Reviews (38)

One of the greatest fims of all time.
This film is so utterly magnificent, it's on eof the greatest films of all time. It has the most gorgeous art work, dream-like visuals, color photography I've ever seen in film. This is based on tales by Lafcadio Hearn. A bizzare, eerie and horrifying musical score by Toru Takemitsu works exellently with the beautiful visuals. This video also has a gorgeous color Cinemascope widescreen presentation. The first tale Black Hair, is a bit slow, but's it's so worth it in the unbelievable horror climax. The second tale, Woman in the Snow, is one of the best and most beautiful in the whole film. Masaki Kobayashi uses just all white during the blizzard sequinces with some blood reds, lush greens, dream like blues, and odd purples. The third story, Hoichi, the Earless, begins with one of the most beautiful scenes in the film. An epic sea battle between the Heikie and Genji clans. This scene feautures all kinds of bizzare and beautiful colors including a firey red sky. The rest of the film concerns a young blind man's horrifying ordeal with ghosts. I can see some references to this segment in Akira Kurosawa's Ran. The final segment is called In a Cup of Tea and is the weakest. It's too short, and too fast moving. It does feature lots of gorgeous visuals to make up for it. I recommend this film to anyone, if you haven't seen this film. CLICK BUY RIGHT NOW!

The Greatest "Art House" Horror Film
"Kwaidan" is a cinematic masterpiece of the horror genre which, unfortunately, is not nearly as well known to genre fans as it should be. In my view it ranks with Werner Herzog's 1979 re-make of "Nosferatu" as the finest horror film ever made in color. Part of the reason for "Kwaidan"'s obscurity is its national origin (though, strangely enough, the Japanese folktales which form its basis were written by an American expatriate, Lafcadio Hearn). Yet even in Japan, the film was a commercial flop, despite superlatives from critics. More likely, the obscurity of "Kwaidan" derives from its artistry; viewers who come to it for the first time will probably be only marginally aware that they're seeing horror at all. Search in vain for gore and special effects; the film almost recalls Val Lewton's old classics in its reliance on suggestion. As an anthology, moreover, "Kwaidan" is in the same league as the 1946 British film, "Dead of Night," except that it has no over-arching "frame" device to tie the stories together. All four films which make it up are essentially revenge plots: simple and straightforward, like most folktales, though I would like to mention a personal favorite: "Yuki-Onna," whose surrealist account of a female vampire awed me with its weird snow-scapes and eerie soundtrack. By all means, see "Kwaidan" if you have any curiosity at all about horror as viewed through the lens of an artistic master; I only wish American directors had a comparable interest in quality.

Masterful work!
Anthology of ghost stories adapted from Lafcadio Hearn , American writer who lived in Japan .
Visually stunning.
The third chapter is the best. It turns around a poet who must create a epic poem about an ancient battle dictated for the leader of this dead regiment, killed in action, who emerges from the ashes to find out someone who reminds always the echoes of that bloody combat.
Extraordinary!

Ok, I always get sucked into these ghost stories
Lesson 1, always look at the date of the movie and then read the premise. I always read the premise, get the movie and then once it's in, realize that it's more of a Sinbad Saturday Afternoon movie then the Sixth Sense. The last story was cool about the boy who is on the cover but the rest are boring.
Rent-Maybe
Buy-No

Four Japanese Ghost Stories
Kwaidan, though it has some flaws in regard to pacing (it moves just too slowly sometimes) is a visually striking, very colorful film that is a pleasure to look at. This print is crystal clear and very sharp; Criterion usually does a good job in that sense.
Surprisingly, these traditional Japanese ghost tales very much resemble the classic English ghost stories of writers like J.S. Le Fanu or M.R. James--more subtlety, less bombast, working by suggestion and atmosphere. Don't expect a whiz-bang, fast-paced film with a lot of shocks. It's a slow, quiet film.
In my opinion, the two best stories are the first two, "The Black Hair" (reminiscent of Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily") and "The Woman in the Snow" (something like Algernon Blackwood's "The Wendigo"). ... Read more

Description

In the third and final part of "The Human Condition," Kaji (Tetsuyo Nakadai) is the sole surviving member of his unit and surrenders to the advancing Soviet Army. Hoping for better treatment than he received from his own army, Kaji is accused of murder and threatened with execution. Once again he must escape his captors, this time across a desolate field in the midst of a blizzard. ... Read more

Description

Director Masaki Kobayashi's magnum opus on the devastation of war. "The Human Condition" is a trilogy of epic films intended to show the brutalities of World War II and their effect on the participants and on Japanese society. Part One introduces Kaji, a pacifist who is set up by his superiors, tried for treason and drafted into the army. ... Read more

Reviews (9)

Addresses the same problems we are seeing in Iraq
As I write this in May 2004, we are learning of the shocking atrocities committed by American soldiers on Iraqi prisoners of war in Abu Ghaiv Prison.This film deals with the eternal issue of man's inhumanity to man. The main character is an idealist who believes that all men, even prisoners of war, have the right to be treated with basic human dignity. This is the very problem American is grappling with today. Follow the journey of the main character as he tries to implement his beliefs in a Japanese labor camp during World War II. Some psychologists believe that, given the right circumstances, we are all capable of the atrocities committed in this fictional movie or in the all to real Iraqi prison. Decide for yourself whether to despair or to believe that someday we will see the need for treating all men with humanity and dignity.

