Ningen no joken 3

Ningen no jôken: Dai 5 bu - Shi no dasshutsu + Ningen no jôken: Dai 6 bu - Kôya no hôkô / The Human Condition 3: A Soldier's Prayer / [Ihmisen kohtalo 3: Sotilaan rukous] / [Människans lott 3: En soldats prädikan]. JP 1961. See general credits in part 1. 190 min. Viewed in The Night of the Arts in Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 22 Aug 2009. - Brilliant print. - Memorable in this part: the massive attack of the Red Army - only three soldiers are left from Kaji's unit of 160 - Kaji's hand covered in blood - flashbacks are introduced into the films; Michiko appears only in them anymore - the hellish struggle for survival - awareness that the Japanese army has disbanded - extreme close-ups and magnificent epic aerial long shots, sober compositions and sharply slanting angles - the trek through the forest - the preciousness of water - meeting Japanese refugees, the women have had to serve as prostitutes - scarce food: "we'll all share" - the flight of the ragged band through the forest with a screaming baby - subsisting on snails and mushrooms, which can be dangerous - the nobility of the elderly - discussing the future of the nation - Chinese peasants lure the Japanese into a trap - a tryst on a farm - ambush - escape through the fire - the Red Army is infamous for having its way with the women - Kaji would expect the Reds to be better than they are - Kaji fights the rapists among his own people - more Japanese are found lurking in the forest as the winter is coming - there is still even a Japanese military unit in the mountains - destroying a Red Army dugout - stealing their way through the countryside - the house of women, where there is general love-making going on all night, free for all, Kaji abstains and stays outdoors, the woman yearning for him (Hideko Takamine) takes a young virgin soldier instead - Kaji: "no time to play house" - at 127 minutes of this part (or at 37 minutes of Part Six) Kaji surrenders to the Red Army - one of the women having prevented Kaji's plan to fight - hit by the diarrhea - Kaji demands justice, demands investigation from the Red Army - he is called by them a "Fascist Samurai" - entering the Gulag: Work Station Number One - the prisoners in hard labour - huge loads of metal scrap, logs - they fall having spent their last drops of energy - Kaji loses his illusions of Soviet Russia - in a trial he is declared a war criminal - and Kaji speaks out, condemning the Red Army for injustice - Kaji is punished by sending him to build a forest railway - "If you can't survive Siberia no one can", says his old acquaintance Tange - Terada perishes, a victim of harassment, kicked, harassed by excessive latrine duty - this is the last straw for Kaji, who revenges on the biggest tormentor, Kirihara, and drowns him into the latrine - at 176 min Kaji escapes from under the barbed wire - into the icy water - interior monologue - the wind, the darkness, madness from hunger - the Chinese tramp him into the ground, "the Japanese devil" - through the snow expanse - drinking from the holes in the ice - immense desolate landscapes - "Michiko, I have come as far as I can" - "Michiko, I'm home at last"

Ningen no joken 2 (3+4) / The Human Condition 2: The Road to Eternity

Masaki Kobayashi: 人間の條件 / The Human Condition 2 = 第三部 望郷篇 / Part 3: Longing for Home + 第四部 戦雲篇 / Part 4: War Clouds

人間の條件 / The Human Condition 2

第三部 望郷篇 / Part 3: Longing for Home 

第四部 戦雲篇 / Part 4: War Clouds

Ningen no jôken: Dai 3 bu – Bôkyô hen + Ningen no jôken: Dai 4 bu – Sen'un hen / The Human Condition 2: The Road to Eternity / [Ihmisen kohtalo 2: Tie ikuisuuteen] / [Människans lott 2: Vägen till evigheten]. 

    JP 1959. CAST: Tatsuya Nakadai (Kaji), Michiyo Aratama (Michiko), Keiji Sada (Kageyama), Hideo Kisho (Kudo), Jun Tatara (Hino). 179'. Print: Japan Foundation, with English subtitles.

General comments and credits: see my blog remarks on Ningen no joken 1. Besides Candide, one could compare this story with Don Quijote. Epic grandeur and scope in this account of sadism and the rare nobility of spirit.

