Masaki Kobayashi's 1959-61 three-part adaptation of Junpei Gomikawa's six-volume novel on the Japanese occupation of Manchuria is barely known in the United States. So in many ways, the film's DVD debut is a revelation, particularly because of Tatsuya Nakadai's extraordinary performance as Kaji, a young man whose values and ethics are cruelly tested by the brutality of war, and whose left-wing politics and humanitarian impulses put him at odds with the Imperial Japanese military machine occupying Manchuria. The first part of the film, titled “No Greater Love,” finds Kaji managing a forced-labor POW camp, where his experimental efforts to encourage kinder treatment of the captives are not successful. The second part, “The Road to Eternity,” finds Kaji in the military during the waning years of World War II. The final part, “A Soldier's Prayer,” depicts Kaji's brutal treatment in a Soviet POW camp, where his disillusion with Marxism propels him to escape in the middle of a Russian winter (brilliantly depicted in the stark monochromatic widescreen cinematography). While often cumbersome and heavy-handed—particularly the second part, which strangely lacks the emotional power of the other two—Nakadai's portrait of a man struggling to preserve his ideals in the face of military madness continues to resonate even when the narrative occasionally flags. Nakadai's brilliant screen presence (carrying a film that runs nearly 10 hours is no mean feat) puts the humanity into The Human Condition, which bows from Criterion in this boxed set with DVD extras including video interviews with Kobayashi and Nakadai, as well as a video appreciation of Kobayashi. A must-see for serious fans of Japanese cinema, this is recommended. (P. Hall)
[Blu-ray Review—June 28, 2021—Criterion, 3 discs, 574 min., in Japanese w/English subtitles, not rated, Blu-ray: $59.95—Making its debut on Blu-ray, The Human Condition (1959-61) features a fine digital transfer and extras including an excerpt from a 1993 Directors Guild of Japan interview with director Masaki Kobayashi (conducted by filmmaker Masahiro Shinoda), a 2009 interview with actor Tatsuya Nakadai, a 2009 featurette on Kobayashi and The Human Condition featuring Shinoda, and a booklet with an essay by critic Philip Kemp. Bottom line: Koyabashi’s near-10-hour epic shines on Blu-ray.]