The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity (Ningen no joken)

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Now an unwillingly conscripted soldier of the Imperial Army, Kaji must battle on simultaneous fronts: against both the combat enemy and the commanding officers who invent ever more extreme punishments for his unwillingness to surrender his outspoken leftist beliefs. Nakadai’s incredible range is revealed as he draws deep from a corporeal expressivity not seen in the earlier film to voice through gestures and his mesmerizing countenance the profound transformation of an idealist pushed to the absolute limits by forces beyond him. Stirring and politically charged, Road to Eternity looks clear-eyed at the horrors of war while drawing a damning portrait of Japanese military authority. At the same time Kobayashi pays gentle tribute to another side of war by focusing on the poignant friendships and love that endures even the most hopeless battles and imprisonments.

The Shochiku Centennial Collection at the Harvard Film Archive presents: THE HUMAN CONDITION, directed by Kobayashi Masaki (screened in three parts), co-presented with the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies