THE HUMAN CONDITION PART I: NO GREATER LOVE
[NINGEN NO JŌKEN] [人間の條件]
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 JŌKEN), adapted from Junpei Gomikawa’s six-volume novel, tells of the journey of the well-intentioned yet naive Kaji (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. Both a raw indictment of Japan’s wartime mentality and a personal existential tragedy, Kobayashi’s riveting, gorgeously filmed epic is novelistic cinema at its best. (Note courtesy of Janus Films.)
PART I: NO GREATER LOVE
At the outset of World War II, conscientious objector Kaji is assigned managerial duties at a mining camp in Japanese-occupied Manchuria. Empathizing with the enslaved Chinese POWs, Kaji implements more humane working conditions to ease their torment — a kind gesture that draws the ire of the camp’s supervisors, risking Kaji’s position. DIR/SCR Masaki Kobayashi; SCR Zenzō Matsuyama, from the novel by Junpei Gomikawa; PROD Shigeru Wakatsuki. Japan, 1959, b&w, 207 min. In Japanese with English subtitles. NOT RATED
In Memoriam: Tatsuya Nakadai (1932–2025)
PART II: ROAD TO ETERNITY plays July 25, 28 & 30.
PART III: A SOLDIER'S PRAYER plays August 1, 5 & 6.
Run Time: 207 Minutes
Opening Date: Saturday, July 18, 2026
Genre: War drama
