The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer
- La Condition de l'homme - Partie 3 : La prière du soldat (more)
Directed by:
Masaki KobayashiScreenplay:
Masaki KobayashiCinematography:
Yoshio MiyajimaComposer:
Chûji KinoshitaPlots(1)
Masaki Kobayashi's view of human nature reaches its nadir in this, the third section of THE HUMAN CONDITION, an adaptation of Jumpei Gomikawa's NINGEN NO JOKEN. As WWII winds down, Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai), already brutalized by his combat experience, must deal with the Russian invasion of Manchuria. When his squad is nearly wiped out by a tank unit, he decides to surrender to Russian troops in the belief that he'll be treated better than he has been by his own military. Yet when he arrives at the Russian POW camp in Manchuria, he finds it occupied by Japanese soldiers. He and the other prisoners are subjected to relentless and harrowing cruelty, and Kaji becomes more like an animal by the day. At length, he murders a man and escapes from the camp, hoping to cross the freezing wasteland of Manchuria to return to his wife. En route, he witnesses a level of depravity that can only be reached by those in the most desperate of circumstances. The shattering conclusion of Kobayashi's antiwar trilogy reaches tragic depths as it explores the criminal behavior of the Japanese in Manchuria and, more generally, the myriad ways in which the utter absence of emotion translates into wholesale human annihilation. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Tatsuya Nakadai
Japan
Best movies:
Zatoichi at the Fire Festival (1970)
The Human Bullet (1968)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Chishû Ryû
Japan
Best movies:
Japan's Longest Day (1967)
Tokyo Twilight (1957)
The Human Bullet (1968)
Taketoshi Naitō
Japan
Best movies:
Kyōko Kishida
Japan
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The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961)
Woman of the Dunes (1964)
Bushido, Samurai Saga (1963)
Nobuo Kaneko
Japan
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The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961)
Shogun (1980) (series)
Living (1952)
Hideko Takamine
Japan
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Asu o tsukuru hitobito (1946)
The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961)
Immortal Love (1961)
Michiyo Aratama
Japan
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Tatsuya Ishiguro
Japan
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Revenge (1963)
The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961)
Zatoichi and the Chest of Gold (1964)
中村玉緒
Japan
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Yûsuke Kawazu
Japan
Best movies:
The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961)
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
Red Angel (1966)
Hiroshi Nihon'yanagi
Japan
Best movies:
Japan's Longest Day (1967)
Early Summer (1951)
The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961)
Kōji Kiyomura
Japan
Best movies:
The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961)
High and Low (1963)
A Flame at the Pier (1962)
Nakajirō Tomita
Japan
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The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961)
Harakiri (1962)
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
Masahiko Naruse
Japan
Best movies: