Human Condition: No Greater Love

Masaki Kobayashi’s Human Condition trilogy, based in part on the director’s own resentment at having been forced to fight for the Japanese army in World War II, has been described by a handful of critics as the finest film ever made, but it’s no small time commitment. This three-part film lasts nearly 10 hours, so it’s rare that a theater rises to the challenge of screening it in its entirety, as the UWM Union Theatre does over the next several weeks, beginning with two showings this weekend of its first installment, No Greater Love, which screens tonight at 5 p.m. The movie introduces protagonist Kaji, a kind, idealistic newlywed who, over the next three films, will be beaten, abused and humiliated by war and the country for which he unwillingly goes to war.