Over three weeks, SIFF Cinema is showing a really gorgeous black-and-white CinemaScope print of Masaki Kobayashi’s 10-hour 1959 epic The Human Condition, starting with the 208-minute Part 1: "No Greater Love." That closes this Thursday night, so if you want to catch it, get thee to McCaw Hall.

It's the unrelentingly grim story of Kaji (Tatsuya Nakadai), a rebel-with-a-cause conscientious objector who is a "nail that stands out" in WWII Japan. In Part 1, he ends up in a forced labor camp in Manchuria, overseeing the labor conditions of the Chinese workers mining ore for steel production.

On the one hand, it's amazing this film--with its condemnation of Japanese military brutality, and war in general--was made at all. It's a view of WWII in which the U.S. barely enters, and so it's not one we've seen much of before. And the cinematography frequently takes your breath away. On the other, the acting is an acquired taste. Lower-key scenes are palatable, but drama comes wearing a operatic cape, with heavy musical underscoring, so be ready.

Nakadai has that soul-suffering, James Dean look down perfectly, and reminds us why we never ultimately liked James Dean's movies that much. It's always a character who is driven by his own rules--out of step with society--who has clearly never read How to Win Friends and Influence People. He's just very sensitive, and right all the time. Why can't other people see that? The brutes! It's a passive/aggressive sainthood.

In Kaji's case, he's screwed by fate for having a heart in the first place. That's enough for us. That, and the reverse echo of hearing Kaji protest against torture, and having people answer back: "Don't you understand we're at war?"