Twenty-Four Eyes - Nijushi no hitome Twenty-Four Eyes (Niyushi No Hitomi) (1954), Keisuke Kinoshita, (Japan Film Collection) The cost of war is counted in wrecked hopes and wasted human potential in Kinoshita's powerful denunciation of a system that stiffles invidvidual growth and transforms personal ambition into unflinching devotion to the state. The Films begins in 1928, and follows Miss Oishi, a shockingly modern and progressive Japanese woman, who begins her tenure as an elementary school teach. To her, the future seems to hold limitless possibilities for her 12 first-grade teachers. But when the story ends, in the late 1940's this promise has been wrecked by war, poverty, and restrictive tradition. (M066/116minutes/VHS English with Subtitles) Twenty-Four Eyes (1954, Keisuke Kinoshita) - Set in the years prior to World War II, this is a powerful denunciation of a society that stifles individual growth and transforms children's personal ambitions into unthinking devotion to the state. A progressive schoolteacher comes to a remote island in 1928, filled with hopes for her 12 young students. But by the end of the war, those hopes have been dashed by poverty, war and inflexible tradition.
A very touching story about a school teacher and the destinies of her first twelve students in Japan from 1927 through World War II. I saw this film many years ago and never forgot it.
n March, the JASWM is showing Nijushi no hitomi, a very hard-to-find film about life in Japan around the time of WWII. I want to go. And now I want to learn Japanese. And eat noodles.