The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity (II) (1959) User Reviews

The continuing story of Kaji--a man born at the wrong time and the wrong place.

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 24 March 2012]

This is the second of three films that make up "The Human Condition" trilogy. The extremely long films are based on an extremely long set of novels (in six volumes) by Jumpei Gomikawa. The books are about the journey of a man named Kaji who is simply born at the wrong time and place. His ideas about the worth of the individual and the humanity of mankind fly in opposition to the militarism of WWII-era Japan. And, not surprisingly they get him in lots of trouble. In the first film, he's assigned to be the production manager at a mine that is worked by prisoners--and the people in charge couldn't care less about how many of them they kill in the process. But Kaji's humanistic ideals are put into action instead and at first they are very successful. But the military men hate him and when he stumbles, they attack him like wolves.

Here in part II, Kaji's been drafted and sent to basic training. He's seen as a trouble-maker because of his experience at the labor camp, but Kaji is a great soldier. And, unlike the average soldier in the company, he cares about the individual. So, when recruit Obara is beaten and humiliated, Kaji is the only one who sticks up for the guy--although with only one man supporting him and the rest tormenting him, what happens next isn't at all surprising--Obara kills himself. The soldiers in the unit are actually pretty happy about this--Obara was a weakling. But Kaji refuses to back down and fights his superiors, as he is fighting for what is right--and brutalizing and disregarding a weak individual is wrong.

Later, Kaji manages to be promoted and he's placed in charge of a group of older recruits (as the war is going badly, they began bringing up less and less fit men to serve). He refuses to brutalize his men and the leaders of the older veterans beat Kaji up regularly. He refuses to fight back--sort of like Gandhi. Again and again he's beaten and again and again he does nothing. And, he tries to protect his men as much as he can.

Later, when the war is all but over, Kaji is sent along with other ill-prepared men to meet the Russian army and their tanks. And, after this slaughter occurs, the movie ends...and Kaji is left alive on the battlefield.

Much of the film seemed to be a criticism on the pointlessly brutal system where underlings were beaten for no reason whatsoever by their immediate superiors. The officers did nothing to change this and Kaji still refuses to bend to this insane situation. Instead of training focusing on teamwork and camaraderie, it's based on destroying the weak and empowering the amoral. All in all, a depressing but well made indictment on the Japanese militaristic mentality of the day. If you are looking for a similar sort of film, try finding "Fire on the Plains" (also 1959) or "The Burmese Harp" (1956). Well worth seeing.

Losing ground.

[Polaris_DiB · 7/10 · 15 December 2009]

Or, as with the Lord of the Rings books, part III and IV.

Here is featured Kaji's military exploits in boot camp and the Manchurian front. As predictable based on the previous movie, Kaji beats heads with the military and comes out worse for wear from it. The better side of these movies is Kaji's critical thinking and intelligence, but this time around he makes some pretty foolish decisions considering that at this point he is not only without power, but completely suspect. Nevertheless, our headstrong hero manages to protect his everyman principles and save a few trainees from being severely beaten at boot-camp--this time largely by taking the beatings himself. I have to admit, there's only so many times you can watch Kaji getting beaten up before you begin to think that it's all getting pretty ridiculous. Not a whole lot was gained by his actions this time around for the amount of pain and humiliation he endures.

A particular subplot of note involves the mentally unstable Obara, a Japanese Pvt Pyle from thirty years before Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, who meets a very similar fate. In fact, it's pretty certain that Kubrick saw this movie, though the effort may have been returned considering that some of the later battle scenes in this movie seem right out of Paths of Glory, which was made three years before this one. Of course, my Kubrick comparisons may simply have something to do with Kobayashi's widescreen compositions, where every amount of positive and negative space is used to careful, calculating effect.

Meanwhile, the prolonged battle sequences at the end of Part IV are something unto themselves. After the long and political journey we've taken through Japanese nationalism and its corruption, Kobayashi doesn't shy in the least bit from showing dismembered limbs, blown up bodies, and madness taking away men's lives. And it's interesting to see that Kaji, no longer in a place to stand up to authority, no longer has the ability to control his own madness.

These two parts are slightly looser than the first third of The Human Condition. A long sequence involving a hospital stay sticks out like a piece from a different puzzle especially, in what is for the most part a carefully crafted novelistic film. Not a whole lot is added by Kaji's experiences in the hospital except for a simple set-up of a later relationship and the death of a corrupt PFC. Of the entire 7hrs30mins the complete movie has run so far, I do believe a fair bit of Part III could have been cut out.

So now we are left with Kaji's newfound guilt and battle experience as he becomes a POW to the Russians. Considering how ineffective he was at creating positive change in this second third as opposed to the first third, it's not looking like he's got a whole lot of ground left to stand on, and now he has to seriously question himself as well.

--PolarisDiB

The Human Delusion Continues

[Theo Robertson · 7/10 · 17 October 2012]

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

one of the great (anti) war movies ever, certainly the pinnacle from Japan

[Quinoa1984 · 10/10 · 27 July 2008]

The Human Condition isn't an easy trilogy; it offers up tons of questions that even today have extreme relevance, particularly about man's duty to himself, to love and family, to country, to affiliation by an Emperor or Dictator, and what it is that's so insane about men in the staggering pit of hell known as war. As one can see in the second installment, The Road to Eternity, even what should be simple in a conventional war movie is turned just a bit to see the ugliness underneath. The first half of the film is Kaji, the trilogy's protagonist, in basic training and witness to more brutality towards the weak Obara (very well cast Kunie Tanaka) who commits suicide following a string of humiliations that are like Private Pyle squared Japan WW2, and how Kaji comes to grips with being a very good, disciplined soldier- the likes of which the army wants to control as they promote him- and, crucially, his last night spent with his wife Machiko (very tender performance from Aratama).

The second half is Kaji off on the front lines, leading up to a big, climactic battle between Soviet and Japanese forces, which is a total horror. Although Kobayashi only goes so far to make these battle scenes dynamic (that is compared to today's battle scenes, which have far more money and just a smidgen more gore to work with), it's overall another incredible accomplishment, as story and character matter always more-so than grandiose visuals or pomposity. We see Kaji going through another level of change, as he's stripped of his "exemption" status and is now just another grunt in this rigidly regimented military, and where, as is expected but no less mortifying, the Japanese see no sign of victory despite all signs pointing otherwise.

As in the first film, Kobayashi delivers moments of beauty, almost at times without trying. I absolutely was floored when the prairie fire scene turned into a desperate chase between Kaji and an escaping Shinjo, where what could have been a basic chase incorporated the fire and smoke and mud-piles into something else entirely. Or, indeed, little moments that suddenly make one's mouth agape, such as the freak-out from a soldier in the midst of the battle foaming at the mouth. If a few scenes might appear to be of the conventional sort (at least as much as Kobayashi would ever allow in this iconoclast approach), they're off-set by the wonderful performances, not least of which by Nakadai. Again he gives it his all, and matures just a little more, and displays a kind of bridge that Kaji is on between the kind-hearted but firm ways of No Greater Love and the, dare I say it, near bad-ass persona in Soldier's Prayer.

It's another great entry in an impeccable trilogy, if maybe not quite as awe-inspiring as the final film.

Full-Metal Jacket for Grown-Ups

[OttoVonB · 10/10 · 8 March 2013]

Part II of Masaki Kobayashi's "Human Condition" follows the noble Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai), now forced into military service, as he tries to hold on to his conscience despite increasingly absurd circumstances.

If Part I was a POW drama with a love story sub-plot, influencing many that followed it, then Part II is one of the best and rawest of the original boot-camp films, planting seeds for, in particular, "Full Metal Jacket". In fact, Kaji's training with the Imperial Army makes US Boot Camp look like daycare, uninclined as director Kobayashi is to pull punches when it comes to the ritual sadism of the Japanese military, which he personally endured in real life. The film bravely confronts Kaji's attitude, an almost holier-than-thou morality than annoys bullying veterans. This forces Kaji to deeply transform as a character and as a human being, from preppy moralist to actual, worn hero, a transition Nakadai pulls off with tremendous effect and efficiency.

But back to the bigger picture. Like Kubrick's similar – and, one should point out, lesser – film of the same genre, this is two pictures in one: a boot-camp film about the dehumanization of the military, and a war film. The first two thirds are all intensive training, with bullying veterans and hapless recruits. Here Kaji faces an interesting contradiction: he rejects the war with all his heart, yet he has it in him to be a perfect warrior. There is the inevitable inept recruit pushed to the brink subplot, but it is handled with more humanity and sense of absurdity than most other similar films could dream of.

Finally, the film takes us to the front, where all the bluster and empty honor fades in front of a line of charging enemy tanks, a startlingly effective battle scene that separates the men from the boys, though not in ways they had anticipated. Kobayashi's film rejects the traditional "bridge syndrome" typical of middle installments in film trilogies, and gives us the perfect Part II: a self-contained enough story with enough substance and depth to stand on its own, while drawing from its predecessor and opening up interesting possibilities for the finale.

Roll on part III.

The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity

[mevmijaumau · 23 October 2014]

The Human Condition (Ningen no jôken) is a 9,5 hour long epic film trilogy directed by Masaki Kobayashi, based on the six volume novel by Junpei Gomikawa. The trilogy stays true to the novel's composition by being divided into six parts, meaning that each of the three installments are split in two parts, in between which are intermissions. Both parts in the first film begin with the same opening credits sequence, showing us some stoneworks portraying dramatic imagery (the similar intro opens all three films). The three movies, each long 3 hours or more, are called No Greater Love, Road to Eternity and A Soldier's Prayer.

So far, I'm two thirds into the trilogy and I find Road to Eternity to be lesser than the first film. RtE follows Kaji as a conscript in Japanese military, first concentrating on his experiences during basic training and later shifting to a battlefield. Now, RtE surpasses NGL on a technical scale; there's no sugar-coating of historical events, no Japanese actors trying to pass up as the Chinese (except in one, scarcely important scene) and no melodramatic orchestral music (instead, RtE sports a militaristic, more quiet soundtrack).

However, this entry in the trilogy reaches the point when the entire story starts to get really repetitive and you really get the feeling that you've seen Kaji humiliated and beaten up enough times to start getting tired by the film. There are a LOT of forgettable scenes of little importance which do nothing but prolong the runtime in order to provide artificial oomph. This is also true for NGL to some extent, but in the first movie I found the storyline to be way more absorbing. Most of RtE occurs in darkly lit, claustrophobic barracks and tight areas where you can't even differentiate the characters. This change of location just isn't as interesting to me as the camp in NGL, but it makes sense because Kaji's humanism is completely beaten to the ground in this movie, and the sudden set change reflects that.

