is a 1954 Japanese

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Keisuke Kinoshita was a Japanese film director and screenwriter.Ronald Berganbr>"A satirical eye on Japan: Keisuke Kinoshita" ''The Guardian'', 5 January 1999. While lesser-known internationally than contemporaries such as Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasu ...

, based on the 1952 novel of the same name by

Sakae Tsuboi was a Japanese novelist and poet. Biography Early life Sakae Tsuboi was born in the village of Sakate (now part of the town of Shōdoshima) in Kagawa Prefecture, the fifth daughter of soy sauce barrel maker, Tokichi Iwai. Despite the bankrupt ...

. The film stars

Hideko Takamine was a Japanese actress who began as a child actress and maintained her fame in a career that spanned 50 years. She is particularly known for her collaborations with directors Mikio Naruse and Keisuke Kinoshita, with ''Twenty-Four Eyes'' (1954) ...

as a schoolteacher named Hisako Ōishi, who lives during the rise and fall of

Japanese nationalism is a form of nationalism that asserts the belief that the Japanese are a monolithic nation with a single immutable culture, and promotes the cultural unity of the Japanese. Over the last two centuries, it has encompassed a broad range of ideas a ...

in the early

Shōwa period Shōwa may refer to: * Hirohito (1901–1989), the 124th Emperor of Japan, known posthumously as Emperor Shōwa * Showa Corporation, a Japanese suspension and shock manufacturer, affiliated with the Honda keiretsu Japanese eras * Jōwa (Heian ...

. The narrative begins in 1928 with the teacher's first class of

first grade First grade (also called Grade One, called ''Year 2'' in England or Primary 2 in Scotland) is the first grade in elementary school and the first school year after kindergarten. Children are usually 6–7 years old in this grade. Examples by r ...

students and follows her through 1946. ''Twenty-Four Eyes'' was released in Japan by

Shochiku () is a Japanese film and kabuki production and distribution company. It also produces and distributes anime films, in particular those produced by Bandai Namco Filmworks (which has a long-time partnership—the company released most, if not all ...

on 15 September 1954, where it received generally positive reviews and commercial success. The film received a number of awards, including the ''

Kinema Junpo , commonly called , is Japan's oldest film magazine and began publication in July 1919. It was first published three times a month, using the Japanese ''Jun'' (旬) system of dividing months into three parts, but the postwar ''Kinema Junpō'' ha ...

'' "Best One" Award for 1954, as well as the

Henrietta Award The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...

at the 5th Annual World Film Favorite Festival. The film has been noted for its

anti-war An anti-war movement (also ''antiwar'') is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term anti-war can also refer to pa ...

themes. It was remade in color in 1987.

Plot

On 4 April 1928, a schoolteacher named Hisako Ōishi arrives on the island of

Shōdoshima Shōdoshima or is an island located in the Inland Sea of Japan. The name means "Island of Small Beans". There are two towns on the island: Tonoshō and Shōdoshima, composing the district of Shōzu. The island is famous as the setting for th ...

, where she will be teaching a class of

students from the nearby village. Because Ōishi rides a bicycle and wears a suit, the adult villagers are initially apprehensive towards her. Ōishi is introduced to her class of twelve students: Isokichi, Takeichi, Kichiji, Tadashi, Nita, Matsue, Misako, Masuno, Fujiko, Sanae, Kotoe, and Kotsuru. She teaches the children how to sing songs, and plays outside with them. Most of the children have to care for younger siblings or help their parents with farming or fishing after school. On 1 September, the class goes to the seashore, where some of the students play a

practical joke A practical joke, or prank, is a mischievous trick played on someone, generally causing the victim to experience embarrassment, perplexity, confusion, or discomfort.Marsh, Moira. 2015. ''Practically Joking''. Logan: Utah State University Press. ...

on Ōishi by causing her to fall into a hole in the sand. The fall injures one of her legs, and she takes a

leave of absence The labour law concept of leave, specifically paid leave or, in some countries' long-form, a leave of absence, is an authorised prolonged absence from work, for any reason authorised by the workplace. When people "take leave" in this way, they are ...

. A substitute teacher takes her place, but the children are not as receptive to him as they were to Ōishi. One day after lunch, the students sneak away from their homes and journey on foot to go visit Ōishi. They spot her riding in a bus, and she invites them to her house, where they have a large meal; later, the children's parents send Ōishi gifts as thanks for treating them. Because of her injury, Ōishi is transferred from the schoolhouse to the main school, where teachers instruct students in

fifth grade Fifth grade (called Grade 5 in some regions) is a year of education in many nations, and some other regions call it Year 5. In the United States, the fifth grade is the fifth and last year of elementary school in most schools. In other schools, it ...

and above. By 1933, Ōishi is engaged to a ship engineer, and her original students are now

sixth grade Sixth grade (or grade six in some regions) is the sixth year of schooling. Students are typically 11–12 years old, depending on when their birthday occurs. Different terms and numbers are used in other parts of the world. It is commonly the firs ...

rs. Matsue's mother gives birth to another girl but dies in the process, leaving Matsue to care for the child. Soon after, the baby dies as well, and Matsue leaves Shōdoshima. Ōishi learns that a fellow teacher, Mr. Kataoka, has been arrested on suspicion of being "a

Red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

". Kataoka was suspected of having a copy of an

anthology printed by a class taught by a friend of his in

Onomichi is a city located in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan, facing the Inland Sea. The city was founded on April 1, 1898. As of April 30, 2016, the city has an estimated population of 141,811 and a population density of 497.8 persons per km2. The total a ...

. Ōishi notes that she shared stories from that anthology with her own students after a copy was sent to the school. The principal warns Ōishi against discussing politics with her class, and burns the anthology. In October, Ōishi and her class take a

field trip A field trip or excursion is a journey by a group of people to a place away from their normal environment. When done for students, as it happens in several school systems, it is also known as school trip in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and ...

Ritsurin Park is a large, historic garden in Takamatsu, Japan. It was completed in 1745 as a private strolling garden and villa for the local feudal lords, and opened to the public in 1875. Ritsurin is one of the largest strolling gardens in Japan, and a ...

Takamatsu 270px, Takamatsu City Hall 270px, Aerial view of Takamatsu city center 270px, View from Yashima to Takashima port is a city located in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 414,134 in 190120 households and a popul ...

, as well as to the Konpira Shrine. Ōishi goes into town and encounters Matsue, who is now working at a restaurant as a waitress. Back at school, Ōishi has her students write down their hopes for the future; Sanae dreams of becoming a teacher, while Fujiko, whose family is impoverished, feels hopeless. Kotoe drops out of school to help her mother at home; Masuno wants to attend a conservatory, but her parents disapprove; the male students in the class want to become soldiers. Ōishi is reprimanded by the principal for not encouraging the boys in their military aspirations. Some time later, Ōishi, who is now pregnant, decides to resign from teaching. In 1941, Ōishi visits Kotoe, who now has

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

. Ōishi has given birth to three children: Daikichi, Namiki, and Yatsu. Misako has been married; Sanae is now a teacher at the main school; Kotsuru is an honors graduate in

midwifery Midwifery is the health science and health profession that deals with pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period (including care of the newborn), in addition to the sexual and reproductive health of women throughout their lives. In many cou ...

; Fujiko's family went bankrupt; Kotsuru works at a café in

Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...

; Masuno works at her parents' restaurant; and the male students have all joined the military. As time passes, Ōishi's mother dies, and Ōishi's husband is killed. On 15 August 1945, Emperor

Hirohito Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...

announces the

surrender of Japan The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945, bringing the war's hostilities to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy ...

at the

end of World War II End of World War II can refer to: * End of World War II in Europe * End of World War II in Asia World War II officially ended in Asia on September 2, 1945, with the surrender of Japan on the . Before that, the United States dropped two atomic ...

. Ōishi's daughter Yatsu dies after falling from a tree. On 4 April 1946, Ōishi, now struggling financially, returns to teaching. Among the students in her new class are Makoto, the younger sister of Kotoe, who has died; Chisato, Matsue's daughter; and Katsuko, Misako's daughter. Ōishi reunites with an adult Misako, and they visit the graves of Tadashi, Takeichi, and Nita, all of whom were killed during the war. Misako, along with Sanae, Kotsuru, and Masuno, hosts a party for Ōishi at Masuno's residence. They are joined by Isokichi, who was blinded in the war, and Kichiji. The students present Ōishi with a new bicycle to ride to school.

Cast

as Hisako Ōishi, a schoolteacher who comes to Shōdoshima to teach at a village school. Her surname Ōishi (大石) can be translated as "Big Stone"; because she is shorter in stature than their previous teacher, Ōishi's original first graders refer to her as Oishi (小石) "Miss Pebble".

Themes

American author

David Desser David Desser (born 1953) is emeritus professor of cinema studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign and former director of that university's Unit for Cinema Studies. He is an expert in Asian cinema, particularly the cinema of Japa ...

wrote of the film that "Kinoshita desires to make the basic decency of one woman �ishistand in opposition to the entire militarist era in Japan." Japanese

film theorist Film theory is a set of scholarly approaches within the academic discipline of film or cinema studies that began in the 1920s by questioning the formal essential attributes of motion pictures; and that now provides conceptual frameworks for unde ...

and historian

Tadao Sato was a Japanese film critic, theorist and historian. His real name was . Overviews Born in Niigata, Niigata Prefecture, Japan, He published more than a hundred books on film, and was one of Japan's foremost scholars and historians addressing ...

