Twenty-Four Eyes (1954)
"Nijûshi no hitomi" (original title)

Schoolteacher Hisako Oishi struggles to imbue her students with a positive view of the world and their place in it, despite the fact that she knows full well that most of them will die in ... See full summary »

Director:

Keisuke Kinoshita

Writers:

Keisuke Kinoshita (screenplay), Sakae Tsuboi (novel)

Stars:

Hideki Gôko, Itsuo Watanabe, Makoto Miyagawa

Won 1 Golden Globe. Another 9 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Hideki Gôko	...	Isokichi Okada - Bunkyôjô Jidai
Itsuo Watanabe	...	Takeichi Takeshita - Bunkyôjô Jidai
Makoto Miyagawa	...	Kichiji Tokuda - Bunkyôjô Jidai
Takeo Terashita	...	Tadashi Morioka - Bunkyôjô Jidai
Kunio Satô	...	Nita Aizawa - Bunkyôjô Jidai
Hiroko Ishii	...	Masuno Kagawa - Bunkyôjô Jidai
Yasuko Koike	...	Misako Nishiguchi - Bunkyôjô Jidai
Setsuko Kusano	...	Matsue Kawamoto - Bunkyôjô Jidai
Kaoko Kase	...	Sanae Yamaishi - Bunkyôjô Jidai
Yumiko Tanabe	...	Kotsuru Kabe - Bunkyôjô Jidai
Ikuko Kanbara	...	Fujiko Kinoshita - Bunkyôjô Jidai
Hiroko Uehara	...	Kotoe Katagiri - Bunkyôjô Jidai
Hitoshi Gôko	...	Isokichi Okada - Honkô Jidai
Shirô Watanabe	...	Takeichi Takeshita - Honkô Jidai
Jun'ichi Miyagawa	...	Kichiji Tokuda - Honkô Jidai

Storyline

Schoolteacher Hisako Oishi struggles to imbue her students with a positive view of the world and their place in it, despite the fact that she knows full well that most of them will die in the war.

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Plot Keywords:

schoolteacher | snare | blind | anti war | sino japanese war | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

15 September 1954 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Twenty-Four Eyes

Filming Locations:

Shodoshima, Kagawa, Japan

Company Credits

Production Co:

Shôchiku Eiga

Technical Specs

Runtime:

156 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Referenced in Hakuchû no tôrima (1966)

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Soundtracks

"The Last Rose of Summer"

User Reviews

Another postwar japanese gem

Compared to a film like "Pigs And Battleships", or even "I Live In Fear"; Kinoshita's film is a middlebrow, mainstream, even sentimental take on the Japan's war years and it's aftermath.

Still, the film is graceful and touching, with what Pauline Kael called "concealed art." Kinoshita's approach seems to be to take potently maudlin situations, and film them from an objective distance; with as direct and simple emotion as possible.

This may short change the great Takamine a bit; we seem to be an hour into the film before the great actress receives a close up. Still, her performaces gains power as the film goes on.

Though politics are kept in the background, as perhaps they had to in a Japanese film of this nature; but there is an anger lurking in the backgroud; an inditement of a culture that would waste the strength of it's woman and worse; reduce it's men to cannon fodder. Was it something in Japanese life; rather than just it's military, that led to it's disasters? Even the country's great filmmakers seem hesitant to speculate. In any event, another strong film of interest to all those who have fallen under the spell of great Japanese film.