play. He's something of a pacifist despite being from this country with a brutal military style government. Appointed as a labor chief, it is his job to watch over chinese prisoners and make sure they're not slacking. Typically, japanese soldiers would severely beat or even murder slaves who didn't meet production requirements, but Kaji takes the higher road. Throughout the film, he attempts to improve working conditions for the laborers, much to the irritation of his superior officers. The people in higher positions than Kaji are dumbstruck as to why he's helping people that only exist in order to serve japan. This even gets the Kenpeitai's attention, the latter being a military police organization in japan similar to the Gestapo of nazi germany. Although Kaji risks his own life in order to save others, his efforts are ultimately wasted. The commanders of the labor camp crack down on his attempted reforms and execute many prisoners. In arguably the most important scene of the film, several people are beheaded with samurai swords and their bodies are thrown into a ditch while Kaji looks on helplessly. Eventually, civilians watching the carnage are inspired to rise up against this injustice, and slowly make their way towards the soldiers, chanting "murderers." Kaji's decision to defend the laborers doesn't go unpunished, and he is hanged from the ceiling and beaten with bamboo sticks. In the end, Kaji learns something so horrible that he can only laugh at it, not wanting to believe it's true. His boss informs him that his decision to move to Manchukuo meant nothing, and he is being drafted anyway. The labor camp lets him go, and says his behavior is beyond their control. Kaji and Michiko now have a miniscule amount of time to spend together before he ships out. This movie is incredible. The things I said about the plot, though numerous, are not anywhere near complete. There's not enough room in a review to list all the powerful and iconic things that happen in this movie. The acting by Tatsuya Nakadai is some of the best I've seen yet, and the whole story has a foreboding mood to it. It's also brutally violent at times, and does a commendable job at showing how ruthless the japanese were in world war 2. This was something americans had to learn the hard way as the war went on, but as shown here, they even mistreat their own soldiers. Saying something as simple as "I feel bad for the laborers" is enough to get you relentlessly tortured. Kaji is shown to be a shining example of what a good human should act like, but he constantly gets punished for it instead. In the eyes of his bosses, the chinese are the enemy and it is unthinkable to pity them. The movie also features several scenes with comfort women, which is a disturbing topic in and of itself. Thousands of women during ww2 were forced into sexual slavery by the japanese in order to provide "good times" for the troops. Around 80 percent of them were koreans, but they also enslaved many chinese, burmese, vietnamese, and even some captured european ones. Tons of them would be left starving and disease ridden by 1945. To summarize, this extraordinary first entry in Masaki Kobayashi's Human Condition series is one of the best movies I've ever seen, and it blows my mind to think there's 2 other ones that are arguably even better. It's a timeless story of how being a nice person doesn't always get you far, all told within a world war 2 setting. It's no wonder I like it so much.
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love
(I) (1959)
Overcoming tyranny
13 November 2021
Warning: Spoilers