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The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)

Movie"The Immortal Story."
Audience Score
81
The Human Condition I: No Greater LoveCriterion Channel logoWatch on Criterion Channel
NR 3 hr 26 minDec 14th, 1959Drama, History, WarThe Human Condition Collection PosterPart of The Human Condition Collection
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After handing in a report on the treatment of Chinese colonial labor, Kaji is offered the post of labor chief at a large mining operation in Manchuria, which also grants him exemption from military service. He accepts, and moves to Manchuria with his newly-wed wife Michiko, but when he tries to put his ideas of more humane treatment into practice, he finds himself at odds with scheming officials, cruel foremen, and the military police.
StarringTatsuya NakadaiMichiyo AratamaChikage Awashima
DirectorMasaki Kobayashi

Movie Details

Theatrical Release:December 14th, 1959
Original Language:Japanese
Production Companies:Ninjin Club
Movie Tags:
world war iijapansoldiersnowprison escapechinesefascismconscientious objectormandarinshallow grave

The Human Condition Collection

The Human Condition is a Japanese film epic released as a trilogy between 1959 and 1961. The trilogy follows the life of Kaji, a Japanese pacifist and socialist, as he tries to survive in the totalitarian and oppressive world of World War II-era Japan. Taken altogether as a single film, it is 9 hours and 47 minutes long, which includes intermissions, making it one of the longest narrative films ever made. While the films earned considerable controversy at the time of their release in Japan, The Human Condition was critically acclaimed, won many international awards, and has since established Masaki Kobayashi as one of the most important Japanese directors of his generation.