Even though I think that the second movie is less captivating than the first, it still has two powerful things going for it; first, the cinematography, once again, is absolutely amazing and Kobayashi once more shows his talent in crafting widescreen, chiaroscuro shots. Second, the final 30 minutes on the battlefield are brilliantly shot, acted out, put together and manage to be brutal, tense and contemplative all in one. Obviously the actors playing the Soviet soldiers are Japanese so Kobayashi doesn't show their faces, but I think that little detail actually adds to the movie's symbolic value.

By the way, the reason why this is the shortest entry in the trilogy is probably because it was cut. The scene where Michiko strips naked for Kaji was censored by a government comitee.

7,5/10

I should also mention that this movie heavily inspired Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket (which I think is a much better film by the way). The novel upon which FMJ is based on, The Short-Timers, was written after Kobayashi's trilogy. Here are the similarities between the two films:

1) Both films are divided into two parts. First part is basic training, the second is set on a battlefield.

2) The main characters in both films (Kaji, Joker) are recruits who oppose the brutal military conditioning, but in the same time are able to adapt to their surroundings without losing their ideals. Both Kaji and Joker have feuds with their respective drill instructors, however the DIs also respect them to a point for showing their guts.

3) Both Kaji and Joker befriend a fellow recruit (Shinjo, Cowboy). They have discussions while cleaning the toilet.

4) Both groups have a weak, slow recruit who isn't able to adapt to given orders. In RtE it's pvt. Obara (who strangely looks like pvt. Baldrick from Blackadder Goes Forth), in FMJ it's pvt. Pyle. In both films, they do something stupid which makes the DI hate them (throwing a cigarette in the water barrel in RtE, hiding a jelly doughnut in FMJ).

5) Kaji/Joker takes Obara/Pyle under his wing, but everyone else hates the weak recruit. This character is constantly humiliated in both films. In FMJ, he's forced to act like a baby, while in RtE he has to behave like a geisha (sgt. Hartman also likes to compare his men with ladies).

6) Both characters get fed up and commit suicide on a toilet seat by pointing the rifle upwards and shooting (Pyle out of insanity, Obara out of shame). The music in this scene is very similar in both Kubrick's and Kobayashi's film. Pyle's suicide isn't committed on the toilet in The Short Timers, but instead in front of the other members of the group.

7) Some training sequences and punishments are very similar, if not identical.

Here's the album with comparison images: http://imgur.com/a/XeNP5

Middle of a trilogy that is one of the great movies of all time

[ekeby · 10/10 · 7 January 2007]

I've commented on parts I and III, so will comment again here, even though having just seen all three it is hard for me to separate one from the other. All three are superb, essentially telling the beginning, middle, and end of a story.

I'll repeat a caution here: don't read the DVD box or too many (if any) reviews for fear of spoilers. This is one cinema experience you don't want to spoil.

The movies must be seen in order, but not necessarily at one sitting. I split my viewing into different weeks and I don't think doing so diluted my experience.

What you need to know is this trilogy is one of the greatest achievements in cinema of all time. Every aspect of it, almost relentlessly, is as perfect as film gets. The storyline--if such an ordinary word can be applied here--cannot be called anything other than tragic. I'll repeat what I said in my review of part III; while there are some moments of great tenderness, there is no humor at all. It is a drama in every sense of the word.

Knowing something of the subject, I was somewhat reluctant to watch the series, fearing it would be too much of a downer. It's a depressing subject, yes, but it's great art. Great art is uplifting.

A Tragic Hero

[Hitchcoc · 10/10 · 14 October 2021]

The Greeks used the theme of purification through suffering. It is, I believe, the central them of The Iliad. Kaji is a classic hero. He is a man of stuff that few are. In the first, he is nearly destroyed by his own ethical being. Seen as an enemy sympathizer (mainly the Chinese) he ignores the platitudes of war and sees it as something humanity doesn't need. Of course, mankind only knows war and makes heroes out of warriors (even if they must die) and glorifies the whole idea of war. In the second part of the trilogy, Kaji has been drafted and is seen as trouble and watched. He is put in charge of a group of mature soldiers (Japan is losing the war and calling middle aged men to fight). He tries to get his superiors to treat recruits with kindness. This really rubs the other soldiers the wrong way and he continues to be a liability to them.

In the latter part of the film, he and his men go into battle. Unfortunately, with the Japanese on the skids, they are attacked by a Russian tank battalion. They are sitting ducks. Kaji continues to exhibit his heroism, even though many of the men have lost their discipline. Yet instead of seeing himself as a hero, he continues to see the evils of war.

Deeply Moving

[torii15 · 10/10 · 24 March 2002]

It's been a long time since I've seen "Ningen no joken II", the second of Kibiyashi's trilogy: "The Human Condition". One scene (and you'll know it if you see the film) is one of the most visually stunning and heart wrenching in movie history. The rest of the film isn't far behind it with Tatsuya Nakadai giving a brilliant performance playing a good man caught in the monstrous jaws of history. Deeply moving.

First Sequel of an Anti-War Masterpiece

[claudio_carvalho · 10/10 · 13 February 2013]

Kaji is sent to the Japanese army labeled of Red and is mistreated by the vets. Along his assignment, Kaji witnesses cruelties in the army; he revolts against the abusive treatment spent to the recruit Obara that commits suicide; he also sees his friend Shinjô Ittôhei defecting to the Russian border; and he ends in the front to fight a lost battle against the Soviet tanks division.

"The Human Condition – Parts III & IV" is the first sequel of the anti- war masterpiece by Masaki Kobayashi. The story is impressively realistic and magnificently shot with top-notch camera work, giving the sensation of a documentary. But maybe the most impressive is to see the treatment of the Japanese military with their soldiers. If they treated their own compatriots with such brutality, imagine how the enemies would be treated? My vote is ten.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

A Letdown from Installment One

[SpaaceMonkee · 6/10 · 11 April 2023]

This second entry is subtitled "Road to Eternity," which is apt. Although thirty minutes shorter than the first Human Condition film, this second movie felt much longer and overall less engaging. The entire first half (Part 3 of the series, with each film having two parts) could have been condensed substantially and merged with Part 4. Throughout Part 3, we watch Kaji, our idealistic protagonist, as he deals with the violence and pettiness of military life. Except, he's not fighting the enemy; he's fighting the oppression of the more senior soldiers, who seem to delight in humiliating and physically beating the recruits. We see this over and over again. Although we watch Kaji attempt to live up to his humanistic ideals, the repetitiveness of Part 3 lacks much of the punch of the first movie and instead feels more like watching ninety minutes of hazing.

With Part 4, the movie slowly veers back to the qualities that made Human Condition I so engaging. Sent into the field, Kaji and his men prepare fortifications, receive news of Japan's defeat at Okinawa, and feel the war finally coming to them. Kaji, the pacifist, finds himself leading the riflemen in combat and vowing to stay alive and make it home to his wife, even as the distance between his ideals and his actions seems to grow.

It is these situational conflicts between Kaji's personal beliefs and the circumstances at hand that Human Condition I exploited so effectively, and the latter half of Human Condition II returns to form. It is a shame it takes the movie so very long to get there.

Courage is abiding by principles

[alazeabi-09650 · 8/10 · 9 September 2020]

Kuji is confronted with the difference in rank, there is no room for the weak in the army. The veterans who used to be recruits themselves treat the new recruits badly. Even when Kaji moves up in the ranks, he refuses to adopt this kind of behavior (although the veterans keep on trying to provoke him). This is of course the Kuji we know and love :) I liked the first half of the movie because of the psychological aspect; the fear of going to the front, not knowing if you're going to see your loved ones ever again is almost more powerful than the actual fighting. When the fighting starts, it's very painful to watch how they are already on the losing side because of the shortage in weapons and ammunition. Individuals are reduced to bodies in the wink of an eye. I loved the part with Michiko, his wife, the scene was very delicate and small. There's chemistry between the two, not only as characters, but as actors. Even when they're not together, you can still feel it, you feel her absence.

Nightmare World

[evening1 · 7/10 · 13 June 2022]

The first part of this trilogy was grim, but I was not prepared for the horror of the second installment. It has taken me weeks to get through it, and I still don't know if I can handle its last 30 minutes.

Protagonist Kaji is thrust into a devastating moral dilemma as he must decide whether to rescue unfairly condemned Chinese slave laborers -- and risk the wrath, or worse, of his own military bosses -- or keep quiet and do nothing as innocent men are beheaded to set an example.

The attack on Nanjing is well-known to history, but this devastating trilogy transpires in the wasteland of Manchuria, where the cruelty of the occupiers' gulag knows no bounds. Truly, one recoils from the screen.

We sympathize deeply with Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai) and his mortified wife, Michiko (Michiyo Aratama). One also must ask: What would I do?

War is maddening... and also apparently repetitive and boring.

[lodger1313-782-58547 · 2/10 · 21 October 2021]

I don't know how anyone in the Japanese army in World War II got any sleep as everyone yells at the top of their lungs constantly - whether they are opening a door or closing a door or doing anything in between as shown in this film. It is grating.

The second part of this boring, repetitive, pointless and flat trilogy continues with Tatsuya Nakadai proving he truly cannot act but he sure can open his eyes wider and for longer than any other actor in films, past or present... Perhaps it is a cultural barrier. Perhaps it is just that time has not been kind to this film as it just repeats the theme "war is hell, men are monsters" over and over and over again until its final scene where our hero finally considers himself a monster rather than a man as well.

Part 1 was long and boring and repetitive enough with its version of this message (prison is hell) - but Part 2 elevates the "life is hell" theme to the level of absurdist ennui... set in a latrine.

This 9 1/2 hour epic has themes and stories that have been told better, more succinctly and more emotionally in the years before and since these films. It all rather trite. Plus the special effects and sound effects in this film are amateurish. I realize Japanese filmmaking may have been far behind American filmmaking in 1959 - just and I'll admit that pacifistic films in America in 1959 left a lot to be desired... (we've since produced plenty of psychologically based films that far surpass this one - just as Japan has surpassed American films in special effects and sound effects.) but this trilogy is so boring and thematically outdated that it is almost vapid - and certainly unwatchable.

I will only be watching Part 3 simply to be able to say that I've seen all 3 pieces of this film. I will wear my endurance like a badge of honor to signify to other cinemaphiles that I am as valiant as they in my ability to wallow through the doldrums and the one-dimensional cinematic wasteland that is The Human Condition.

