The Human Condition (1956-58)

[cranefly]

I made it through Part 5, though dozy and missing some drama in one spot.  Not the movie's fault.  I was tired out by a long walk.  Part 6 is all that's left, maybe an hour and a half.

I just checked up on the chronology of actor Tatsuya Nakadai's best work.  Surprisingly, this 6-part trilogy (can I call it that?)[1959-1961] pretty much established him, and it's how I'll remember him henceforth.  Only after this did he appear in Kurosawa's Yojimbo (1961) and Sanjuro (1962) opposite Mifune, and then onward with High and Low (1963), Sword of Doom (1966), among others.

Anyway, in The Human Condition, Kaji is drawing very close to journey's end, and perhaps even tonight I'll bear witness to his rapturous joy at finally being reunited with his loving wife Michiko.

[Drunk Monk]

Yeah, I wasn't fully tuned into it all either. It's so damn long. 

Sword of Doom was the first Nakadai film I remember. I even remember seeing it at my grandparents' house in Oahu. They had this magnificent living room with a window that faced over their property which tropical forest and a raging river. The TV was positioned right smack in front of that. There was a Japanese station that exposed me to so much tokesatsu and chanbara shows and films at a very young age. I was glued to that. And I remember seeing this and being totally rocked by it. I must've been like in my early teens maybe. 

Enjoy the reunion! It makes it all worth it.

[cranefly]

Finished it.  Watched all of Part 6 straight through.  Incredibly intense and powerful.  Such a joyous reunion, the culmination of all the efforts, and I'm so glad DM coaxed me into seeing it through.

The only real problem is that it leaves me in such a manic state that now I feel the need for a downer to bring me into a more neutral register.

Which is why I'm considering Indian Horse (2017) next.

We'll see.

[Drunk Monk]

Congrats. We should get medals for getting through it. It's an amazing film series for sure, but so emotionally draining. As it neared the final scene, I started yelling 'Don't go there. Don't even go there. After all this, don't end this way... aw crap.'

Some of Indian Horse really stuck with me - the mark of a good film in my way of thinking. However, it has propelled me into a strange rabbit hole of echoes in other things I'm watching. I won't spoil what it was - Stacy predicted it actually - and now everything we watch seems to be going that way. Synchronicity?