Search - Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer on DVD

MPAA Rating: NR Content Advisory: Violence, Adult Situations Movie Release: 1961 DVD Release: 08/03/1999 Format: DVD - Black and White,Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV Audio Tracks: Japanese Subtitles: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 3 hrs 6 mins Studio: Image Entertainment Members Wishing: 5 Genres: Drama, War, War Drama, POW Drama

A Soldier's Prayer (Ningen No Joken III) was the final entry in Japanese filmmaker Masaki Kobayashi's Human Condition trilogy. As in 1958's No Greater Love (see entry 23818) and 1961's The Road to Eternity (see entry 23819), the protagonist is the pacifistic Kaji, played by Tatsuya Nakadai. Strong-armed into the Japanese military during World War II, Kaji has reluctantly learned to kill on the battlefields. Upon his country's surrender, Kaji gives himself up to the Russian troops, hoping to receive better treatment than he had at the hands of his Japanese superiors. But his hopes are dashed once more, and he is subject to cruelty upon cruelty while imprisoned in a Manchurian POW camp. A Soldier's Prayer, like its predecessors, was based on the epic multipart novel by Jumpei Gomigawa. In sum total, the three Human Condition films run for nearly ten hours. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tatsuya Nakadai - Kaji
Michiyo Aratama - Michiko
Taketoshi Naito - Private First Class Tange
Keijiro Morozumi - Corporal Hironaka
Yasuke Kawazu - Pvt. Terada

This melancholy trilogy focusing on the horrors of World War II and its effects on Japanese society draws to a close as Kaji attempts a daring escape from his Soviet captors through a raging blizzard. Presented by Image Entertainment in an anamorphic widescreen transfer, letterboxed at 2.20:1 in Japanese Dolby Digital Mono with English subtitles, this thoughtful meditation on the atrocities of war is preserved for future generations in fine digital form. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide