Post by captainofbeef on Apr 18, 2009 9:03:45 GMT -5
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 joken), adapted from Junpei Gomikawa’s six-volume novel, tells of the journey of the well-intentioned yet naive Kaji (handsome Japanese superstar 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. A raw indictment of its nation’s wartime mentality as well as a personal existential tragedy, Kobayashi’s riveting, gorgeously filmed epic is novelistic cinema at its best.
FOUR-DISC SPECIAL EDITION:
* New, restored high-definition digital transfer
* Excerpt from a rare Directors Guild of Japan video interview with director Masaki Kobayashi, conducted by filmmaker Masahiro Shinoda (Double Suicide)
* New video interview with actor Tatsuya Nakadai
* Video appreciation of Kobayashi and The Human Condition featuring Shinoda
* Japanese theatrical trailers
* New and improved English subtitle translation
* PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Philip Kemp
