The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity
- La Condition de l'homme - Partie 2 : Le chemin de l'éternité (more)
Directed by:
Masaki KobayashiScreenplay:
Masaki KobayashiCinematography:
Yoshio MiyajimaComposer:
Chûji KinoshitaPlots(1)
The second installment of Masaki Kobyashi's nine-hour trilogy opens with Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai) being drafted and sent back to Manchuria, this time to undergo basic training for the Kwantung Army. Because of his sympathy for the ill-treated recruits, he's suspected of communist leanings. In fact, he does befriend a communist sympathizer named Shinjo (Kei Sato) who's planning an escape to Russia. After a brief visit from his wife, Michiko (Michiyo Aratama), Kaji is taken along with his unit on a grueling forced march that some soldiers don't survive. One such soldier is Obara (Kunie Tanaka), who prefers suicide to the humiliation of weakness before the troops. When Shinjo finally attempts his escape, he ends up in a swamp, but Kaji comes to his rescue. Kaji himself is injured and must be hospitalized. However, his recuperation is curtailed when the head nurse finds him flirting with all the other nurses and feels that the time has come for his discharge. He's sent to work as an assistant for his old friend Lieutenant Kageyama (Keiji Sada), but, once again, his humane attitude toward the enlisted men provokes the career military officers, with serious consequences. More episodic than the other two films in this series, the theme of man's inhumanity is nonetheless unfolded with Kobayashi's typically devastating economy of means. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Taketoshi Naitō
Japan
Best movies:
Tatsuya Nakadai
Japan
Best movies:
Zatoichi at the Fire Festival (1970)
The Human Bullet (1968)
Seven Samurai (1954)
佐藤慶
Japan
Best movies:
The Man Who Stole the Sun (1979)
Zatoichi's Vengeance (1966)
Bushido, Samurai Saga (1963)
Michiyo Aratama
Japan
Best movies:
Keiji Sada
Japan
Best movies:
Immortal Love (1961)
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity (1959)
Shôji Ôki
Japan
Best movies:
Shintaro Katsu's Zatoichi (1989)
Red Beard (1965)
Le Garde du corps (1961)
田中邦衛
Japan
Best movies:
Zatoichi at the Fire Festival (1970)
The Human Bullet (1968)
Sanjuro (1962)
内田良平
Japan
Best movies:
The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity (1959)
The Thirteen Assassins (1963)
Band of Assassins (1969)
Jun Hamamura
Japan
Best movies:
Japan's Longest Day (1967)
Zatoichi's Vengeance (1966)
High and Low (1963)
倉田マユミ
Japan
Best movies:
原泉
Japan
Best movies:
Shôji Yasui
Japan
Best movies:
The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity (1959)
The Burmese Harp (1956)
The Fall of Ako Castle (1978)
Nakajirō Tomita
Japan
Best movies:
The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961)
Harakiri (1962)
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
Masahiko Naruse
Japan
Best movies: