☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½
The
Human Condition II: Road to Eternity (1959) – M. Kobayashi
At the end of the first film in the
trilogy, Kaji is betrayed by his superior at the work camp in Manchuria (after
seeking humane treatment of the Chinese POW laborers) and called up for
military duty despite his guaranteed exemption. This second film (Parts 3 and
4) shows his experiences in the army, first in boot camp, where he and the
other recruits are kicked around by the veterans, and then as the leader of a
new group of recruits who end up at the front line attacked by the advancing
Soviet troops. Kaji’s idealism begins to
crumble as he is routinely beat up, even as he sees another soldier commit
suicide to escape the inhumane treatment; this change is hastened when he is
assigned to a regiment led by an old friend, who refuses to buck the system.
However scarred by experience, Kaji remains deep down a humanist -- but the
film speaks to the power of terrible situations to engender opportunities for
terrible behaviours. Engrossing (and apparently based on director Masaki
Kobayashi’s own wartime experiences as well as the book by Jumpei Gomikawa).
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