Kaji soldiers on

[nickenchuggets · 10/10 · 14 November 2021]

Yesterday, I took a look at the first film in the japanese Human Condition trilogy, directed by Masaki Kobayashi. The first movie alone is over 3 hours long, so as you might expect, it sets up quite a complicated and in-depth story that this second movie expands on. No Greater Love ends on a cliffhanger, with Kaji getting discharged from his position of authority at the labor camp in northern china. He is fired because his superior officers don't like how he is sympathizing with the enemy. Now sentenced to be drafted into world war 2, Kaji faces an uncertain, but certainly grueling future. Road to Eternity is 3 whole hours of what Kaji must endure while in the japanese army. The treatment he receives is horrific, he has few friends, and beatings occur so often they become routine. Kaji finds life in the military is hard to get used to, as you can't do whatever you want anymore. Unfortunately for him, the grunts he shares his barracks with seem to know that he went too easy on the chinese earlier. He is mocked and verbally bullied by his peers. One day, Michiko shows up asking the commanders of the barracks to see him, and he is allowed to stay with her in a secluded area for one night. Shortly after, Kaji finally appears to have made a friend. Obara, another recruit in his unit, seems to get along with him well, but during a march one day, Obara falls behind significantly because he's not strong enough. Because of this, Obara is singled out and made fun of by the men, prompting him to shoot himself in the barracks bathroom. This is where things get really bad for Kaji as he seeks revenge for the demise of the one decent person in his unit. He disobeys orders and tries to pressure his superiors into punishing those responsible for urging Obara to kill himself, in particular, a private first class named Yoshida. Kaji's bosses just have their enlisted men beat him senseless for being insubordinate. Even though the officers don't deliver the justice Kaji demands, he does get his revenge when Yoshida drowns in a pool of quicksand during a training exercise. Once Kaji returns to the barracks, he is promoted to PFC, but a batch of extremely cruel and bloodthirsty artillery soldiers make themselves known to him. The beatings Kaji took for mouthing off to his superior officers is nothing compared to what these men do to him. By this point, the war is almost over, and Okinawa has just fallen to the americans. Kaji knows the japanese empire is finished, so he contemplates escaping the military, but is sent to assist in building a defensive line instead. The men know the USSR is about to hit the japanese forces in northern china with everything they have, and sure enough, swarms of soviet soldiers and armored vehicles storm into manchuria. Kaji and his comrades try their best to hold them off, but the russian blitzkrieg is unstoppable. During the confused and heavily one sided carnage, soviet tanks easily sweep aside any japanese resistance, as their anti-tank weapons are few in number. When it's all over, japan had lost nearly all the ground they had gained, and with it, the cream of their forces. Kaji is now completely alone, surrounded by soviet infantry and tanks. He wanders off into the bleak landscape, undiscovered, but definitely afraid. As is the case with its predecessor, this movie is awesome. In my opinion, it's even better than the first, since we finally get to see what Kaji's life in the military consists of. The first film has him act as a supervisor for chinese laborers, so he's not enlisted yet. The acting remains as strong as ever in this second entry, which is helped by the fact that Kaji undergoes deeper character development. He is angry at people for wronging him in the past, specifically his bosses from the first movie for allowing him to get drafted. He's angry and his fellow soldiers in this movie for taunting and beating him. Most of all, he's angry at himself for believing that moving to manchuria would allow him to escape the army. By the end, Road to Eternity ends the way the first film did, with Kaji ending one horrible chapter of his life and starting another. He doesn't know what will happen to him now that he's alone behind enemy lines. I do, but that's a story for another time.

Losing One's Humanity

[davidmvining · 10/10 · 10 June 2022]

All filmed at once and released over a period of three years, The Human Condition is the Japanese, arthouse version of The Lord of the Rings or Manon of the Source, a single film production broken up into multiple parts for release reasons (who's gonna sit through nine-and-a-half hours at once?). The second part continues the main character's journey downward from a suited up bureaucrat in a corporate office to almost an animal by the end of this, his time in the Japanese army in Manchuria as Japan is steadily losing the overall conflict on both sides, from America at the Pacific and from the Soviet Union on the land.

Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai) is in basic training at a remote military installation near the front against the Soviet army. He is under suspicion, meaning that he receives informal harsher treatment and won't be on the promotions list, just like Shinjo (Kei Sato), a three-year recruit that has accusations over his head that he is a communist because his brother wrote in a communist paper. The two have become friends, isolated from the rest of the unit, but Shinjo is kept busy by their commanding officer Warrant Officer Hino (Jun Tatara) to the point where they simply don't have enough time for any kind of plotting. Otherwise, Kaji is a good soldier. He's a quality marksman, and he does what he can for the struggling members of the unit, in particular Obara (Kunie Tanaka), a bespectacled young man whose wife and mother-in-law are always fighting back home.

The trials and tribulations of a Japanese soldier at the tail end of World War II are not exactly the stuff of American cinema depictions of American military basic trainings. There's a whole lot more corporal punishment meted out all of the time for the slightest of infractions. The opening scene of the film is actually the unit being awoken in the middle of the night, forced to line up, and the officer in charge slapping every single one of them because a cigarette butt was found in the drinking water. Obara was in charge before lights out, so he is blamed. Kaji comes to his defense with his own witness testimony that everything was in order when Obara was relieved, evidence that heavily implies that it was an officer patrolling around the barracks that flicked the cigarette into the water, but the officer will have none of it. Punishment will be meted out to the junior recruits with the veterans looking on from their bunks up above.

