Title: The Human Condition (IMDb)
Starring: Tatsuya Nakadai
Released: 14th July 2009
SRP: $79.95

Further Details:
Criterion has announced a special edition of The Human Condition which stars Tatsuya Nakadai. The 4-disc set will be available to own from the 14th July, and should retail at around $79.95. The film itself will be presented in a newly restored 2.35:1 widescreen presentation, along with a Japanese Mono track. A new and improved English subtitle translation will also be provided. Extras will include an excerpt from a rare Directors Guild of Japan video interview with director Masaki Kobayashi, a new video interview with actor Tatsuya Nakadai, a video appreciation of Kobayashi and The Human Condition featuring Shinoda, Japanese theatrical trailers, and a booklet featuring an essay by critic Philip Kemp. We've attached the artwork below:




Quote: 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.

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News by Tom Woodward