Parts III & IV. Viewed on DVD and Streaming. Film = barely five (5) stars; restoration = ten (10) stars; cinematography = nine (9) stars; score = three (3) stars. Director Masaki Kobayashi's Parts III and IV of the overly-contrived adventures of a fish-out-of-water protagonist. This time out, Kobayashi pits a college Communist against the Japanese Army in Manchuria! A masochistic photo play that seems bent on driving home the message that war is hell, but the brutality of gang wars in army barracks is just as bad (or even worse!). It is painfully (no pun) obvious that the Director is trying to squeeze as many vignettes from the source material (a massive contemporary novel) as his production budget will allow into the movie, since one micro dramatic event randomly follows another (usually bridged with fade outs). The result is that Part III is way too long and just plain boring. Part III is also crammed with repetitious bouts of face slapping and beatings (mostly in the barracks) which seems to comprise the major part of training for new recruits. (A lot of the heavy-duty face slapping looks to be real--and stunt actors do not appear to have been used!) Part IV (also loaded with face slapping) is less than exciting until the Soviets declare war and launch an impressive tank attack against a pitifully trained and under equipped Japanese Army (the Japanese are shown to lack war machinery, machine guns, automatic rifles, and even ammunition--but they do have shovels and know how to slap faces!). Once again, Kobayashi fills the screen with many hard-to-swallow oddities beyond the usual David and Goliath plot. My favorites include: the many face-slapping riffs on classic Three Stooges' shorts including slapping Army nurses; frequent dialog references to "The Front" which is never defined and begin way before the Soviet declaration of war and their invasion; near drowning in a puddle-sized "lake"; the extraordinary power of ancient Confucian principles (of absolute obedience to higher authority) to prevent well-deserved mutinies (perhaps not a real oddity?); and the ludicrous power of romantic love which causes a bride to leave college in Tokyo, move to a Manchurian pit mine, and STAY THERE after her husband has been drafted! Acting is perfunctory and often melodramatic, since the majority of lines are delivered by shouting (which quickly becomes tedious). Characters are often hard to differentiate except in close-ups (which seem under used), as they are costumed and made-up to look pretty much indistinguishable in medium and long shots. Cinematography (wide screen, black and white) and scene lighting are excellent. Restoration is excellent. Subtitles/translations are OK. Aside from the opening credits, the score seems to have been recycled from the initial film and is injected when least appropriate. A scene distraction rather than an enhancer. Not particularly recommended. WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.
Parts V & VI. Viewed on DVD and Streaming. Film = three (3) stars; restoration = ten (10) stars; cinematography = nine (9) stars; sound (remastered) = six (6) stars; score = three (3) stars. Director Masaki Kobayashi's Parts V and VI of an overly-contrived (and overly long) WW II epoch fail to reverse the spiral of increasing tediousness engendered with each succeeding installment. In these last two, the male protagonist leads (sort of) a ragtag assortment of army and civilian survivors wandering around the landscape (or around a remote Soviet POW camp) and going nowhere in post-war Manchuria. Seems fitting for a film that essentially goes nowhere (and is very, very slow in getting there!). Elements repetitiously sprinkled into the overall scenario include: the impact of imminent starvation; groups of Japanese circumstantial comfort women (who lost their husbands during the war); Japanese bandits (remnants of the Army); well-armed Chinese farmers out for revenge; and Soviet Army units rounding up Japanese men for post-war POW slave-labor camps. Part V is grossly padded with events/happenings the ragtag group encounters as it trudges about. And seems to end only when most/all of the elements from the original source material (a six-volume novel) have been covered. In addition, it includes many flashbacks using scenes from previous episodes to break the monotony and help with the padding. Part VI also contains a fair amount of wandering-around padding (especially at the end) and is loaded (likely do to the original source material) with increasingly irritating voice-over homilies/mini-gospels) about the politics of life and romantic love (the voice of the protagonist's wife keeps popping up on the sound tract with the same verbiage). Russian line readings by non-Japanese sound like Russian (or pseudo Russian) is