The Human Condition will crush you

[Onkel Neal]

Masaki Kobayashi's The Human Condition will crush you.

Yeah, I saw this piece a few weeks back and was intruigued, so I netflicked the three films. Glad I did, it was a really powerful film, very interestingly told from the Japanese perspective. All total this thing is 10 hours long, it took me three weeks to watch it all, but this is one of those experiences like Das Boot that leaves an impression on you.

Like a stinging rebuke to Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds, this week the Criterion Collection releases a three-disc set of Masaki Kobayashi's 1959 World War II masterpiece, The Human Condition. Deep where Basterds is shallow, expansive where Basterds is puny, and profound where Basterds is glib, Kobayashi's humanist triumph is finally getting the Western exposure it deserves. Previously unavailable in the United States, a restored version was screened last year at New York City's Film Forum and proved to be so popular that it was brought back for a return engagement. Not bad for a movie that is nine-and-a-half hours long (spread over three films) and so monumentally painful to watch that it stands as the Grand Canyon of despair.