I fell in love with this trilogy as a teenager in the 1980s . Getting to see part one of THE HUMAN CONDITION after a gap of 25 years reminded me that love is never eternal . The aesthetic beauty of this cinematic epic remained but its personality had changed beyond all memory , a memory that had cheated and like a disloyal lover it's an experience that hurts . Seeing part two means the hurt continues . By no means a bad film the subtext of a man trying to retain his humanity in an inhumane society becomes more and more ridiculous as the story continues
Commentators on this page have stated how overdone this humanism is and I can't believe I didn't notice this on first viewing in the mid 1980s . One serious criticism about BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI is that it sugar coated the conditions of a Japanese POW camp and likewise this was a major flaw with the first part of THE HUMAN CONDITION with its laid back Manchurian labour camp . In reality the only difference between the Nazi regime and the Imperial Japanese one is that the Nazis used gas to murder its slave population and one wonders if Kaji has been conscripted in to an alternative universe rather than the Japanese Imperial Army !
Much of the running time is composed of :
Kaji: Excuse me Commanding Officer but I have read the rule book and this bullying of the recruits is wrong
CO: Private Kaji you're starting to sound like that British officer I knew who worked on the Burma railway but you're such a decent , caring wonderful human being I'll rewrite the rule book just for your benefit even though you've only been in the army for two minutes and a suspected communist traitor . The veterans won't like it though
Cut to next scene where Kaji gets a hiding from the veterans
Having a nice guy as a protagonist so the audience can identify with himis one thing but the pious stand up nature of Kaji becomes so ridiculously overdone as to become almost laughable . I say " almost" because this isn't a film that will make you laugh
What stops the film being destroyed by the characterization is the sheer beauty of it . Every scene is exceptionally well framed and shot and despite the flawed characterizations is well acted enough to remain compelling . It also contains one of the greatest battle scenes committed to celluloid where the understrength Kwangtung unit vainly fights against the Soviet offensive . This Soviet offensive ( Operation August Storm ) saw the Red Army kill tens of thousands of Japanese troops and capture hundreds of thousands in the space of a couple of weeks . Indeed the official Soviet history books stated the reason for the Japanese surrender wasn't the atom bombs being dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki but the spectacular defeat in Manchuria
It's strange that such a flawed film as this should stay in my memory so vividly but THE HUMAN CONDITION is such a vividly beautiful film that its flaws can be easily forgiven - and eventually forgotten
Commentators on this page have stated how overdone this humanism is and I can't believe I didn't notice this on first viewing in the mid 1980s . One serious criticism about BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI is that it sugar coated the conditions of a Japanese POW camp and likewise this was a major flaw with the first part of THE HUMAN CONDITION with its laid back Manchurian labour camp . In reality the only difference between the Nazi regime and the Imperial Japanese one is that the Nazis used gas to murder its slave population and one wonders if Kaji has been conscripted in to an alternative universe rather than the Japanese Imperial Army !
Much of the running time is composed of :
Kaji: Excuse me Commanding Officer but I have read the rule book and this bullying of the recruits is wrong
CO: Private Kaji you're starting to sound like that British officer I knew who worked on the Burma railway but you're such a decent , caring wonderful human being I'll rewrite the rule book just for your benefit even though you've only been in the army for two minutes and a suspected communist traitor . The veterans won't like it though
Cut to next scene where Kaji gets a hiding from the veterans
Having a nice guy as a protagonist so the audience can identify with himis one thing but the pious stand up nature of Kaji becomes so ridiculously overdone as to become almost laughable . I say " almost" because this isn't a film that will make you laugh
What stops the film being destroyed by the characterization is the sheer beauty of it . Every scene is exceptionally well framed and shot and despite the flawed characterizations is well acted enough to remain compelling . It also contains one of the greatest battle scenes committed to celluloid where the understrength Kwangtung unit vainly fights against the Soviet offensive . This Soviet offensive ( Operation August Storm ) saw the Red Army kill tens of thousands of Japanese troops and capture hundreds of thousands in the space of a couple of weeks . Indeed the official Soviet history books stated the reason for the Japanese surrender wasn't the atom bombs being dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki but the spectacular defeat in Manchuria
It's strange that such a flawed film as this should stay in my memory so vividly but THE HUMAN CONDITION is such a vividly beautiful film that its flaws can be easily forgiven - and eventually forgotten