being spoken. The amusing phonetically spoken Mandarin by Japanese actors is reduce to just a few lines this time (but there is some "interesting" phonetically spoken Russian). Kobayashi again fills the screen with many hard-to-swallow oddities beyond the usual David and Goliath plot (this time it's a tale about a text-book Communist taking on the management of a Soviet POW camp). Among my favorite oddities: Japanese troops abandoned and cut off from outside communications still manage to be well informed about current WW II events in Europe and the Pacific; the total absence of comfort women portrayed as sex slaves; no one has a compass; hacking through "jungle vegetation" so anemic that using a Swiss Army knife would be overkill; and Soviet soldiers singing in perfect multi-part harmony. Cinematography (wide screen, black and white) and scene lighting are excellent. Restoration is excellent. Subtitles can be overly long and flash by too quickly (which is why there are rewind and pause buttons on your remote). Some Russian dialog (including singing) is not translated. Same for several signs/banners. Aside from the excellent opening credits music, the score acts like a hammer and treats scenes as if they are all nails (music editing misalignment is the norm)! Sound has been remastered to provide some surround-like effects which is not all that successful (especially for characters speaking from the sides of or off the screen. Not recommended. WILLIAM FLANIGAN
Parts V & VI. Viewed on DVD and Streaming. Film = three (3) stars; restoration = ten (10) stars; cinematography = nine (9) stars; sound (remastered) = six (6) stars; score = three (3) stars. Director Masaki Kobayashi's Parts V and VI of an overly-contrived (and overly long) WW II epoch fail to reverse the spiral of increasing tediousness engendered with each succeeding installment. In these last two, the male protagonist leads (sort of) a ragtag assortment of army and civilian survivors wandering around the landscape (or around a remote Soviet POW camp) and going nowhere in post-war Manchuria. Seems fitting for a film that essentially goes nowhere (and is very, very slow in getting there!). Elements repetitiously sprinkled into the overall scenario include: the impact of imminent starvation; groups of Japanese circumstantial comfort women (who lost their husbands during the war); Japanese bandits (remnants of the Army); well-armed Chinese farmers out for revenge; and Soviet Army units rounding up Japanese men for post-war POW slave-labor camps. Part V is grossly padded with events/happenings the ragtag group encounters as it trudges about. And seems to end only when most/all of the elements from the original source material (a six-volume novel) have been covered. In addition, it includes many flashbacks using scenes from previous episodes to break the monotony and help with the padding. Part VI also contains a fair amount of wandering-around padding (especially at the end) and is loaded (likely do to the original source material) with increasingly irritating voice-over homilies/mini-gospels) about the politics of life and romantic love (the voice of the protagonist's wife keeps popping up on the sound tract with the same verbiage). Russian line readings by non-Japanese sound like Russian (or pseudo Russian) is being spoken. The amusing phonetically spoken Mandarin by Japanese actors is reduce to just a few lines this time (but there is some "interesting" phonetically spoken Russian). Kobayashi again fills the screen with many hard-to-swallow oddities beyond the usual David and Goliath plot (this time it's a tale about a text-book Communist taking on the management of a Soviet POW camp). Among my favorite oddities: Japanese troops abandoned and cut off from outside communications still manage to be well informed about current WW II events in Europe and the Pacific; the total absence of comfort women portrayed as sex slaves; no one has a compass; hacking through "jungle vegetation" so anemic that using a Swiss Army knife would be overkill; and Soviet soldiers singing in perfect multi-part harmony. Cinematography (wide screen, black and white) and scene lighting are excellent. Restoration is excellent. Subtitles can be overly long and flash by too quickly (which is why there are rewind and pause buttons on your remote). Some Russian dialog (including singing) is not translated. Same for several signs/banners. Aside from the excellent opening credits music, the score acts like a hammer and treats scenes as if they are all nails (music editing misalignment is the norm)! Sound has been remastered to provide some surround-like effects which is not all that successful (especially for characters speaking from the sides of or off the screen. Not recommended. WILLIAM FLANIGAN