Yesterday PFA took advantage of the long weekend and squeezed into its already-packed February schedule a marathon showing of Masaki Kobayashi's epic nine-hour film trilogy The Human Condition. I went into it knowing I wasn't quite ready to deal with the whole thing so just bought a ticket to the first part, No Greater Love, though it looked like an impressive amount of people were settling in for the rest of the day. Set in Japanese-occupied Manchuria during World War II, No Greater Love tells the story of Kaji, a mine official who takes a supervisory post in the Chinese boondocks because it means he will get an exemption from military duty. His humanist ideals are tested almost from the moment he arrives, especially once he is put in charge of hundreds of Chinese prisoners sent by the Japanese army to do forced labor in the mine. His attempts to better the system earn him nothing less than imprisonment and torture. Though unflinching in its portrayal of Japan's injustices against China the film is a genuine masterpiece of post-war Japanese cinema, with each frame shot in glorious black-and-white 'Scope perfectly composed and elegant in its evocation of human emotion. And though I was already familiar with actor Tatsuya Nakadai from his work with Kurosawa, he is an absolute revelation here as Kaji, his face registering every new horror of war. I do want to see the next two parts of the trilogy that follow Kaji after his induction into the army and then when he is captured by Russian troops, but I'm going to wait a bit first.
I also highly recommend stopping by the Berkeley Art Museum tomorrow night, where the Berkeley Center for New Media in conjunction with the Long Now Foundation and KOFY will be holding a Funeral for Analog TV. The event is proceeding as originally scheduled even though Congress did just vote to extend the date of the switch to a digital-only signal, and if you're ready to let your old analog TVs go you can bring them along to be recycled responsibly by the awesome Alameda County Computer Resource Center. My favorite sci-fi author Bruce Sterling will be delivering the eulogy, and Neighborhood Public Radio will be providing video art. Let us mark the demise of the analog signal together.