Twenty-Four Eyes (1954)

Schoolteacher Hisako Oishi forms an emotional bond with her pupils and teaches them various virtues, while at the same time worrying about their future.

Director:

Keisuke Kinoshita

Writers:

Keisuke Kinoshita (screenplay), Sakae Tsuboi (novel)

Stars:

Hideki Gôko, Itsuo Watanabe, Makoto Miyagawa

Won 1 Golden Globe. Another 9 wins & 1 nomination.

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:

japanese teacher | japanese school | asian school | japanese woman | military | 

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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:

Shochiku

Technical Specs

Runtime:

156 min 116 min (cut)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

Remade as Children on the Island (1987)

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Soundtracks

Home Sweet Home

User Reviews

An incredibly moving film

Mostly unknown and frequently dismissed in the West, this film is often considered by the Japanese to be one of their very best films, if not their best. I concur with the Japanese. I can understand the issues people have with it, namely that it is overly sentimental, but I think it mostly earns the tears that are shed over it. It's a film in the classic teacher genre, like Goodbye Mr. Chips. Hideko Takamine plays Hisako Oishi, a young woman who begins the movie as a first grade teacher on a small island in 1928. Being a small population, she ends up staying with the same students for several years. The film ends in the 1950s, so you kind of know what will probably happen to her male students, and what she and her female students will have to experience. It may be somewhat predictable, but it's incredibly heartbreaking. The film is beautifully made, and filled with Japanese folk songs (strangely, the score of the film is made up of a bunch of Western music, including "Bonnie Annie Laurie" and "There's No Place Like Home"; it's definitely a flaw). Takamine, who starred in several Mikio Naruse films around the same time, is exceptional.