This period in basic training really is a transitional period for Kaji, between the remnants of the civilized world and the harsh wilderness and savagery of life on the battlefield, so it seems appropriate that he gets one final moment with Michiko (Michiyo Aratama), his wife, who comes to the remote training ground and is granted one night with her husband in the storehouse. Their night is his last grasp of love before he must go to the front, and it's painful. They love each other deeply, and there seems to be little hope that they'll ever meet each other again.

The recruits' graduation is a long march, and Kaji does everything he can to help the exhausted Obara to finish it. He takes half of his pack on his own back and carries Obara's rifle, but Obara still cannot finish, eventually picked up by the cart picking up the stragglers (there are three total). The veterans in the training corps, led by Yoshida (Michiro Minami) then humiliate those who couldn't finish, most particularly Obara, which sends Obara into a spiral that ends with him committing suicide. His suicide scene ends up being incredibly sad, not just because he loses hope and decides to end it all with a rifle in the latrine (echoes of this definitely end up in Full Metal Jacket), but because he fails several times and then decides that it's a sign that he should continue on before the gun suddenly goes off. It's tragic in a way, and emblematic of how hard it is to find one's humanity in a system like this.

That extends to Kaji's reaction to Obara's suicide. He wants the offending veteran punished, but the command structure will not allow it. They use a variety of excuses, from Kaji having a personal vendetta to everything being hearsay, but they will not allow the punishment of the perpetrators. Kaji can only stew in his own anger at the injustice as the Japanese military refuses to do anything about it. When the unit is moved towards the border, things gain a different character. It almost becomes wistful as a gap forms between basic training and actual combat, with the border (presumably the border with the Soviet Union) just on the horizon, with promises of freedom for the individual (said by Shinjo, communist, so...eh, it's about the promise not the reality). During an emergency, Shinjo runs towards the border, deserting, and both Kaji and Yoshida run after him with Kaji knocking Yoshida into quicksand, unable to save him. He accidentally kills someone. The humanist who threw his whole life away to save some prisoners of war accidentally kills a man.

That's the end of Part 3. A lot of events in these films, and yet because they're all so tightly focused on Kaji himself and his emotional journey, it never feels like a jumble. There are a handful of small scenes without him (between a couple of superior officers, for instance, who talk about how his guts show that Kaji should remain on the promotions list), but even those scenes outside of his view are all in service of him. Even poor Obara's suicide feeds into Kaji's overall journey (sorry, Obara, this ain't your movie).

Part 4 moves the action to near the border where the unit goes in for artillery training, led by a friend of Kaji's from the civilian world (whom we saw briefly at the start of Part 1), Kageyama (Keiji Sada). Kaji gets the ranking of Private First Class and is put in charge of the barracks, giving him a chance to implement his humanist labor policies one more time, focusing on his fellow rookies. It all falls apart again in relatively the same fashion with human nature from outside the small group putting pressure on the inside until they crack. His ideals meet the real world and survive for a little while until they begin to fall apart as human nature intervenes over time. To relieve some of the tensions in the camp, Kageyama sends Kaji and most of the rookie soldiers out to build fortifications, during which the Russian campaign into Manchuria begins. Kaji's little unit is folded into a new one, and they are the second line of defense after the first line further up dies gloriously for the Japanese Empire.

And here, about six hours into this war epic, do we get our first battle. From a technical point of view, the battle is competent and small in scale. It's remarkably tense, though, and that has almost everything to do with the extraordinary amount of work that went into building Kaji as a character. There are about a dozen tanks, but the extras seem a bit thin. Still, it's easy to see what's going on and watch as the action moves around, and the action does no move in Japan's favor. In the end, Kaji must pick up his gun and fire into the coming soldiers. Did his bullets hit and kill the men we see? Can we be sure in the hail of millions of bullets? We can be sure of the post-battle moment when Kaji has to strangle a fellow Japanese soldier to keep him quiet that he killed him, though. The humanist has become an outright murderer. Surely there's no more for him to fall. We may find out in Parts 5 and 6.

Much like the first part, The Human Condition: Part II really could stand on its own. Kaji has his ideals and his journey (it's downward, if you hadn't surmised), and his time in the regular army has a clear beginning, middle, and end. And that journey is involving and surprisingly crushing. Watching an idealist in the middle of his ideals crashing around him to the point that he has to violate them all is really sad, and the subtext of both Kobayashi and Junpei Gomikawa's own views in relation to the trajectory of Japan through the 30s and 40s (they were against the militarism and colonization of Manchuria) gives it an extra flavor.

This may be the middle third of a three-part tale, but it's a great one.

The hero we all need

[M0n0_bogdan · 8/10 · 18 February 2023]

Kaji continues his path to righteousness, his path to herodom, his path to killing evil with kindness and companion for his fellow man. He will always be the guy who shows the other cheek and will take it for his fellow man.

The thing that is so effective from what Kaji does is that he puts up a mirror to what evil is made by his fellow man towards his other fellow man. The first fellow man doesn't like that. The first fellow man doesn't understand where Kajis kindness comes from. Why is he so different?

