Watching part three of THE HUMAN CONDITION made me notice how much Kaji has changed as a character . The first two films have the character as an over the top parody of a noble everyman that no sensible person can relate to whilst here Kaji is someone who is totally believable in his pragmatic approach to survival . So much so that you'll find yourself asking why on earth the screenwriters and director couldn't have portrayed him in a far more subtle manner in the preceding films ? It's not so much as character development but character over-development that the first two movies suffered from

Still the first half of A Soldier's Prayer is probably the most compelling part of the trilogy . The Japanese have been defeated in Manchuria and try to find a way to escape to Japan with the only alternatives being a Soviet gulag or a lynching from the Chinese. Watching this segment instantly reminded me of the post apocalypse genre like DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS , or 28 DAYS LATER but instead of murderous plants or hyperactive zombies the survivors are fighting against other human beings . It mirrors factual history and despite the real life atrocities committed by the Imperial Japanese during the war it's nigh on impossible not to be totally compelled by the dilemmas facing Kaji and his men

The screenplay also deserves great credit for pulling the rug out from under the audience . Throughout the running time you're always expecting Kaji to run in to someone from his past - a belligerent antagonist from the first two films or the socialist deserter or pretty young nurse from the second film or perhaps even his wife Michiko but none of this actually happens with the only reunion being with a relatively minor character

The film ends with a sequence that is so bleak and downbeat that it will stay with you a lifetime . But this leads to an internal confusion as to what the story is telling us . Think about this : In the first film if Kaji had towed the party line and run the labour camp as he'd been told he would have very likely have found himself on a boat back to Japan . Instead he got conscripted in to the army and ultimately died a lonely death on some tundra . Are the audience being shown a form of death worship where naive idealism and self delusion at making things better for the rest of the species will lead to a noble death ? The message of the film is confused

A Soldier's Prayer continues the breath taking beauty of the previous two films . .Make no mistake .Every single scene is breath taking thanks to its cinematography and framing and a special mention too for the set design . It's a film that owes much to its technical merits and I'd have no hesitation telling everyone in the human race to see it . However after seeing it again I can't say it's the masterpiece I once thought it was since since there's a lack of moral ambiguity to the self righteous , self deluded , idealistic hero . People you love often let you down and it's the same with cinema

The Human Condition, Part III The war is over in real time, the battle is over in film time, and Kaji has regained his sanity at the expense of his entire platoon--out of 160, only three of his fellow soldiers are left after the battle, and they begin the trek across war-torn Manchuria in search of home. Despite Kaji's morals slipping--he has now gone from someone who grieved smacking a man to someone who has killed--he finds his humanist beliefs to be highly successful in the anarchic post-war land, as people are drawn by the power of his principles. He isn't able to save everybody, but he manages to travel through a deep forest (the entire movie's finest sequences, both photographically and dramatically),gain soldiers from various still-remaining guerrilla camps, and make it all the way to a village before he's sold out by the village's seductress and sent to a Russian POW camp. Unsurprisingly, there he finds that his belief in the righteousness of the Reds is just another form of the same broken system that has destroyed his character throughout the last eight hours of screen time, and, losing all morality and sense of critical thinking, he finally breaks free to die an existential death.

The innocent to save this time around is Terada, a young soldier he saved from battle who worships Kaji and tries to follow Kaji to the bitter end--and bitter his end becomes. Along with Chen from the first part and Obara from the second, that makes one character per movie that Kaji reaches out for for a form of redemption, only for the system to swallow them up and cast them out like less than meat. Kaji's own personal morality, however, is the biggest failing of all, as he goes from a pacifist to someone capable of killing a co-prisoner by beating him to death with a length of chain. Kaji traces three bad decisions, and the final one is the attempt to escape, which turns out fatal. He also goes from one in the position of power over POWs to a POW himself, and incapable of communication with his superiors, unlike when he was the superior and spoke Chinese.

A final plot arc that can be traced is this. In the first movie, Kaji looked slightly Western in appearance and his demeanor was often remarked upon. The same thing happens in the third movie, only this time he looks like a revolutionary leader (there is a visual comparison in the Soviet camp between him and Lenin),and everyone remarks about his beard, which stands out from all the other men and indicates a different station for him. It's interesting to note that in the first movie he's powerful because he CAN resist against authoritarianism; but in the last movie he's most powerful when authoritarianism is absent completely and the characters are faced with abject survival. Nevertheless, unable to build a new, principled community out of nothing, he has only the wide horizons of Manchuria to struggle against, and the pock-marked stations of society that continually block his path to his beloved Michiko, until nature itself forces him to realize that he has betrayed her by betraying his principles.

Kaji is certainly a remarkable character throughout the 9 1/2 hour epic, but there are some ways in which his resistance is hard to swallow, considering its futility. This happens especially poorly in the second part, but in the third part it springs from necessity, which is a welcome character turn in Kaji but involves a sudden change in the supporting characters from fully developed individuals to slightly stereotypical Bad Guys, especially in the sixth section of the movie and the finale. Despite the length of the entire film, the ending still feels a little rushed and the moments of begging are so out of place they almost feel like dream sequences, though literal. Nevertheless, if you take the entire film to be a spiral, then the sixth section is where gravity takes over and the thrust of Kaji's convictions ceases all effectiveness. Thus why the third part contains not one single instance of the word "humanism" and only one feeble attempt at the word "socialism".

--PolarisDiB

This final part of the trilogy has the soldiers trying to find their ways to where? They don't know if Japan is still in the war, being from the hinterland. The Russians have a huge presence. Once again, Kaji sacrifices himself to allow others to live. Eventually, he surrenders and is put in a work camp facing starvation and exposure. His young friend accompanies him, even though he had an opportunity to avoid his fate. There is a kind of Christlike quality here. This trilogy teaches us that mankind cannot handle a truly good person. That we are, as a species, fundamentally bad. I had never heard of this film until this morning and spent the day immersed in it.