Twenty-Four Eyes (1954) User Reviews

Masterpiece of storytelling...

[guardian-genghis · 9/10 · 18 March 2007]

People who view this film would do well to consider the sentiment of post-war Japan in the mid-50s, when the future was still uncertain and the vast devastation and shame caused by the war were prevalent in the mindset of its citizens.

The timing for this film's release was significant, because perhaps for the first time, it permitted the people of Japan to cry unabashedly for themselves, far removed from any political statement so frequent in Shochiku films such as with many of Kurosawa's classics. Movies at the time tended to have positive, uplifting themes that motivated the populous to help rebuild the country into a modern democratic nation. You can thank Douglas MacArthur for that.

The post-war generation was now almost 10 years old, and in the Japanese psyche was the need for justification for its darkest period in history.

This film served as a reminder of the horrors of war, not from the battlefields, but from the emotional scars left on its children who lived and died during it.

Hideko Takamine brilliantly played the role of a school teacher on a typical remote island community in south Japan during an increasingly militarist government. As was customary at the time, the same teacher saw to their students' education from primary to high school, forming a lifetime bond.

Director Keisuke Kinoshita's camera work is nothing less than genius, beautifully portraying the transitions of seasons from year to year. The water, sand, and dust textures are so distinct that you almost forget that it was filmed in black and white.

The character closeups are never exaggerated and the 12 children actors (hence "24 Eyes") do an outstanding job portraying how they end up sacrificing their childhood dreams due to poverty and for national duty.

Of symbolic note is the appearance of the Island bus, which is seen at first with Japanese kanji characters painted on the side. Later in the film, it's written in English as "Shima Bus", signifying how modernization has reached the island after the war.

From cast, location and cinematography, Nijushi no Hitomi is a masterpiece of emotional storytelling.

A moving tribute to a teacher's dedication to her students

[howard.schumann · 9/10 · 26 August 2008]

Considered by some Japanese critics as one of the ten best Japanese films of all time, Keisuke Kinoshita's Twenty-Four Eyes is a moving tribute to a teacher's dedication to her students and to her progressive ideals. The film spans twenty years of turbulent Japanese history beginning in 1928 and continuing through the end of World War II. Though to Western eyes it can be at times oppressively melodramatic with its overuse of such sentimental melodies like "Annie Laurie", "Auld Lang Syne", and "Bless This House", the film was extremely popular in Japan, beating out such highly regarded classics as Mizoguchi's Sansho Dayu, Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, and Naruse's Late Chrysanthemums for Best Film in Japan and Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes.

Adapted from a novel by Sakae Tsuboi and set in the rural island of Shodoshima, the title refers to the eyes of seven girls and five boys, the twelve students of first grade teacher Hisako Oishi (Hideko Takamine), endearingly called "Miss Pebble". As the film opens, a confident new teacher, Miss Oishi, rides to the school on her bicycle dressed in modern Western clothes but soon has problems being accepted by the working class villagers who think that she is a wealthy outsider. The senior teacher (Chishu Ryu) at the primary school even asks why the authorities would send such a good teacher. Miss Oishi is also criticized for calling the students by their nicknames, inquiring into each child's family life, and singing folk songs instead of the school anthems.

Later, during the Japanese invasion of China, she is suspected of being a "red" because she discourages her young pupils from becoming soldiers but does not protest when the headmaster burns one of her books. Proud but traditionally passive, she refuses to intervene in a family dispute when one of her students, a gifted singer, expresses a desire to attend the conservatory rather than go to work in a café, and does not attempt to raise funds to send one of the poorest students on a school trip. Miss Oishi is able to gain a share of acceptance, however, after an injury to her leg sidelines her for several months and the children visit her without being aware of the length of the journey. It is only when she meets the crying children on their way to her home that reconciliation with the community begins to take place.

Unfortunately, the length of the trip to the school forces Miss Oishi to transfer to the middle school closer to her home and she will not teach the same children for five years. Miss Oishi is a compassionate teacher who does not want to see her bright young students killed in the war but the growing conflict in China and the increasing poverty in the village force the young men to become cannon fodder for the militarists with unfortunate results. Twenty-Four Eyes to our modern view has many excesses including its almost three-hour length but the purity and radiance of Takamine as the compassionate school teacher shines through and the film allowed Japanese audiences to experience a cathartic expression of the sadness and loss caused by the war.

An incredibly moving film

[zetes · 9/10 · 21 June 2009]

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.

An incredible tour through Japanese history.

[bret_hart · 10/10 · 21 August 2001]

"Years might go by, but the mountain colour never change."

This movie is an excellent work of art by Keisuke Kinoshita.

It starts off with a new teacher being assigned to teach the first grade in a poor village. She is initially rejected from the community, and is gossiped about constantly. However the students she teaches fall in love with her style. One of her tasks is to teach the children to sing. However, instead of teaching school songs or patriotic songs, she teaches them folk songs. Misfortune strikes and she is forced to leave the school, but not before she makes a lasting impression on the children. They will see her again, as a teacher, but not for another five years.

From these humble beginnings a rich story about the poor in Japan before, during, and after World War 2 is shown. We get to know all twelve children ("24 eyes") in the movie, and eventually learn about their fates as adults. We see the equivalent of the "Red Scare" in Japan, and the saddening events caused by World War 2. Although overdramatic, the feelings still feel genuine and even the hardest of people will not be able to resist shedding a tear or two over the fates of the children you grow to love.

I can only ask you to watch the full 3 hours. That is the only way one can truly appreciate the beauty of this film. There is nothing else to be said.

Outstanding

[sharptongue · 10/10 · 12 January 2003]

Nearly everyone who rated this film gave it 10/10, and it's easy to see why. This is a wonderful and bittersweet story about a teacher and her first twelve students, the "24 eyes" of the title, on a fairly remote island community. The story sweeps over about 20 years, from the students in the first grade, then the sixth, then as later teenagers, then four years later. The story begins in the late 1920s, and thus spans a turbulent time in Japanese history, which of course impacts greatly on the characters, even on a fairly isolated island.

Hideko Takamine is perhaps my favourite Japanese actress. This luminous and loveable women with the dazzling smile is a joy to behold and, playing the object of much affection from the children (though only sometimes from the adults), creates a wonderful feeling. Man, I wish I'd had her as a teacher in lower primary school.

There's a strong sense of community in this story, which is one of its strong points, but it is not always a positive thing for the characters. The older women gossip, of course, about the 'modern' new teacher, because she rides a bike and wears western clothes.

The director expertly presses all the emotional buttons of the audience. There are some people who detest this sort of thing, but I'm a sucker for it. In the hands of an expert director, and for the purposes of entertainment, there's nothing wrong with being taken on a emotional roller-coaster ride. There are some high points and many sad events in the story, which moves along at a pace which is sometimes leisurely but never dull.

This film is not free of faults. Aside from the very overt emotional manipulation, there are several tunes which are vastly overused. For instance, "auld lang syne" is played at least ten times.

Also, and most surprisingly, Hideko's range is limited. Despite two and a half hours, together with Hideko being the undisputed star, she shows only three expressions during the entire proceedings. Comparison to the superb HAPPINESS FOR US ALONE shows this clearly. In HFUA, Hideko plays a deaf-mute and uses her wonderfully expressive face to full effect.

But these are minor points, and no reason to mark it down from a perfect score. This is a must-see for anyone who loves film.

Absorbing and Affecting

[crossbow0106 · 10/10 · 27 August 2007]

For English speaking people, there are not many movies available on DVD starring Hideko Takamine. This is one, and it is a masterpiece. Ms. Takamine plays a schoolteacher in a small Inland Sea village in Japan. The movie's time line is twenty years, from 1928 to 1948. These turbulent times affect the students she teaches, some of whom went off to war. There are many tears in this film, from the children and Takamine's character. The fact that "Auld Lang Syne" is used at times for background music heightens the feelings of loss & sadness, which does make up some of the story. This is somewhat of an anti-war film, but only as it affects the children and the teacher. Ms. Takamine is luminous in this role, as she is in every movie I've ever seen her in. The fact that the director Kinoshita Keisuke also directed her in "Carmen Comes Home" (the first ever Japanese film in color), a film light years away from this one, shows off their versatility in their craft. The only complaint I have is small, that the subtitles are somewhat annoying, since they are sometimes out of sync. However, a great movie is a great movie. This film won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. It is a richly deserved honor.

An iconic Japanese film by Kinoshita

[lyrast · 10/10 · 11 November 2009]

Before I watched 24 Ey"es, I prepared myself for what I thought would be a Japanese version of Goodbye, Mr Chips" {a film I have never really enjoyed despite my appreciation of Robert Donat}. What I experienced was something much more realistic and emotionally moving. Rather than being a sentimental tale of the dedicated teacher earning the life-long love of her pupils, it is the greater and deeper saga of a loving woman who happens to be a teacher and who is also a moral mentor for those who need her devotion, guidance, example, courage and love during the lean, desperate, and sometimes frightening years during which she works. That time context is the difficult period beginning with the Depression and including the terrible years of the Second World War.

Naturally a human focus is necessary because of the large time span covered in the film and the director chooses the twelve pupils who are part of Oishi's first experiences and with whom she relates at various times through her life. Kinoshita skilfully manages the contrast between the time and the person throughout the film. Everyone has the right to their own opinions which must be respected, but I can only disagree with the viewer who criticised the film as "unshaded and unshaped to the point of tedium". Yes, the film is long. But every incident has a function and the totality is far from "unshaped". Likewise the criticism that the heroine was well named as "Miss Cry Baby" by her students is unfair. I think that this perspective simply misses the fact that the cultural restrictions of the time {which included a major war} were such as made any proactive assault on social attitudes completely impossible.

So this film is not at all sentimental in the Mr Chips mode. Miss Oishi has accidents, deals with the problems of unsympathetic and intractable parents, is regarded as possibly being a "Red", and has to watch her clearly well-meaning principal burn a book of literary works by students because they are not politically correct. She leaves teaching for a period, in part out of disillusionment and in part to raise her own family, allowing us to see another dimension to her character.

The original twelve students continue to impact in various ways throughout her life, forming a rhythm and pattern which not only brings happiness and sorrow, but helps to inform her vision of life with its stoical, courageous strength—a strength she imparts to them in return.

It is quite a beautiful film and the DVD has as an extra a superb interview with the Japanese film historian, Tadao Sato which is revelatory and sensitive. He mentions that when the children grew older, look-alike siblings were chosen by Kinoshita to play the roles! He explains a great deal about the cultural, political, and social contexts which make this film so effective and have made it a cinematic icon for the Japanese people.

An interesting description of Japan rural society

[maurazos · 7/10 · 12 February 2007]

It was a pleasure for me to see this lovely movie, a film I've really wished to see in the last four years but I couldn't do it until today. I heard about this movie when I lived in Japan and visited Shodoshima island, where "Eiga Mura" (Cinema Village), the place this film was made, can still be visited and the atmosphere of the past can be enjoyed. To be honest, I must say that "Nijushi no hitomi" wasn't for me the "exceptional film" I expected to see, but anyway it has been a pleasant experience. The life of the rural teacher, from the start of her career (in the mid 20's) to the time she retakes her teaching position after having become a widow (in the 40's, after the end of WWII), is an interesting guide to discover the traditional life and mentalities in the small islands of Seto (Japan Inland Sea). A good point for this film: it is usually said that this is an "anti-war" film. Well, it is true that the teacher shows a clear position against the wars Japan was involved (the war against China and the later Pacific War against the USA), but this film mustn't be considered as a pacifist pamphlet: the honest position of the teacher against the war is just one more detail in this complete description of how life should be in rural Japan during those difficult prewar, war and postwar years. A film that should be shown in every school around the world.

The truth about being Japanese.

[thomaskasaki · 9/10 · 6 December 2013]

25 years ago I made up my mind I would move to Japan. So I wrote to people in Japan who had lived there for over thirty years, and asked them what would be the #1 movie I should watch that encapsulated the spirit of the Japanese.

They all suggested "24 Eyes".

Now, after having lived in a strictly Japanese environment for five years, and having seen well over thirty Japanese movies, not to mention over a thousand hours of TV shows and animae, it is still the #1 to me.

By today's standards it will seem extremely "G" rated, a little too slow and a bit too long. But for those who want to really understand people, and where they are coming from, I can't think of a better movie to recommend. I wish every culture, particularly those that may be going extinct, would use this movie as a guideline to tell their story.

Another postwar japanese gem

[rufasff · 2 July 2003]

Compared to a film like "Pigs And Battleships", or even "I Live In Fear"; Kinoshita's film is a middlebrow, mainstream, even sentimental take on the Japan's war years and it's aftermath.

Still, the film is graceful and touching, with what Pauline Kael called "concealed art." Kinoshita's approach seems to be to take potently maudlin situations, and film them from an objective distance; with as direct and simple emotion as possible.

This may short change the great Takamine a bit; we seem to be an hour into the film before the great actress receives a close up. Still, her performaces gains power as the film goes on.

Though politics are kept in the background, as perhaps they had to in a Japanese film of this nature; but there is an anger lurking in the backgroud; an inditement of a culture that would waste the strength of it's woman and worse; reduce it's men to cannon fodder. Was it something in Japanese life; rather than just it's military, that led to it's disasters? Even the country's great filmmakers seem hesitant to speculate. In any event, another strong film of interest to all those who have fallen under the spell of great Japanese film.

Timely warning

[nqure · 7/10 · 10 December 2006]

Shortly after watching '24 Eyes', I watched a programme which showed the increase of nationalism in 21st century Japan, particularly with rising tensions in the Far East (North Korea). It was interesting to see present day teachers/educationalists demonstrating against the rise of government interference in schools and disconcerting to see one history teacher 'sacked' for giving an alternative, more balanced view regarding Japan's role/behaviour in the Second World War. If this is true, then the programme is disconcerting and '24 Eyes' deeply ironic.

I enjoyed '24 Eyes' and the relationship between the new, young modern teacher and her pupils, children from a poor village, touching. I don't think the film is just about how the war affects a community, but also about life itself, particular in the character of Matsue - who is forced to leave the village out of poverty to become a waitress on the mainland. Perhaps I am mistaken, but it seems to be inferred - from her smart kimono - that she is probably a prostitute. I thought it was clever of the script to give the children individual identities - such as Matsue, so that we can empathise with her tears and the end of her childhood.

I probably prefer the more subtle approach of 'Tokyo Story' (Ryu, who plays the father in TS, stars in this film as the older, less popular male teacher at the beginning) though they are many clever touches in this film: in the beginning the picture of the Emperor is kept in a cupboard so that one of the children answers 'He's in the cupboard' when asked about where the Emperor is. It is an allusion to how Japan's militarism will become soon much more overt. Its imperial ambitions still hidden but soon to be revealed in Manchuria.

The film is good in charting the teacher's own disillusion as nationalism and militarism dominate the school curriculum instead of simple folk songs about flowers blossoming.

My main criticism of the film is that it can be 'manipulative'. There are many scenes which are very moving (when 'Miss Pebble' slips and breaks her leg, the children's long walk to see her) but I thought, towards the end, the film kept placing one tragedy after another - which seemed to dilute some of the film's emotional power. I expect the teacher has to lose a child (immediate emotional impact) as the loss of her husband occurs off-screen. The husband's death was dealt in a rather matter-of-fact way and it's interesting that the lead actress has been criticised for her lack of expression/range of acting.

Still, I am not surprised that this film is so beloved of Japanese audiences as well as beyond as it carries a universal message - pacifism - which is even more relevant in today's uncertain world.

True art

[lreynaert · 10/10 · 17 July 2013]

One should be very careful when one uses superlatives, but, 'Twenty-Four Eyes' is one of the best movies ever made. Moreover, it is more than ever highly topical, albeit shot in black and white. It is the story of the emotional link between a junior teacher and her class of 12 children.

Keisuke Kinoshita's movie tackles directly such crucial issues as freedom of speech (if you speak out against the war, you could lose your job), as calling a spade a spade (a war means simply killing people), as the choice between war and peace, between love and hate, between care (for the children) and selfishness and between sincerity and deceit or worse denouncement. His movie makes one understand that there is an all powerful authority which intervenes behind the scene in people's lives, by manipulating public opinion and by trying to turn the population (and mostly its children and young men) into deaf-mute pawns in order to use them as cannon fodder. Another means is starving the dissidents by firing them. Keisuke Kinoshita's characters are anchored in real life with its poverty (nothing to eat, or no money to go to school), its illnesses (tuberculosis), its accidents and, most importantly, the war and its victims.

Keisuke Kinoshita knows what true art is. It is not an expression of emotions, but the creation of emotions (involvement) into the spectator's heart. His movie stands in sharp contrast with the actual avalanche of movie products pieced together with Meccano aliens (concocted with special effects) fighting human killers, while both are shouting their immoral gospel of violence and death. A truly cold world, and in no way the warm atmosphere created by Keisuke Kinoshita's school teacher.

'Twenty-Four Eyes' was shot by a director with a big heart, who made simply an everlasting sublime movie. A must see.

Fine Drama Negated By Juvenile Greek Chorus.

[net_orders · 6/10 · 14 May 2016]

