The Japanese Doctor Zhivago: The Human Condition

Parts 3 and 4 of M. Kobayashi's epic drama The Human Condition (1959) continue with the horrifying saga of Kaiji, an intelligent and humane young man with "modern" ideas about the fair treatment of workers: in parts 1 and 2 we saw him figuratively crushed by authority as he tries to reform conditions in a mine on the Manchurian frontier during WWII; parts 3 and 4 continue his story as he's drafted into the army in the waning days of the war and terribly brutalized during basic training (part 3) and then, in part 4, he becomes a PFC and tries to be kind to his recruits but he is harassed and essentially mauled be a troupe of veterans who despise his modern ways of training. It's a story of almost unrelenting suffering, and told in an operatic style, but for all that completely captivating and, as in parts 1 and 2, full of very memorable scenes, some claustrophobic scenes in the crowded barracks (the fight against Kaiji, the tormenting of a weak soldier and his eventual suicide), and even more so the outdoor scenes: digging trenches before battle, an escape toward the Russian border through a brush fire and a marshy bog. The romantic element of the story is much less significant in this section - except that we see Kaiji becoming increasingly hardened to life during his time in service and further removed or even estranged from his young wife - it is obvious that he will never be able to return to this marriage after the war (another element enters as he meets a young nurse who gets shipped off to the front - though they are polite and decorous to one another, there are definitely sparks). This epic is in some ways the Japanese Doctor Zhivago - a story of a man of high ideals torn apart over a long span of time by historical events, finding some solace in love but also great pain and anguish, especially as he is torn between conflicting loves and conflicting ideals.