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The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity
The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity
8.8
/10
286 Ratings

THE HUMAN CONDITION II: ROAD TO ETERNITY

人間の条件 第三・四部 | Ningen no jôken

Directed by Masaki Kobayashi
Japan, 1959
Drama, History, War

Synopsis

Labelled a Red, Kaji is sent to the Japanese army and is mistreated by the vets. He witnesses cruelties in the army and revolts against the abusive treatment spent on the recruit Obara; he also sees his friend Shinjô Ittôhei defecting to the Russian border.

Synopsis

Labelled a Red, Kaji is sent to the Japanese army and is mistreated by the vets. He witnesses cruelties in the army and revolts against the abusive treatment spent on the recruit Obara; he also sees his friend Shinjô Ittôhei defecting to the Russian border.

Our take

Masaki Kobayashi returns to the frozen plains of Manchuria for the second instalment in his riveting, novelistic epic. Rapturously capturing the drudgery of infantry service in its panoramic widescreen compositions, The Human Condition continues its abrasion of the naive Kaji’s humanist convictions.