Directed by:
Masaki KobayashiScreenplay:
Masaki KobayashiCinematography:
Yoshio MiyajimaComposer:
Chûji KinoshitaPlots(1)
This first segment of THE HUMAN CONDITION, Masaki Kobayashi's adaptation of Jumpei Gomikawa's novel NINGEN NO JOKEN, stars Tatsuya Nakadai as Kaji. During WWII, the pacifist Kaji decides to avoid the draft by working as a labor superintendent at a mine in Manchuria. His efforts at treating the workers in a humane fashion backfire, blunted by the cruelty of their direct boss, Okazaki (Eitarô Ozawa), with only mine supervisor Okishima (Sô Yamamura) offering support. To complicate matters, 600 ill and starving Chinese POWs arrive at the camp. Naturally, Kaji takes complete responsibility for them but soon finds that Chinese prisoners resent his attempts to treat them with kindness, too traumatized by the harsh treatment they've received from the Japanese to ever trust one of them. Consequently, Kaji's unusual behavior ends up angering both the prisoners and his fellow supervisors. When, after achieving a productivity gain, he decides to take a brief vacation, his enemies arrange for some of the Chinese prisoners to escape, creating an uproar and endangering Kaji's position. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Tatsuya Nakadai
Japan
Best movies:
Zatoichi at the Fire Festival (1970)
The Human Bullet (1968)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Sō Yamamura
Japan
Best movies:
Japan's Longest Day (1967)
Tokyo Twilight (1957)
Revenge (1963)
Akira Ishihama
Japan
Best movies:
Immortal Love (1961)
Harakiri (1962)
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
Keiji Sada
Japan
Best movies:
Immortal Love (1961)
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity (1959)
Tōru Abe
Japan
Best movies:
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
Shogun (1980) (series)
Tokyo Story (1953)
Michiyo Aratama
Japan
Best movies:
Eijirō Tōno
Japan
Best movies:
Revenge (1963)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Bushido, Samurai Saga (1963)
Kōji Mitsui
Japan
Best movies:
Japan's Longest Day (1967)
Woman of the Dunes (1964)
High and Low (1963)
Seiji Miyaguchi
Japan
Best movies:
Japan's Longest Day (1967)
Early Summer (1951)
Seven Samurai (1954)
Kazuo Kitamura
Japan
Best movies:
Japan's Longest Day (1967)
The Man Who Stole the Sun (1979)
High and Low (1963)
Eitarô Ozawa
Japan
Best movies:
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
Zatoichi Challenged (1967)
Steel Edge of Revenge (1969) - narrator
織本順吉
Japan
Best movies:
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
Three Outlaw Samurai (1964)
The Fall of Ako Castle (1978)
有馬稲子
Japan
Best movies:
Tokyo Twilight (1957)
Bushido, Samurai Saga (1963)
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
山茶花究
Japan
Best movies:
High and Low (1963)
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
Le Garde du corps (1961)
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)
Shinsuke Ashida
Japan
Best movies:
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
Red Angel (1966)
The Shogun's Samurai (1978)
Fujio Suga
Japan
Best movies:
Tokyo Twilight (1957)
Revenge (1963)
Zatoichi's Cane-sword (1967)
Akio Isono
Japan
Best movies:
Ryûji Kita
Japan
Best movies:
Japan's Longest Day (1967)
Bushido, Samurai Saga (1963)
Zatoichi's Cane-sword (1967)
Junji Masuda
Japan
Best movies:
The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959)
Early Spring (1956)
Scandal (1950)