I don't know how anyone in the Japanese army in World War II got any sleep as everyone yells at the top of their lungs constantly - whether they are opening a door or closing a door or doing anything in between as shown in this film. It is grating.
The second part of this boring, repetitive, pointless and flat trilogy continues with Tatsuya Nakadai proving he truly cannot act but he sure can open his eyes wider and for longer than any other actor in films, past or present... Perhaps it is a cultural barrier. Perhaps it is just that time has not been kind to this film as it just repeats the theme "war is hell, men are monsters" over and over and over again until its final scene where our hero finally considers himself a monster rather than a man as well.
Part 1 was long and boring and repetitive enough with its version of this message (prison is hell) - but Part 2 elevates the "life is hell" theme to the level of absurdist ennui... set in a latrine.
This 9 1/2 hour epic has themes and stories that have been told better, more succinctly and more emotionally in the years before and since these films. It all rather trite. Plus the special effects and sound effects in this film are amateurish. I realize Japanese filmmaking may have been far behind American filmmaking in 1959 - just and I'll admit that pacifistic films in America in 1959 left a lot to be desired... (we've since produced plenty of psychologically based films that far surpass this one - just as Japan has surpassed American films in special effects and sound effects.) but this trilogy is so boring and thematically outdated that it is almost vapid - and certainly unwatchable.
I will only be watching Part 3 simply to be able to say that I've seen all 3 pieces of this film. I will wear my endurance like a badge of honor to signify to other cinemaphiles that I am as valiant as they in my ability to wallow through the doldrums and the one-dimensional cinematic wasteland that is The Human Condition.
The second part of this boring, repetitive, pointless and flat trilogy continues with Tatsuya Nakadai proving he truly cannot act but he sure can open his eyes wider and for longer than any other actor in films, past or present... Perhaps it is a cultural barrier. Perhaps it is just that time has not been kind to this film as it just repeats the theme "war is hell, men are monsters" over and over and over again until its final scene where our hero finally considers himself a monster rather than a man as well.
Part 1 was long and boring and repetitive enough with its version of this message (prison is hell) - but Part 2 elevates the "life is hell" theme to the level of absurdist ennui... set in a latrine.
This 9 1/2 hour epic has themes and stories that have been told better, more succinctly and more emotionally in the years before and since these films. It all rather trite. Plus the special effects and sound effects in this film are amateurish. I realize Japanese filmmaking may have been far behind American filmmaking in 1959 - just and I'll admit that pacifistic films in America in 1959 left a lot to be desired... (we've since produced plenty of psychologically based films that far surpass this one - just as Japan has surpassed American films in special effects and sound effects.) but this trilogy is so boring and thematically outdated that it is almost vapid - and certainly unwatchable.
I will only be watching Part 3 simply to be able to say that I've seen all 3 pieces of this film. I will wear my endurance like a badge of honor to signify to other cinemaphiles that I am as valiant as they in my ability to wallow through the doldrums and the one-dimensional cinematic wasteland that is The Human Condition.