But it's easy to be Kaji. Just be a human being and act the way you want to be treated by others. That's why Kaji makes an impact. Because he does all this while one of the most horrific periods of human existance was underway.

The cinematography is striking in black and white

[steiner-sam · 8/10 · 17 January 2022]

This is the second of a three-part movie (9.5 hours in total) covering one man's experience during World War II. This part takes place in 1943 in a military training unit, and later in 1945 in Manchuria, after the Soviet Union invaded Manchuria in August 1945. Part II is three hours in length.

Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai) has now been drafted in 1943 into the Japanese military. He resists veterans' harsh treatment of new recruits even though he personally excels at physical fitness and target practice. He is deeply shaken by the suicide of a recruit named Obara (Kunie Tanaka) after brutal treatment. He is allowed one brief visit with his wife, Michiko (Michiyo Aratama). Later, in early 1945, Kaji, now a private first class, becomes a trainer of new recruits, including older men in their 40s. He is still harassed and sometimes beaten by five-year veterans because he refuses to treat his men harshly and continues to believe the war is based on false values.

In August 1945, Kaji and his platoon are sent to dig trenches to anticipate the Soviet attack on Manchuria. There is much despair as the men know that Okinawa has been lost. There is an extended battle scene where Kaji's rifle company in foxholes tries to fight 15 Soviet tanks and support troops.

There is much violence in Part II, but it is not graphic. The cinematography remains striking in black and white. Kaji several times states his opposition to the Japanese war machine. He is willing to fight to protect his men and himself, though he looks appalled the first time he kills a Soviet soldier. He also considers himself a murderer when forced to kill a comrade who has gone mad.

This is the 18th in my list of movies in which pacifists are primary characters. In Part II, Kaji is not strictly a pacifist, though he remains very anti-military.

Part 2 of a 9-hour Trilogy; Manages to keep Pace

[VikingBurialService · 9/10 · 16 October 2022]

Awesome. Again. Kobayashi is absolutely nailing this trilogy. Basically, in this second part, Kaji goes from being a labor supervisor to a soldier training in Manchuko. Not only is this a fantastic overall escalation of stakes (which is needed to maintain investment in a 3-part trilogy of 3-hour movies), but throughout this entire second part he manages to keep tension high while still making Kaji both likable and fallible. As someone of a generally conservative, diciplinarian mindset, I still find myself rooting for Kaji more than his Authoritarian-minded superiors. The scenery and camerawork used in the camp is superb; the acting is great; everything measures up to the previous one. There were a few small details that detracted a bit. His wife showing up and being allowed into a military camp seemed silly. The pacing, while good, does slow down at times (which is almost inevitable in such a long series). I didn't think all the lines/dialogue hit as emotionally as they did in the first part either. Otherwise, fantastic. Can't wait for the final part.

Finale of Trilogy of The Human Condition - Road to Eternity

[arthur_tafero · 8/10 · 10 January 2022]

In the final installment of the Kobayashi's masterpiece, The Human Condition - Road to Eternity, we see the events of the life of Kaji, the protagonist, come full circle. From master of a Japanese work camp to a suffering worker of a Russian POW camp, Kaji comes to realize first-hand the experiences of those he once ruled, even though he was much more sympathetic to those under his rule than his compatriots. The inevitable tragic ending does not need to be revealed, as we are well-aware by the halfway point of the second installment, that things will most likely not turn out well for Kaji. One of the top five films of all time in Japanese cinema.

He who shouts loudest isn't always the bravest

[Marwan-Bob · 9/10 · 9 March 2019]

Part I was a "Prisoner of War" drama with a love story sub-plot, then Part II is one of the best and rawest of the Military-camp films ever Made... I think that the second Part is More captivating than the first, maybe because i love military camp films a lot. Oh man i Can't Wait to see the Final Part.

I like it a little less than the first part, but it's still very good.

[Jeremy_Urquhart · 8/10 · 10 January 2024]

I do feel like The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity is my least favorite of the three, but that's the case with a good many trilogies and their second entries. When someone creates a trilogy as effectively one giant film (it definitely feels like they made The Human Condition as one film, or at least the first two parts, which both came out in 1959), it does seem possible that the least impressive stuff will fall in the center of a story. But if you're already hooked from the first part, and something powerful is being saved for the final part, it's not the end of the world if the second part is merely very good, rather than great or perfect.

The Human Condition II is the film of the three with the jerkiest pacing, jumping around from one situation to another in a way that does make sense on paper, but can feel jarring while watching. These beats are all necessary, and they serve to plunge Kaji deeper into morally grey waters while giving him physical and psychological obstacles to overcome, all of which get progressively more strenuous. This part does also deliver some intense war combat near the end, which the series otherwise avoids (usually to great effect), so me not loving Part II as much while also acknowledging its action-heavy climax does make me think of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers a little... it feels wrong to compare to film trilogies that are so different, but in any event, I think both are great.

Part II still delivers an essential chapter to a powerful story, and I can respect that more on a rewatch, knowing pretty well where Part III goes (that one was hard to forget). My only other real observation is that I'm more sure than ever that Tatsuya Nakadai is one of the greatest actors of all time. He's at his most human and sympathetic in the first movie, but he also seems a bit clean and passive, all in a way that doesn't necessarily allow Nakadai to go big (his subtle acting is great, though). But Kaji begins to slip at this point in the trilogy, and that just lays bare even further how great Tatsuya Nakadai is, the way he can have this character feel consistent yet ever-changing.

