His ideals challenged by life as a conscript in war-time Japan’s military, a pacifist faces ever greater tests in his fight for survival.

The full scope of Masaki Kobayashi’s humanist epic comes into sharp relief in this magnificent concluding chapter. As the cumulative power of Kaji’s degradation crescendos to a snowbound climax, Kobayashi expands his moral statement on the futility of violence into the realms of existential tragedy.