wrote that "''Twenty-Four Eyes'' evolved to represent Japanese regrets over the wars in China and the Pacific and stood in symbolic opposition to the impending return to militarism." Sato added that the film "implies that the honest citizens of Japan were only victims of trauma and sorrow and fundamentally innocent of any culpability for the war. ..Had the movie assigned responsibility for the war to all Japanese people, opposition would have arisen, and it might not have become such a box-office hit." Film scholar

Audie Bock Audie Elizabeth Bock (born October 15, 1946) is an American film scholar and politician who served in the California State Assembly from 1999 to 2000, and was elected to the Sarasota County, Florida Soil and Water Conservation District in 2018. S ...

referred to ''Twenty-Four Eyes'' as being "undoubtedly a woman's film, honoring the endurance and self-sacrifice of mothers and daughters trying to preserve their families", and called it "a meticulously detailed portrait of what are perceived as the best qualities in the Japanese character: humility, perseverance, honesty, love of children, love of nature, and love of peace." Bock wrote that "The resonance of ''Twenty-Four Eyes'' for audiences then and now is that Miss Oishi speaks for countless people the world over who never want to see another father, son, or brother die in a war for reasons they do not understand", and posited that the film's anti-war message is "aimed more directly at Japan" compared to films with a similar message by

Yasujirō Ozu was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. He began his career during the era of silent films, and his last films were made in colour in the early 1960s. Ozu first made a number of short comedies, before turning to more serious themes in t ...

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dyna ...

. In an analysis of the film, Christopher Howard wrote: "From a feminist perspective, there is certainly great sympathy with the young girls forced out of school and into menial work by their parents ..As a

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...

and

leftist Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

sympathizer, however, Kinoshita raises stronger political questions in an episode in which Miss Oishi displays sympathy with a fellow teacher accused of

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

connections." He notes that "she even tries introducing some elements of

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

into her class teaching. At a time in which the Japanese Teaching Union was the source of a great deal of radical activity, ''Twenty-Four Eyes'' is not the only film making the connection between teaching and left-wing thought, and a number of independent films from the period also had more sustained anti-military and communist sympathies."

Reception

''Twenty-Four Eyes'' was a popular film in Japan upon its release in 1954. On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has an approval rating of 60% based on five reviews, with an average rating of 6.69/10. In 2006, Alan Morrison of ''

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

'' gave the film a score of four out of five stars, calling it "Sentimental but sincere." In 2008, Jamie S. Rich of

DVD Talk DVD Talk is a home video news and review website launched in 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman. History Kleinman founded the site in January 1999 in Beaverton, Oregon. Besides news and reviews, it features information on hidden DVD features known as ...

praised the film's ensemble of child actors and its emotional weight, writing that "If you don't tear up at least a couple of times in ''Twenty-Four Eyes'', you apparently have rocks where the rest of us have brains and hearts." Rich called the film "an effective lesson in how the hopes and dreams of our youngest citizens and the opportunities they are given to pursue them are essential to the survival of any society." Fernando F. Croche of ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...

'' gave the film two-and-a-half out of four stars, calling it "alternately endearing and overbearing to modern eyes and ears" but "reportedly a soothing experience" for Japanese viewers still suffering from the effects of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

when the film was released.

Home media

On 20 February 2006, ''Twenty-Four Eyes'' was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

in the United Kingdom by Eureka Entertainment, as part of their

Masters of Cinema Masters of Cinema is a line of DVD and Blu-ray releases published through Eureka Entertainment. Because of the uniformly branded and spine-numbered packaging and the standard inclusion of booklets and analysis by recurring film historians, the ...

line of home video releases. The Masters of Cinema release includes a gallery of production stills and a 20-page booklet containing an essay by Joan Mellen. In August 2008, the film was released on DVD by

the Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...

. The Criterion release includes two trailers for the film, an interview with Tadao Sato, and a 20-page booklet featuring an essay by Audie Bock and excerpts from an interview with Kinoshita.

Remake and other adaptations

A color remake of the film was directed by Yoshitaka Asama and released in 1987. The remake is known in English as ''Children on the Island''. Besides the movie versions, there were also TV drama recreations in 1964 (TV Tokyo), 1967 (TV Asahi), 1974 (NHK), 1976 (NHK), 1979 (TBS), 2005 (NTV), and 2013 (TV Asahi), as well as an animated version in 1980 (Fuji TV). (Filmography)

References

External links

* * * * {{Navboxes , title = Awards for ''Twenty-Four Eyes'' , list = {{Blue Ribbon Award for Best Film {{Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film {{Kinema Junpo Award for Best Film {{Mainichi Film Award for Best Film 1954 films 1954 drama films Best Film Kinema Junpo Award winners Japanese black-and-white films Films about educators Films based on Japanese novels Films directed by Keisuke Kinoshita Films set in the 1920s Films set in the 1930s Films set in the 1940s Films set in Japan Anti-war films 1950s political films Japanese drama films 1950s Japanese-language films Shochiku films Films with screenplays by Keisuke Kinoshita 1950s Japanese films