Powerful antiwar film

[gbill-74877 · 8/10 · 10 October 2021]

Part two of the trilogy picks the story up with the protagonist (Tatsuya Nakadai) in boot camp, getting his basic training. He's actually a fine soldier, a good shot and strong in hand-to-hand combat, but bristles against the brutality of the officers when they dole out punishment. Meanwhile, they're keeping a close watch on him because of his communist sympathies, and let him know in no uncertain terms that they don't approve. It's clear it's not a thinking man's world, as early on one of his tormentors says that logic has no place in the military, and derides those with a college degree.

A good portion of the film shows the harassment and humiliation of weaker recruits by the veterans, who seem less interested in developing them to help win the war than they do dominating them. It's an indictment of the military, which often values this macho BS over honor and virtue, or looks the other way out of what it perceives as necessity. As the commanding officer puts it in a revealing moment, the veterans are the ones he would trust in battle.

On its own, this is a powerful antiwar film, even if some of the basic training and hazing bits go on for longer than they probably needed to. In the second half, the protagonist gets a small promotion and is in charge of some of the recruits, but is constantly harassed because he wants to treat them fairly, which seemed to repeat much of what came before it. And I have to say, despite the high production value, a lot of these things have been seen in other films, but I give it a lot of credit for being made in 1959 Japan. Besides that, I could see this particular installment's direct influence on films like Full Metal Jacket - so much so that I wondered if Kubrick had lifted just a little too much in making his film, particularly the character Obara.

Human Condition II is at its strongest when it shows the utter futility and absurdity of war, such as when the two men who hate each other are flailing about in a marsh, at risk of drowning, or the troops try to defend an inadequate trench line hastily dug before the advance of Soviet tanks, a place that military brass knows will result in heavy casualties. We see the fear of dying, men going crazy during battle, and others being gunned downed pointlessly, like dogs, for a cause that the smart ones know is lost. It's absolute madness and the ultimate subversion of rationality to be in this place, and Kobayashi shows the horror of it well. For that it is a worthy film, but obviously, brace yourself for its 3 hour runtime.

A compelling study in principles, pragmatism, cruelty and misery - part 2

[jamesrupert2014 · 8/10 · 12 October 2021]

As punishment for standing up to the Japanese military on behalf of indentured Chinese workers, the still idealistic Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai) is conscripted into the Imperial Army and ends up fighting Chinese guerillas and Soviet troops in Manchuria as Japan's military capacity slowly collapses. The first half of the film focuses on his life as a recruit, still trying to do good for the people around him, and enduring constant abuse from the veterans, who despise the newcomers as weak and ineffectual. Many of the 'training' scenes are powerful (numerous reviewers have noted similarities to Kubrick's 'Full Metal Jacket', 1987) but after a while, Kaji's incessant maltreatment and degradation becomes a bit repetitive. The second half of the film finds the newly trained men in out-numbered combat against the better trained and better equipped Russian troops and, after the surrender of Japan, against local Chinese militias thirsty for harsh vengeance against their former conquerors. The scenes of combat are excellent - grim and brutal - as Kaji is slowly forced to face the conflicting realities of his principles and his desire to survive the brutality around him so he can return to his beloved wife Michiko (Michiyo Aratama). Although I did not find this film as compelling as the first chapter (largely do the overlong and repetitive 'training' section), it remains a necessary bridge to 'A Soldier's Prayer', the outstanding third film in Masaki Kobayashi's masterful anti-war trilogy.

Some Personal Growth At Last

[CinemaClown · 17 June 2022]

A three-film saga chronicling the journey of a Japanese pacifist who continues to find his morals at crossroads with his duties to his country while trying to survive the oppressive regime & imperialist ideology of World War II-era Japan, The Human Condition is a mammoth undertaking that offers an honest observation of the uphill battle it always is for anyone trying to rise above a corrupt system and makes for an epic war drama that's grand in scope & exhaustive in narration.

The second part of the trilogy, Road to Eternity finds our protagonist now conscripted into the Japanese army after losing his exemption from military service due to his actions in the last film. Proving to be an excellent marksman with strong discipline, he bears witness to the cruelty & mistreatment from army vets and then incurs their wrath after reporting their malefactions to higher officials.

Co-written & directed by Masaki Kobayashi, there is a greater sense of danger at play here in this second chapter but at its core the plot continues to be about his struggle to stay true to his core beliefs. Facing harder challenges, physical abuse & endless punishments for slightest offences, he slowly begins to understand the difference between having ideals & acting on them by setting an example.

The story is told in two parts just like the previous entry, with the first one detailing his hardship at boot camp training and next one transporting him to the frontlines. Kobayashi also sheds critical light on the hazing culture that exists in the army in addition to corruption within the ranks itself but as before, it is Tatsuya Nakadai's committed showcase that keeps things glued together and helps us invest in the drama.

Overall, The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity may lack the steadier flow of its predecessor but it ventures into darker spaces and challenges the resilience of the human spirit by pushing our character's determination to test. The issues that plagued the first film are still here and the 3-hour runtime remains bothersome but the personal growth and better sense of right & wrong that our pacifist gains makes it a worthy sit in the end.