"The Human Condition Criterion Collection DVD" Release Date: 09-08-09 Suggested Retail Price $79.99 (Criterion Collection 4-Disc DVD Box Set)
"The Human Condition Criterion Collection DVD" - Masaki Kobayashi’s mammoth humanist drama is one of the most staggering achievements of Japanese cinema. Originally filmed and released in three parts, the nine-and-a-half-hour "The Human Condition" (Ningen no joken), adapted from Junpei Gomikawa’s six-volume novel, tells of the journey of the well-intentioned yet naive Kaji (handsome Japanese superstar Tatsuya Nakadai) from labor camp supervisor to Imperial Army soldier to Soviet POW. Constantly trying to rise above a corrupt system, Kaji time and again finds his morals an impediment rather than an advantage. A raw indictment of its nation’s wartime mentality as well as a personal existential tragedy, Kobayashi’s riveting, gorgeously filmed epic is novelistic cinema at its best.
"The Human Condition Criterion Collection DVD" EXTRAS:
New, restored high-definition digital transfer
Excerpt from a rare Directors Guild of Japan video interview with director Masaki Kobayashi, conducted by filmmaker Masahiro Shinoda (Double Suicide)
New video interview with actor Tatsuya Nakadai
Video appreciation of Kobayashi and The Human Condition featuring Shinoda
Japanese theatrical trailers
New and improved English subtitle translation
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Philip Kemp
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