(1959) English title: The human condition I: No greater love
Ningen no jōken 1
Description
Description
The Human Condition follows the journey of the well-intentioned, yet naïve Kaji who transitions from being a labour camp supervisor to an Imperial Army soldier and eventual Soviet POW. In this first part, Kaji marries his sweetheart Michiko despite his misgivings about the future. The couple then move to a large mining operation in Japanese-colonized Manchuria, where Kaji is a labor supervisor assigned to a workforce of Chinese prisoners. He tries and ultimately fails to reconcile his humanistic ideals with the brutal reality of forced labour in an imperial system. The movie ends with him being drafted to military service, in order for his superiors to do away with his disturbing presence at the labour camp.
