The Human Condition

February 15, 2009

New Prints!

“Amazingly powerful in its emotional sweep and the depth of its historical insight. . . . Kobayashi’s monumental film can clarify and enrich your understanding of what it is to be alive.”—A. O. Scott, New York Times

It is rare when an episode of national history can be interpreted without the burden of illusions, both obsolete and nostalgic. This is one of the great strengths of Masaki Kobayashi’s The Human Condition, a nine-hour epic about Japan’s occupation of China during the Second World War. The trilogy begins with an attack on inhuman practices in the Japanese Army and ends with a bitter denunciation of Stalinism by the would-be-socialist hero, Kaji (the great Tatsuya Nakadai), a Japanese soldier who has confronted the reality of war and found it unyielding. In grand Dostoyevskian flourishes, Kobayashi suggests the impossibility of an individual altering the ethical standards of a social system. Standing in for the director, Kaji says, “Minor facts ignored by history can be fatal to the individual.” It is Masaki Kobayashi’s recognition of “minor facts” that joins the poetic to the journalistic in a scathing epic about the cruelties of war.

Special admission prices apply: General admission, $11.50 per screening or $25 for all three (savings of $9.50); BAM/PFA members, $7.50 per screening or $18 for all three (savings of $4.50); Students, seniors, and disabled persons, $6.50 per screening or $15 for all three (savings of $4.50).

Sunday, February 15, 2009
12:00 NOON No Greater Love
Part I finds Kaji working as a supervisor in a forced labor camp in southern Manchuria, where he and his wife attempt to better the lot of the enslaved Chinese workers. Kaji is accused of dissent, tortured, then inducted into the army.

Sunday, February 15, 2009
4:00 p.m. The Road to Eternity
In Part II, soldier Kaji is appalled by the treatment afforded recruits. Given the rank of officer, he tries to install more humane procedures but only succeeds in attracting the ire of his fellow officers.

Sunday, February 15, 2009
8:00 p.m. A Soldier’s Prayer
By Part III, the Japanese army is being routed by superior Russian troops. Kaji is captured by the Soviets and imprisoned, learning the bitter truth about the Red Army as liberators.