Masaki Kobayashi's first film of the 10 hour trilogy is a major achievement in cinema. It is long and gruelling, but worth it. Kaji, a labour camp supervisor is tormented by ethics and morals as he struggles to make the decisions required in wartime. Meanwhile he has just married the love of his life. The ending is particular devastating and there are some quite brutal moments. I look forward to the next two chapters.

And so this the beginning of Kobayashi great trilogy of films that makes up whole The Human Condition. The way the film portrays the Chinese and Korean prisoners getting mistreated by the Japanese is both horrifying and sad knowing that’s what happened in real life. Tatsuya Nakadai performance as always is fantastic and same with most of the cast. The film and with the other two are pretty long to point it could take couple of sitting to watch all of trilogy since it is more than 3 hours long. Later in movie it gets more insane with the whole camp escape and stuff and some bits hard to watch.

Excellent film that depicts the horrors faced by civilians during Japan's imperialist era. The landscapes are as distorted as the soldiers are dehumanized.

Ningen no Jôken Ningen no Jôken I (The Human Condition I No Greater Love) (1959) https://trakt.tv/movies/the-human-condition-i-no-greater-love-1959 Ningen no Jôken II (The Human Condition II Road to Eternity) (1959) https://trakt.tv/movies/the-human-condition-ii-road-to-eternity-1959 Ningen no Jôken III (The Human Condition III A Soldier's Prayer) (1961) https://trakt.tv/movies/the-human-condition-iii-a-soldier-s-prayer-1961