Viewed on DVD. Editing = 2.5 stars; restoration = 2.5 stars. Director Keisuke Kinoshita's lyrical outing suffers from an attempt to blend epoch drama with an all-purpose (Swiss-army-knife) children's choral concert. The mash up is quite effective when the Director sticks with cute first-grade school songs. Not so much when his children's chorus sings lyrics that: consist of blank-verse nonsense (a phenomenon often found on the sound track of films from this era); take on an unrealistic adult perspective; provide expository information (voice-over singing); deliver travel logs; provide third-party points of view; etc. In short, this incessant "racket" rapidly becomes an irritant especially when it keeps interrupting the very engaging story line. The film needs a good scrub by an experienced musical director (which would also shorten a too long film and keep the focus squarely on the unfolding high drama). It is amusing to see that school classes seem to be limited to--you guessed it--singing! No less interesting is the lack of continuity when 12 first-grade children (24 eyes) suddenly become 20 or more (40 eyes!). Kinoshita makes effective use of very long scenes by ensuring they remain engaging. Acting, however, is uneven due to limitations in script and direction. The talents of leading actress Hideko Takamine (playing a "modern" school teacher) are squandered with dialog along the lines of "I don't know what to say" and "I can't say anything now" and ever present sobbing (more than half of Takamine's performance is limited to crying!). Distinguished actor Chishû Ryû is both miscast and misdirected playing a clueless first-grade music teacher. Director Kinoshita also over doses on cute (but hammy and obviously staged) mug shots of children (the same shots are repeatedly shown). Subtitles do not translate hand writing and some singing bouts. Cinematography (narrow screen, black and white) uses an antique format (perhaps due to budging issues and/or fear of updating?). Editing errors and restoration that does not correct for same occur with each inter-scene dissolve in the first third of the movie. Linked scenes go out of focus just before and immediately after each dissolve (could at least be replaced with jump cuts during restoration?). Sound dubbing is OK. Nonchoral music consists of a rich score that include some riffs on Steven Foster and Auld Lang Syne. Enjoyable, especially if you are into choral music big time! WILLIAM FLANIGAN, PhD.

Too Manipulative for my Taste

[montferrato · 5/10 · 21 May 2021]

I love Japanese Cinema. I watched with patience this movie. I liked the filming and the actors. However, i found the story a bit too much sentimental, as well as a bit hypocritical.

The story is quite predictable, and there are too many tears. There is also an excessive use of singing. If they had decreased the level of emotional and ideological manipulation, i would have given the movie a 7.

If you like Japanese horror movies...

[daniel_poeira · 10/10 · 29 August 2005]

Whenever I tell someone about a Japanese movie called "24 Eyes", everyone asks me if it's a horror movie, because of the title and because of the recent boom of Japanese horror movie Hollywood remakes.

I always tell them that yes, it is a horror movie. It is a movie about a woman who is dissed by an entire town because she dared to ride in a bicycle. A movie about people who actually believe that fishing is more important than music. A movie about little children who prefer to die in a war than being poor like their parents.

What else could be more horrorific than all that? Black water dripping from a ceiling? A little girl walking backwards with hair covering her face?

I don't think so.

Incredibly sentimental and poignant...

[planktonrules · 10/10 · 3 October 2010]

"Nijûshi No Hitomi" is an interesting film in that you initially think it's just a heart-warming story about a school teacher but it actually is a tale chronicling the rise of militarism and destruction of a generation. And, in the process, it draws you into the characters' lives and makes you appreciate the great loss--these were decent people.

This story begins in a country village in Japan in 1928. A young female teacher is beginning her first assignment and she has trouble with some of the locals not accepting her. They see her as a 'city girl' and despite connecting with the kids, has a hard time being accepted by the parents. The war in China and WWII are still years ahead. The twenty-four eyes in the story refers to the 12 adorable students in her charge--and the film follows them through the 1930s and into the 40s.

In many ways, the film is very slow and sweet as their lives unfold, but there is also a strong undercurrent of melancholy for losses that occur throughout the years as well as upcoming losses. This is heightened by the songs chosen throughout the film--all very, very sentimental. Heck, the entire film just drips sentiment. Now this is not a criticism--the film tries from start to finish to pull at your heart.

A change slowly occurs through the course of the film. As the Japanese militarism is on the rise, there is also a strong push for the teachers to teach only approved content--content that encourages patriotism and self-sacrifice--turning the children into 'good' little children who want to go off to war. Anyone not espousing this view in the classroom is labeled a 'Red' and the teacher is finding it harder and harder to teach in such an environment. It's also tough because she really can't speak her mind or encourage her male students to lives outside the military. As a result, she decides to quit her job and raise a family of her own. In this, the film really does a good job. Instead of just saying that militarism is evil and destructive, you slowly see the students grow...and then die in a war of aggression. And, you then see the teacher's own kids as they, too, are infected with this view of the world.

By the time the movie is complete, Japan has been defeated, the teacher has lost her husband to the war and many of her students from long ago are dead as well. The teacher is just thrilled that all the killing is over and that they can return to normal--something they haven't seen for many years. but, unfortunately, the sad times are not completely behind them. However, now things have come full circle, as the teacher can now finally return back to work--and she has many students who are the children of her original class back in 1928. Later, after class, seeing her wander through the graveyard looking at all the familiar names is quite touching.

