Keisuke Kinoshita's Twenty Four Eyes (1954) is powerful tear jerker that is also an effective anti-war film. The power of this film lies not in showing that war is hell, but rather by showing the emotional fallout of the destructiveness of war on those who stayed at home. The themes of aging, war, and death are interpreted through the experiences of Hisako Onishi (Hideko Takamine) a rural school teacher in an island community in the inland sea of Japan. Her first meeting of the class of twelve pupils takes place in 1928 and continues until the end of WWII and the occupation into the modern Japan era. It is interesting how the film treats the repressive atmosphere of the imperial state during the warring years where teachers were branded as "reds" for being anti-war. Also, part of the beauty of the film lies in the way Kinoshita captures the beauty of the region and the simple way of life people lived there 70 years ago. The Criterion edition includes a video interview with Japanese cinema historian and critic Tadao Sato about the film and its director, theatrical teasers, and a booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Audie Bock and an expert from a 1955 interview with Kinoshita.
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Great film! Happy that it is on Criterion.
Posted by: ted | July 02, 2013 at 05:40 PM
Yeah, I was surprised that I liked it as much as I did after reading what it was about. This is also the first Kinoshita film I have seen and I'm motivated to search out more.
Posted by: MC | July 02, 2013 at 06:51 PM