Product Description

Keisuke Kinoshita's Twenty-Four Eyes (Nijushi no hitomi) is an elegant, emotional chronicle of a teacher s unwavering commitment to her students, her profession, and her sense of morality. Set in a remote, rural island community and spanning decades of Japanese history, from 1928 through World War II and beyond, Kinoshita's film takes a simultaneously sober and sentimental look at the epic themes of aging, war, and death, all from the lovingly intimate perspective of Hisako Oshi (Hideko Takamine), as she watches her pupils grow and deal with life's harsh realities. Though little known in the United States, Twenty-Four Eyes is one of Japan's most popular and enduring classics.

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:New, restored high-definition digital transfer, New video interview with Japanese cinema historian and critic Tadao Sato about the film and its director, New and improved English subtitle translation.
PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay be renowned film scholar Audie Bock and excerpts from an interview with Kinoshita

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #44340 in DVD
• Brand: IMAGE ENT.
• Released on: 2008-08-19
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Original language: Japanese
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 156 minutes

Features

• Keisuke Kinoshita's Twenty-Four Eyes (Nijushi no hitomi) is an elegant, emotional chronicle of a teacher's unwavering commitment to her students, her profession, and her sense of morality. Set in a remote, rural island community and spanning decades of Japanese history, from 1928 through World War II and beyond, Kinoshita's film takes a simultaneously sober and sentimental look at the

Amazon.com
Sentimental yet clear-eyed, Keisuke Kinoshita's Twenty-Four Eyes tracks the lives of 12 students through the perspective of one teacher. When Hisako Oishi (Hideko Takamine, a favorite of Kinoshita and Mikio Naruse) arrives in Shodoshima in 1928, the island’s townspeople take umbrage at her modern suit and "shiny new bike," but Oishi's charm and dedication wins them over in the end. About her charges, she tells her mother, "I don't want those adorable eyes to ever lose their sparkle." Though Oishi means "big stone," the first-graders--five boys and seven girls--call her Miss Pebble due to her petite stature. As the years pass, some of the students leave school to work, while the now-married instructor encourages the boys to consider non-military options. Though she isn't a "Red," Mrs. Oishi subscribes to pacifism and free thought. Similarly, Twenty-Four Eyes doesn't advance a political agenda, but rather a humanist one. As Audie Bock (Japanese Film Directors) notes, Kinoshita placed a high value on "innocence, purity, and beauty," and even after two decades of hardship, his heroine never loses faith in the essential goodness of people.

Though Sakae Tsuboi's 1952 novel inspired a 1987 remake, Kinoshita's film stands as the definitive adaptation. A classic in its native country, this 1954 feature shares the same timeless values as All Quiet on the Western Front and Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Extras include an interview with Tadao Sato (Currents in Japanese Cinema), two trailers, and a booklet with commentary from the director and an essay by Bock. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Review
One of Japan's greatest lyrical pictures. --Donald Richie

Customer Reviews

An Anti-War Movie Based on Sorrow and Loss
When the Japanese lost the war, this trauma had to be explained and given meaning. Ironically, shortly after Hiroshima, certain Japanese films critiqued the aggressive militarism that led to the disaster [See Kurosawa's "No Regrets for our Youth]. Then, the Japanese films changed. They stopped focusing on their own culpability in the disaster or their own war crimes, and concentrated on the loss, tragedy, and sorrow of losing so many Japanese sons. This film, "Twenty-Four Eyes," fits into that category...and for that reason has been so popular in Japan for fifty years.

As an example, when World War II looms, the boy students talk about becoming soldiers. Their teacher, Ms Oishe, responds that she prefers fishermen or rice sellers to soldiers. Later she is criticized gently for her "lack of patriotism" in her speech to the boys. To be fair, one aspect of anti-militarism ..the loss of freedom of speech...is well handled.

The story focuses on a self-sacrificing teacher and her relationship to 12 students over two decades. Everything is filmed around a small village bordering the ocean. Over these many years, the female teacher forges strong emotional bonds with all her students...and so when the boys go to war...and some don't return, her deep, personal loss is as extreme as that of a parent. The themes are reinforced though the changing moods of the sea or of the folk songs which the school chants. It's a very finely done film, although perhaps overly sentimental for my tastes. A great deal of attention is given to the serene, contemplative cinematography.

But...the director certainly never addresses the many injustices practiced by the Japanese on so many other Asian peoples. It reminded me, in a way, of the Buddhist movie "The Burmese Harp"...another excellent anti-war film that also sidesteps the issue of Japanese culpability. Nevertheless, few films are so poignantly intimate in treating the loss of life in war as this Japanese study. It does this because it slowly acquaints the viewer with the daily lives of the twelve boys and girls - all adorable - who grow up with their teacher in the small, poor village on the sea. In other words, the memory of the soldiers...as children...is a very important perspective because what this film does, which no other movie does quite as well, is to depict war as The Death of Innocence.

Recommended.

The Life of Miss Pebble
This movie has been considered a classic in Japan since its release in 1954, and it's easy to see why. It begins as a charming, innocent portrait of a new teacher and her first grade class and slowly deepens into a touching yet realistic depiction of how each child's life goes on in its own way. Some of the children prosper, some fall into poverty and tragedy, but the matter-of-fact way that profound emotional issues are handled in this film without putting off the viewer is a feat that has never been accomplished so well before or since. A truly remarkable piece of art.

A very good film spanning decades
This review is for the Criteiron Collection DVD edition of the film.

Twenty Four Eyes was released in Japan as Nijushi no hitomi. The film is one of the most critically acclaimed in Japan despite its obscurity outside of Japan.

It follows the lives of 12 students (the title is derived from the 12 students) at a school on a remote island in late 1920's Japan from their days as students to adulthood. I found it to be a great film and thought the storyline to be really good too. The film covers themes such as World War II, life and death.

The DVD has one special feature which is an interview with Tadao Sato, a Japanese film scholar who discusses the film and its director.