Review of The Human Condition II: Road to Eternity

As punishment for standing up to the Japanese military on behalf of indentured Chinese workers, the still idealistic Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai) is conscripted into the Imperial Army and ends up fighting Chinese guerillas and Soviet troops in Manchuria as Japan's military capacity slowly collapses. The first half of the film focuses on his life as a recruit, still trying to do good for the people around him, and enduring constant abuse from the veterans, who despise the newcomers as weak and ineffectual. Many of the 'training' scenes are powerful (numerous reviewers have noted similarities to Kubrick's 'Full Metal Jacket', 1987) but after a while, Kaji's incessant maltreatment and degradation becomes a bit repetitive. The second half of the film finds the newly trained men in out-numbered combat against the better trained and better equipped Russian troops and, after the surrender of Japan, against local Chinese militias thirsty for harsh vengeance against their former conquerors. The scenes of combat are excellent - grim and brutal - as Kaji is slowly forced to face the conflicting realities of his principles and his desire to survive the brutality around him so he can return to his beloved wife Michiko (Michiyo Aratama). Although I did not find this film as compelling as the first chapter (largely do the overlong and repetitive 'training' section), it remains a necessary bridge to 'A Soldier's Prayer', the outstanding third film in Masaki Kobayashi's masterful anti-war trilogy.