In such, The Human Condition is also a landmark or World Cinema. And justifiably so… Mankind’s inhumanity towards man is never an airy topic, particularly when it’s explored within the framework of World War II-era Chinese labor camps, military mistreatment, and combat fatigue. It’s not that The Human Condition is in any way a poor film. This much expertly-rendered real-life brutality is a rough go. By the time I reached the three-and-a-half-hour mark and completed Part One, I was asking myself if I was really going to be able to get through this. I was then warned by a fellow Criterion buff to pace myself - as great of an undertaking as the production is, there’s not a single moment of levity in the whole ten hours. It is a beautifully made and sometimes brilliantly compelling endurance test, but an endurance test all the same.Īround the hour-and-twenty-minute mark, I realized that in terms of ordinary running times, I was only the equivalent of fifteen minutes in. What’s to be said about The Human Condition? In the case of the epic-length Japanese film of that title made, plenty.ĭirected by Masaki Kobayashi ( Harikiri) and released in three distinct parts between 1959 to 1961, the whole 579 minutes of The Human Condition is nothing less than an immaculate endurance test of sensibility.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |