Still catching up on older release news. Criterion will be releasing Masaki Kobayashi's 9+ hour World War II saga, The Human Condition (Ningen no Joken, 1959), on July 14th.

Based on Junpei Gomikawa’s six-volume novel, the trilogy follows a man named Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai) who finds himself constantly at odds with his own participation in war as he serves as a labor camp supervisor, soldier of the Imperial Army, and eventually prisoner at a Siberian POW camp.

Region 1, NTSC, newly-restored HD digital transfer, anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1), 4 discs, 574 min., black & white. Newly-restored Japanese stereo audio with English subtitles. Features include:

• Excerpt from a rare Directors Guild of Japan video interview with director Masaki Kobayashi, conducted by filmmaker Masahiro Shinoda (Double Suicide)
• New video interview with actor Tatsuya Nakadai
• Video appreciation of Kobayashi and The Human Condition featuring Shinoda
• Japanese theatrical trailers
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Philip Kemp

Source: Criterion

Available at the following retailer(s) on September 8, 2009:

• Amazon.com
• Amazon.ca
• YesAsia
• RightStuf

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