A True Masterpiece
This is a heart wrenching story of one man's effort to remain true to himself and his beliefs even in the face of adversities.Masaki Kobayashi was promised by his superiors that he would not be drafted for war and this pleased him well as he is about to marry the love of his life. Instead he was instructed to take up a position in the mines where he found himself in charge of chineses prisoners. However this posed a problem since this was taking place in Japan in the World war 2 era. However Masaki believes in treating human life with respect even if they were prisoners working in mines. In an attempt to do this he angered his peers and superiors who then plotted ways to get rid of him. Now Masaki found that in trying to please all he ended up pleasing none including his wife. He was going against the grain and found himself up against the wall. How could he remain true to his beliefs and values? Get this movie and find out.

The FilmNotes entry from the Pacific Film Archive:
It is rare when an episode of national history can be interpreted without the burden of illusions, both obsolete and nostalgic. And this is perhaps one of the great strengths of Masaki Kobayashi's The Human Condition, a nine-hour epic about Japan's occupation of China during the Second World War. The trilogy begins with an attack on the inhuman practices within the Japanese Army and ends with a bitter denunciation of Stalinism by the would-be-socialist hero, Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai), a Japanese soldier who has confronted the horrid face of war and found it unyielding. In grand Dostoyevskian flourishes, Kobayashi suggests the impossibility of an individual altering the ethical standards of a social system. Kaji, driven by an idealized vision of Japan redeemed by social reform, tries to overcome injustice and exploitation during a military conquest based solely on these principles. Brutalized by the very country he defends, Kaji refuses to desert, for desertion implies relinquishing responsibility for his own homeland. Kaji's heroism lies in this exacting refusal to abandon Japan or his humanity. Part One finds Kaji working as a supervisor in a forced labor camp in southern Manchuria where he and his wife (Michiyo Aratama) attempt to better the dreadful lot of the enslaved Chinese workers. Kaji is accused of dissent, tortured, then inducted into the army. In Part Two, Kaji is equally appalled by the horrendous treatment afforded recruits. Given the rank of officer, he tries to install more humane procedures but only succeeds in attracting the ire of his fellow officers. By Part Three, the Japanese army is being routed by superior Russian troops. Fleeing to the south, Kaji is captured by the Soviet army and imprisoned. Here, he learns the bitter truth of the Red Army as liberators. Kobayashi's The Human Condition can be viewed as a single aesthetic entity, complete in its sweep of historical events and visual stylizations. The gargantuan undertaking to dramatize the wilful ironies of the Manchurian campaign never compromises Kobayashi's ability to define the human scale of injustice. Standing-in for the director, Kaji says, "Minor facts ignored by history can be fatal to the individual." It is Masaki Kobayashi's recognition of "minor facts" that joins the poetic to the journalistic in a scathing epic about the cruelties of war.

Masterpiece
I can only add to the other excellent reviews for this masterpiece. This is not a light hearted epic, it is a tale based on director Kobayashi's own experiences and is quite simply haunting. Like his subsequent work Kwaidan, the use of the camera and music is breath taking. Though long you never sense the time passing and each take has you there with leading actor Nakadai (who is perfect for this role) whether it be trudging through barren slag heaps or trying to get the last drop of humanity out of the "guntai" and other Imperial bullies. His story is desperate but is also beautiful as you see how this normal man is fighting against the stream of inhumanity that was Japan occupied Manchuria. Eventually he almost has a halo like appearance as his slouched form appears in nearly every scene. This is the effect the cinematography and music combine to produce. I can not heap more praise. If you like serious subjects and character forming epics this is for you. I also recommend Kwaidan.

The Real History of Japanese War Crimes
When Kobayashi undertook the immense project of filming Junpei Gomikawa's popular wartime novel (not, as an earlier viewer stated, by Shohei Ooka - who wrote the otherwise magnificent Fires on the Plain, later filmed by Ichikawa) he had been a director for only six years but had already proven himself as a director of "problem" films, tackling uncomfortable subjects with a straightforward candor. With 'The Human Condition' he emerged as one of Japan's master filmmakers. This trilogy of films is something on the order of Claude Lanzmann's film 'Shoah.' It documents events which Japan has yet to come to terms with - atrocities committed by the Imperial Army in China and Manchuria. Along with Ichikawa's 'Harp of Burma' and 'Fires on the Plain,' Kobayashi's 'The Human Condition' was made at precisely the right moment in Japan, when the war generation had the resources to look back at the war with enough honesty to reveal the full extent of Japan's defeat, a subject which is remains disturbing even today. ... Read more

Description

Writer/director Masaki Kobayashi's powerful trilogy continues as the newly drafted, idealistic Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai) is ordered to Manchuria, the site of Japan's longest and most savage atrocities during World War II. When he sees the rampant mistreatment of the soldiers, Kaji makes a protest. In response, he is threatened and tortured, eventually escaping only to see his entire unit destroyed as the Allied victory becomes inevitable. ... Read more