Memorable in this part: [3] the Kwangtung Army at -32 grades Celsius – bullying in the barracks – [the feeling of the extreme chill is not conveyed] – "Reds" blacklisted by the Kenpeitai under especially grim bullying – Kaji still the defender of the weakest – punished by the hardest duty – Kaji meets for the last time Michiko, who has come to visit him – the long marches, the endurance of Kaji – the weak Obara commits suicide under extreme humiliation (this may have influenced Kubrick in Full Metal Jacket) – Shinjo escapes during a prairie fire – Kaji and the bullying officer almost drown in the mire – Kaji catches marsh fever, the bully dies of it – the biggest laugh in the whole 10-hour picture: the head nurse of the military hospital is as big a bully as the worst barrack sergeants – true human beings always find kindred spirits: the friendly nurse and Kaji are both expelled as their innocent friendship (qf. They Were Expendable) is revealed.

[4] – Kaji gets to train a platoon of grown-up recruits at the late stage of the war – Kaji is humiliated, hit and harassed by the veteran under-officers – Okinawa has fallen – "it's un-Japanese to consider a loss" - pride and face don't mean anything to me now – Kaji is punished by sending him to the trench-digging detail – Soviet attack at the Manchurian border – still digging trenches – in the area that is due to suffer heavy casualties – Kaji's warning of 15 Soviet tanks is not believed – Don't be a coward – Never give up – full attack of the Red Army – Make every bullet count – Long live the Japanese Empire – almost the whole unit is wiped out dead by the Red Army – only Kaji and a couple others survive, suffering war madness – Is anyone alive?

Ningen no joken 1 / The Human Condition 1: No Greater Love

Masaki Kobayashi: 人間の條件 / Ningen no joken 1 / The Human Condition 1: No Greater Love (JP 1959) starring Tatsuya Nakadai as Kaji, the Japanese Candide.

人間の條件 / Ningen no jôken: Dai 1 bu - Jun'ai hen + Ningen no jôken: Dai 2 bu - Gekido hen / The Human Condition 1: No Greater Love / [Ihmisen kohtalo 1: Ei suurempaa rakkautta] / [Människans lott 1: Ingen större kärlek]. 

    JP 1959. PC: Shochiku. P: Shigeru Watatsuki, Tatsuo Hasoya, Masaki Kobayashi. 

    D: Masaki Kobayashi. SC: Zenzo Matsuyama, Kobayashi – based on the novel by Junpei Gomikawa (1956–58). DP: Yoshio Miyajima – b&w – Shochiku Grandscope 2,35:1. AD: Kazue Hirataka. M: Chuji Kinoshita. ED: Keiishi Uraoka. 

    CAST: Tatsuya Nakadai (Kaji), Michiyo Aratama (Michiko), So Yamamura (Okijima), Eitaro Ozawa (Okazaki), Akira Ishihama (Chen). 

    208 min

    A Japan Foundation print with English subtitles viewed at Cinema Orion, Helsinki, 21 Aug 2009.

The first screening of a brand new, brilliant print, straight from the lab.

A great account of the final decade of Japan's imperialistic period experienced by a Japanese Candide, Kaji portrayed by Tatsuya Nakadai, embodying the humanistic, liberal, and progressive spirit of Japan. The terror of the war and the occupation is honestly portrayed in all its cruelty. This is the seminal film for Japan of its "Vergangenheitsbewältigung", the struggle to come to terms with its history. Kobayashi is in full command of the epic form.

Memorable in what is in the West presented as Part One (in Japan, Parts 1-2): 

– Kaji's deep love and marriage with Michiko.

– Kaji arrives in Manchuria to take charge of labour conditions in a mine operated by slave labour, including war prisoners, the workforce totalling 10.000.

– He is also in charge of 60 comfort women.

– The mine is a hell on earth, and the Japanese are sadistic slave-drivers.

– The worst is the Kenpeitai, the military police.

– Kaji is ordered to mount electrified barbed wire around the war prisoners, many of which are not in fact soldiers.

– The war prisoners arrive half-dead, some literally dead.

– The prostitutes participate in cruel plots that undermine Kaji's efforts to give the best possible treatment to the slaves.

– He faces a thick web of crime and corruption.

– The kindly Chinese Chen, whom he helps, is also drawn to the evil plots, corrupted by the brothel madam.

– There is a sincere romance between the prostitute Chun Lan and the war prisoner Kao.

– The escapes enabled by the shutting down of the electricity become Kaji's responsibility.

– But the basic conflict is that Kaji is alone in trying to treat the war slaves as human beings.

– He is punished by being blacklisted and demoted to a common recruit in the army, being conscripted after all.