Overall, this is a very melancholy but beautiful movie. Despite being extremely long and slow, it's not over-long and manages to capture the viewer--pulling them into this sad time. Through very deliberate pacing, exceptional acting and very, very, very sentimental music, the film makes its point so well. When this debuted in Japan, the theaters must have been filled with sobbing patrons.

By the way, for another great Japanese film about the waste of WWII, try watching "Fires On The Plain" ("Nobi"). It's very, very different from this film--but exceptional nevertheless.

Yet another hidden Japanese masterpiece

[fa-oy · 10/10 · 27 December 2011]

First film I watch from Japanese director Keisuke Kinoshita and I'm definitely glad I decided to do so, as this film has resulted in a really staggering, completely beautiful experience. However, it might become heavy going at times, on account of its running time which almost draws near to three hours. Nevertheless, there are plenty of gorgeous scenes brimming with both happiness and sadness that will undoubtedly evoke emotions in you, whether liking the film or not. Moreover, if you are accustomed to black and white Japanese films, I don't think you will find any obstacles in order to fully appreciate it.

It all takes place in a sparsely populated, small island called Shodoshima, where in order to continue their studies, the children had to make a long walk to school. In one of those rather large walks, they come across their former teacher (she had just quit teaching) who tells them to treat the new teacher well. Then the new teacher (Isokichi Okada) arrives, impressing everyone on her way to school with her suit and bicycle, both of which were highly innovative in those times. From there on, both the teacher and the children would forge an unbreakable bond that would last for many years. As the plot slowly unravels, the teacher will gradually get into many of her students' lives as they grow up, and the problems they will tend to encounter in their way, which might prevent them from keeping on studying. There were as well the persistent thoughts of war; later in the film, when some of the male students were in sixth grade, they would think of getting drafted into the army to serve their country.

The acting is superb, there's absolutely nothing to reproach it. Every single person delivers an amazingly credible acting, they really resemble real people. The camera-work is nothing short of praiseworthy, whit static cameras and angles reminiscent of those of Ozu's, allowing a much better appreciation of the already astonishing film. I for one loved the scene when they go on a trip and travel by ferry. One of the female students would stand up and sing beautifully a song, while the rest remained seated. She would do the same at the end of the film, which brings back many memories of the old days.

This film is, without no doubt, the best student-teacher movie I've seen, and it will more than likely remain the best. Do not hesitate to get this one if you even have the remotest desire to watch it. If it did not get a perfect rating from me, that would be because of some scenes I consider somewhat unnecessary to the plot. However, the film is still a masterpiece.

Beware of the abundant emotional content, it might bring you to tears.

My score: 9.5/10

Movie Made When People Still Had Innocence

[ebiros2 · 8/10 · 27 August 2013]

24 eyes is based on a novel that was written in 1952 by Sakae Tsuboi. It's a story about the life of a school teacher in three different time period (1928 to 1947) of Japan, namely pre- war period, during war, and post war Japan. Sakae was also born in Shodo-shima island like the main character of this movie Ms. Ooishi (Hideko Takamine). The movie has a strong anti-war theme to it as well as showing how tough life was when Japan was still a third world country.

In 1928 new school teacher named Ooishi (her first name is never mentioned in the movie) comes to the satellite school in Shodo-shima island, where there are 12 children. The place is a real country side and Ms Ooishi has a problem with the local customs, but she try's to be a good teacher. One day the children plays a prank and Ms. Ooishi falls into a hole dug by the students. She severs her Achilles tendon and has to take a long leave of absence. But the children wanting to see her travels a long way to see her, braving hunger and loneliness. Ms. Ooishi recovers, but soon she is assigned to the main school. Due to depression, many of her former students has to quit school and go to work. Ms. Ooishi gets married, but she quits being a teacher saying she hates the brain washing pro military education. War starts and many of her students and even her husband dies in the war. Long war ends and Ms. Ooishi returns to the satellite school. Many of her students are the children of her former students. As she gives roll calls, memory hits her hard, and she starts crying. Children not knowing the reason, call her cry baby teacher. Soon old students suggests a class reunion. Her old students, now grown adult gives Ms. Ooishi a bicycle like the one she used to ride to school. Ms. Ooishi cry's again seeing her old students once again.

The movie won the Golden Globe award's best foreign movie, and also won the first place in Japanese movie magazine, surpassing Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai that came out the same year.

