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The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity

The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity

Drama War History

1959, Movie, 2h 58min

Masaki Kobayashi’s mammoth humanist drama is one of the most staggering achievements of Japanese cinema. Originally filmed and released in three parts, the nine-and-a-half-hour THE HUMAN CONDITION (NINGEN NO JOKEN), adapted from Junpei Gomikawa’s six-volume novel, tells of the journey of the well-intentioned yet naive Kaji (handsome Japanese superstar Tatsuya Nakadai) from labor camp supervisor to Imperial Army soldier to Soviet POW. Constantly trying to rise above a corrupt system, Kaji time and again finds his morals an impediment rather than an advantage. A raw indictment of its nation’s wartime mentality as well as a personal existential tragedy, Kobayashi’s riveting, gorgeously filmed epic is novelistic cinema at its best.

Country: Japan

Director:

Masaki Kobayashi

Cast:

Tatsuya Nakadai,

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You can stream The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity on: The Criterion Channel

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Some movies that have similar genres and were produced around the same time as The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity include The Bridge on the River Kwai, Spartacus, The Bridge, Pork Chop Hill, The Human Condition I: No Greater Love, Alexander the Great.