The phrase "the human condition" has always fascinated me. It was coined in 1958 by the political thinker Hanna Arendt, and summarizes for me the complexities, and both the rewarding and difficult ...

To reflect upon life — life in relation to death — is perhaps no more than to intensify one’s questioning. I do not mean death in the sense of being killed, which poses few problems to anyone who has ...

Japanese cinema has historically been rife with epic tales inspired by literature, many set in the distant past. But none has attained the overwhelming emotional impact of Masaki Kobayashi’s “The ...

Easily one of the greatest film trilogies of all time, Masaki Kobayashi’s The Human Condition is a sweeping nine-and-a-half-hour epic about the horrors of war. Each of the three films is divided into ...