Ningen no jôken

There is no greater love on this miserable earth than the kindness and empathy one can have for another human being. Kobayashi in his first part of the Human Condition trilogy talks about this very theme of kindness and empathy which was lacking during the era where the Japanese were ought to rule their neighbouring countries by cruelty and brutality. This story explores one such cruel incident of war when Chinese territory Manchuria was under the Japanese regime and the local chinese people subjected to hard labour in the mining sites with inhabitable conditions and utter brutality. When one honest Japanese man is stationed there to overlook things, he tries to make amends and help these captured prisoners but the consequences of it were quite brutal. Imagine making a movie being critical of your own country's actions and showing a mirror by telling an authentic story to their country people. Kobayashi brilliantly captures the scars of japanese cruelty and discrimination during that time. In a way he wanted to purify the Japanese people's hearts and minds from their polluted past, by expressing their deeply held anger , regret and guilt. And this is just part 1, I don't know what kobayashi presented in the other two parts. It will sure be quite a painful journey watching these three parts.