There are plenty of movies that are about finding meaning in life, as well as movies about people trying to stick to their convictions despite everything that is thrown at them. Some even combine them, such as Akira Kurosawa's masterpiece Red Beard. Movies that explore these types of themes are usually among my favorite (provided everything is well executed, of course).
For me, the Human Condition trilogy covers all of these questions about human identity better than any other film or film series I have ever seen. The name of the trilogy is an ambitious one, but luckily the films themselves are up to par with the title. These movies are the fulfillment of everything cinema has the potential to be.
The protagonist of the trilogy is a man named Kaji. He is a twenty eight year old pacifist who believes that all human beings deserve to be treated with respect to their human rights. He's not afraid to stand up for these beliefs, either. Throughout the trilogy, much of the conflict involves him trying to stay true to his convictions despite all of the human ugliness around him, as well as trying his best to make it home to his wife Michiko.
The protagonist is played by Tatsuya Nakadai, who absolutely nails the role. He plays Kaji with a dignified gravity, crafting him as a stern, prideful, flawed, but ultimately good human being who always tries to stand with his beliefs. He also does so with a certain sense of style that makes Kaji come off as cool- though this fades a bit later on in the trilogy, as conditions become increasingly desperate for him. Few characters in cinema are as noble and aspiration-worthy as Kaji.
To be clear, though, Kaji certainly isn't perfect. He is often times far too prideful and hard-headed. He also tends to keep things from his wife, even when she repeatedly tells him explicitly that she wants to know about everything going so that she can be another ally for him in his fight to stand up for his principles. In fact, his communication issues extent not only to his wife, but to a lot of other people as well.
In reviews that I've read about the film, some people have said these flaws make him come off as self-righteous and hypocritical. I find that view highly disappointing. If someone has to be perfect in order to stand up for their values, then no one in the entirety of human existence, real or imagined, has ever earned the right to do so, and if we retroactively erased every gain for human rights people fought for throughout history the world would be far, far worse off than it is now. Rather, I find his flaws make him a more human, well-rounded character, as well as more relatable. It's much easier to see yourself in an imperfect character than a perfect one.
Each of the three films takes place somewhere different, in situations that are increasingly bad for Kaji. I'll keep the descriptions for each entry short and mostly spoiler free (the main gist of the first and second movie's plots will be mentioned since they contextualize the second and third entries, respectively, but nothing mentioned here is more spoiler-y than anything you'd read on the back of the DVD box or any sort of video description).
The first entry, No Greater Love, takes place in Japanese occupied Manchuria, an area in Northeastern China (and a bit of eastern Mongolia) that was colonized by the Japanese and given a puppet, pro-Japanese government in 1932. At the beginning of the movie, set during WW2, Kaji is given the option of either enlisting in the Japanese army or becoming a labor supervisor in a Chinese labor camp. Adamantly opposed to the war, he chooses the latter option with the goal of making conditions less miserable for the Chinese laborers that work there.
When he gets to the labor camp, his beliefs rooted in pacifism, human rights, and socialism are put to the test. This is during the time of a right wing, imperialist Japan, and the system he finds himself in does everything it can to resist his attempts to give Chinese laborers more humane conditions. To say the film is a series of ups and downs is an understatement. Sometimes he succeeds, sometimes he fails, and all of these successes and failures have real, tangible effects on the Chinese laborers, himself, his partner Okishima (the only other administrator of the camp who sees the Chinese laborers as human beings, though not to the same extent Kaji does), and his wife Michiko.
At the end of the movie, Kaji receives a summons to fight for the Japanese army due to a series of events best seen in the film. Thus begins the second entry, Road to Eternity, which follows Kaji as he becomes part of the Japanese military machine he so staunchly opposes. When shipped off to basic training, he excels at every aspect of his training, but his leftist leanings and tendency to stick up for fellow recruits being bullied by the veterans in the barracks single him out for harsh treatment and high scrutiny by the brass.
Interesting side note: the beginning half of the movie is incredibly similar to the movie Full Metal Jacket, to the point where it's clear Kubrick saw this movie and decided to use elements of Kaji's experience in boot camp for his own film.
Between his unbreakable will and the support he receives from friends he makes along the way, such as another left leaning soldier among the veterans named Shinjo, a hospital nurse, and a fellow patient in the hospital, Kaji makes it through basic training and eventually ends up leading a team of new recruits. He does his best to stick up for these recruits, preventing them from facing corporal punishment and other abuses from both officers and veteran trainees alike.
Eventually, they all end up on the battlefield. To spare the details of the battle, things get rough. Kaji eventually loses most of his squad but vows to stay alive, which leads to the final point of the trilogy: A Soldier's Prayer.
The third and final film in the trilogy is also the fastest moving of the three. The Japanese military defeated, Kaji leads a group of survivors to try to reach the Manchurian border so that they can return to society as they know it. A lot happens to the group, which keeps losing and gaining new members, as they have run ins with groups ranging from Japanese holdouts to Chinese peasants. The entire time, Kaji finds himself increasingly desperate, and he struggles to keep true to his own personal morals. These struggles continue even when they are eventually captured by Soviet soldiers and put into a POW camp.
What's powerful to me about this trilogy is its connection to the title. Throughout the saga you see humanity at its worse, but through that suffering you also see true human empathy, dignity, and a willingness to stand up even when everything is against you. No punches are pulled, and that makes these films quite bleak at times, but it also makes the parts of real human goodness all the more touching and powerful.
Another great part about the film is that you really get to see Kaji grow as a person, as well as grow to meet more like minded people along the way- in fact, the two are connected. In the first film, for instance, he is terrible at reaching out to others and suffers for it. As time goes on, however, he learns to form strong bonds with other genuinely good people. The moments in the trilogy with these friendships help counteract the bleak human ugliness you see throughout the films.
Despite how great these films are, though, they are not without their flaws. There are many moments that go from human tragedy to melodramatic, sometimes for seemingly no reason at all. At times the pacing of the films can feel rushed, while other times they can feel slow. The antagonists throughout the trilogy also sometimes seem one-dimensional, ready to enforce a strict status quo without thought or feeling, though there are exceptions.
These flaws are heavily outweighed by how moving and powerful everything is as a whole, however.
In terms of the bigger picture, The Human Condition is about the rise and fall of imperial Japan on the surface. But underneath it is so, so much more. Through the personal journey of a man who goes from a position of power to being oppressed, we see how militarism, imperialism, and oppression changes forms and hands throughout the ages, but should always be opposed regardless of the specifics involved.
After being forced out of isolation in 1854 by Commodore Perry, Japan later began its rise as an imperial power in the early 20th Century after beating Russia in a war in 1905. China, Korea, and other places in Eastern Asia were colonized by the Japanese, and there were many human rights abuses. Yet China itself has had its own issues in enforcing oppressive hegemony, starting from when the Hans coerced various other ethnic groups to create modern China, all the way up to today with places like Taiwan and Tibet. We all know about Russia during its Soviet Union days, and Europe during the days of colonization. The Americas, including the United States, were literally founded on the eradication of Indigenous people and the enslavement of Africans. And, since becoming an empire, the United States has been responsible for its own share of horrors all over the world, from the 1901 Platt Amendment that made Cuba subservient to the US, all the way to the nonsensical War on Terror today that benefits no one except private military industries.
From how I saw it, the point of this trilogy isn't to demonize Japan or Russia, but to oppose militarism, imperialism, and oppression whenever they show up. These are things human beings have been doing to each other throughout history, and this sort of human oriented horror shows no signs of slowing down any time soon. But Kaji and other people from this incredible trilogy show us there always potential to be better. We always, always have the ability to be better.
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