Nijushi no hitomi (1954)

Director:

Keisuke Kinoshita

Writers:

Keisuke Kinoshita (writer)
Sakae Tsuboi (novel)

Release Date:

15 September 1954 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Schoolteacher Hisako Oishi struggles to imbue her students with a positive view of the world and their place in it...

Plot Keywords:

Schoolteacher | Teacher Student Relationship | Lunchbox | WWII | Snare

Awards:

Won Golden Globe. Another 9 wins

Cast

Hideki Goko	...	Isokichi Okada in lower class
Hideko Takamine	...	Hisako Oishi
Yukio Watanabe	...	Takeichi Takeshita in lower class
Makoto Miyagawa	...	Kichiji Tokuda in lower class
Takero Terashita	...	Tadashi Morioka in lower class
Kunio Sato	...	Nita Aizawa in lower class
Hiroko Ishii	...	Masuno Kagawa in lower class
Yasuko Koike	...	Misako Nishiguchi in lower class
Setsuko Kusano	...	Matsue Kawamoto in lower class
Kaoko Kase	...	Sanae Yamaishi in lower class
Yumiko Tanabe	...	Kotsuru Kabe in lower class
Ikuko Kambara	...	Fujiko Kinoshita in lower class
Hiroko Uehara	...	Kotoe Katagiri in lower class
Hitobumi Goko	...	Isokichi Okada in upper class
Shirô Watanabe	...	Takeichi Takeshita in upper class

Also Known As:

Twenty-Four Eyes

Runtime:

154 min | USA:116 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Brazil:18 | UK:U | Finland:S

Filming Locations:

Shodoshima, Kagawa, Japan

Company:

Shôchiku Eiga

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Hakuchu no torima (1966)

Soundtrack:

Auld Lang Syne

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.