The Human Condition II: The Road to Eternity (Ningen no joken)
Directed by Masaki Kobayashi
Written by Zenzo Matsuyama and Masaki Kobayashi from a novel by Junpei Gomikawa
1959/Japan
Shochiku Eiga
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Kaji: I refuse to die.[/box]
Kobayashi’s pacifist hero finds that the real enemy in WWII is the Japanese army.
This takes up where Part I left off, with Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai) drafted into the army as a raw recruit. Despite his pacifism, he attempts to make the best of a bad situation. He is actually the best shot of all the recruits and a natural leader. However, he is a suspected as a Red, due to his kind treatment of the Chinese prisoners in Part I. The first half of the movie is devoted to the basic training of the men. All missteps are disciplined by savage blows to the face and head. In fact, any man senior to any other man seems to be able to strike his junior at will. Kaji comes in for a lot of this treatment.
Finally, Kaji’s unit is called up to defend the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in the closing days of WWII. They are hopelessly outnumbered and out-equipped. Kaji attempts to hold on to return to his beloved Michiko.
In Part II of The Human Condition, Kobayashi continues to explore the brutality of war on an epic scale. These films have portrayed the Japanese military in a worse light than any of the most propagandistic American war films I have seen. The filmmaking continues to be masterful no matter how hard the subject matter is to take. Part III was not released until 1961 and I will review it with that year’s films.
Trailer