Movie tells the life of children living in the country, but it also shows how war affected their lives. In the 1930s, Japan was trying to become one of the great nations. Their role model were United States, France, England, Dutch, and Germany. They saw that other great nations were using colonization to expand their empire, and decided to create their own empire in the name of Great Asian Co-prosperity Region. Japan won the Russo Japanese war and was big headed about their military might. All this worked for Japan to charge head in into militarism. While the Japanese navy who had their over seas envoy knew the foolishness of fighting the allied force, the army headed by Tojo insisted on taking the country to war which had deadly consequence for Japan and its people. The movie shows how very ordinary people got entangled in the tides of time, and young and impressionable people went willingly to war thinking it was patriotism. Now China who was on the receiving end during this war is only a hair trigger away from making the same mistake.

What is most striking about the movie is the innocence people had at the time. Despite their hard life they weren't crooked, or violent. Each character in this movie had an endearing qualities. Keisuke Kinoshita who was perhaps Japan's first gay director was a master at depicting people in their family settings. Hideko Takamine marries the assistant director of this movie Zenzo Matsuyama a year after this movie was made.

All this makes this one of a kind memorable movie of all time. Once you've seen it, you'll never forget it.

Sluggish Japanese classic.

[Mozjoukine · 12 January 2003]

Time was we were told that these earnest black and white accounts of female suffering were the mother load in Japanese film making and all that stuff with Toshiro Mifune waving a samurai sword was just padding.

There are probably a few people that still think so but seeing the uncut 24 EYES again, fifty (!) years later, confirms my original impression that this is unshaded and unshaped to the point of tedium, as well as leaving me with the urge to shake Hideko Takamine's impassive victim character that her second crop of pupils call "Miss Cry Baby." Watching her unwilling to intervene as the parents declare their gifted daughter will be trained for cafe work or seeing headmaster Ryo burn her leftist text page by page, without complaint, doesn't produce sympathy - just irritation. Characters who should be important die off screen. The military have no weapons. The background that should give character is deliberately left out - the island fishing industry, class room teaching methods.

What the makers undoubtedly saw as discretion just makes attention wander.

Star and director both made other, superior films so I'm inclined to chalk this one up to miscalculation. There are occasional striking images - the funeral procession passing through the terraced fields is telling.

However if the print of one of these that they wanted to send to Cannes had been ready, we might never have got to know about RASHOMON and Japanese movies might now rate alongside those from Burma.

good but not perfect

[roundtablet · 7/10 · 14 June 2018]

The movie is a great example of japanese war dramas and definitly worth watching.

However, I think this movie could have been a bit better and I will use this movie to talk about 2 things it and many other movies do wrong in my opinion. For one, the movie uses extensive crying scenes to convey to the audience that the characters are sad and that we should feel bad about them. The funny thing is that the movie has great drama. I mean its war time, people are being cencored, people are dying and everything has this very depressing tone already. Seeing your characters burst out in tears during normal conversations is in my opinion cheesy and nothing else. It is basically the idea between showing the audience sadness directly and implying it and only making the audience feel sadness through the tone. The latter one being hard to achieve but when it hits, it hits hard. The first one feeling more easy and forced in my opinion and therefore can not convey the same emotion. Of course there are some great drama scenes with people screaming and crying heavily but everything has its place and time to make it believable and subtle.

This movie has this great moment, when after the war the teacher was on a boat with her son and told him one of her former students wanted to row the boat for her as well and then she mentioned that he died. It was a great moment because it implies that not only that one boy but many of her students died during the war and since the audience knows them cares about their deaths, even if we dont know every of her student by name, the lose of the war is implied... but then a few minutes after that they show her infront of the graves of EVERY single lost student of hers, crying while showing their name. One of those 2 drama scenes is done right and the other is forced and cheesy.

The second idea i want to talk about is when to end your movies. Its a compromise between delivering a finished package, framed with perfect edges, or having it a bit raw and unformed open for the imagination or even interpretation. You know making an ending that is open but not too open is very hard, but so is having it complete but not too drawn out. I myself like it more when things are unfinished and I have the longing for more, because I know if I had gotten more I would have wished it had been shorter. Often times films dont know when to stop and miss the perfect opportunity, which I find very frustrating. In "twenty-four eyes" you have this perfect scene at the end where the teacher is in her classroom again, seeing faces that look very similair to the children she tought 18 years ago (for one because they were to same actors, but storywise they were the children of her former students) This was right after the drama scenes that hammered in the loss this war created. Now we have this scene that conveys this message of hope and familiarity. The idea that there is a future and not everything is lost. Basically the perfect way to end. ....Execpt it went on for like 15 minutes with a reuniting scenes with all the former students and the teacher. It felt to me like the movie really wanted to hammer home the anti-war message more and show the audience how much the characters lost, even though we know that already. As if I was a child who has to be told that for like half an hour in order to understand it. You know this anti-war message is nice and all but dragging on your movie because of it and ruining the perfect ending for it really doesnt seem like a good idea.

It must seem like I hated the movie, but I really dont. I dont give 7 stars out to every movie I see, you can see that by my scoring system. But i get really frustated when a very, very good movie get torn down by such small things.

The Pursuit of Happiness

[Kahuna-6 · 9/10 · 16 November 2011]

It just so happened that I watched this 1954 movie right after a newer big budget work - the 2001 Uprising.

Both movie centered around WWII and the havoc it caused. Told from the victims' perspective, both dealt with the issues of living and dying in the most horrendous circumstances.

While Jon Avnet tells the Warsaw Jewish uprising through vivid action scenes, director Kinoshite did not even fire a single shot. The closest he got to any kind of violence was the lead actress falling into a sandpit.

Yet the pain of war came through stronger in this almost pastoral movie. It is almost excruciating to watch her slowly losing her brood of students to the cruelty of war.

Hideko Takamine played the part of teacher beautifully. From a brash young innocent before the war to a wizened survivor, she did it with great sensitivity. If ever anyone needs a portrait of Japanese stoicism, she must surely be the first choice. You will surely grieve with her at the loss of her young daughter - falling to her death trying to pluck a persimmon to ease her hunger.

156 minutes may seems a long time by modern movie standard. But at the end of this movie, you could almost be there at the little inn, sipping a little sake, looking at a old school photo through a blind man's eyes, celebrating life.

A Brief Glimpse of Love and Innocence

[norman-42-843758 · 7/10 · 17 June 2011]

Twenty Four Eyes is a story of platonic love and childhood innocence and the maintaining of this love particularly when the innocence is lost to the reality of the world. This love exists between the teacher and her students and also between the students and the teacher. By modern standards it is melodramatic and sentimental in parts and I am sure the traditional Scottish background music played on a violin orchestra would sound as strange to Japanese ears as traditional Japanese music would sound to ours. Most who watch this film will be touched by a time we all long for but know in our hearts we will never see return. Its attraction is the brief opening of a window into this world. There is sadness. Some of the boys are lost in the war and through the circumstances of life many of the girls do not attain the life that they are capable of achieving. Even the teacher's personal life is torn apart by the events of the war. She is even subjected to Japan's own version of McCarthyism but instead of succumbing to anger and sadness she returns to the classroom after a break of many years in order to teach the next generation. Those who are left, gather to show the love and respect that this particular teacher has touched in their hearts. Whilst watching this story unfold I kept asking myself "What happened to Japanese innocence and after offerings such as Severn Samurai and Tenko, did it ever exist? As a story of hope against all the odds it is up there with the Shawshank Redemption and Steven Soderburgh's King of the Hill. This was a very worthwhile film and I am sure it did its part in restoring the Japanese identity after the end of the war.

Paradoxes Abound

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 8 August 2015]

In this gentle emotional piece which was produced after World War II, we see the world through the eyes of a teacher who has "Western" ideas. She cannot fathom the culture that tells twelve year olds that they should embrace death for the glorious Emperor. She gets a job in a school in the hinterlands and immediately annoys the older population by riding a bicycle instead of walking (there are no other bicycles). Soon she is attached to her students but falls under the heel of administrators and the political climate. At times she puts herself in danger by talking about certain things in her classroom. As the years pass, her students go different ways, people die from starvation, others go through great pain because of no future. The war, of course, claims some. This is a very long film and full of emotion. As is the case with many Japanes films, there is patriotic singing throughout, a kind of indoctrination. But there are also folk songs which parallel the events that take place. This is a priceless film if you can stay for the duration.

First-class trash

[gabealexander26 · 1/10 · 8 February 2012]

This film is a not-so-subtle piece of propaganda, written primarily for the people of Japan who apparently needed to wallow in the self-pity they experienced in the wake of World War II. Masterfully set around a benevolent, loving and "enlightened" teacher - who even manages to "shock" the island's inhabitants by wearing Western clothes and riding a bicycle - and her twelve original pupils, whose "twenty-four teary eyes" are constantly exploited for the manipulation of the viewer, the story does nothing to appeal to the collective sense of shame and remorse that the Japanese nation should have felt. War was treated as something of a "brutal reality" that somehow was "forced" on Japan and its inhabitants, to the point that she had to send her young men to spill their blood and give their lives heroically in the defense of the "motherland." Most infuriating was the casual mention of the "incidents" in Manchuria and Shanghai. Not even a word, if only in passing, about Nanking! Let the viewer - especially the Japanese viewer! - remember that many of the girls raped in Nanking were not much older than the teary-eyed girls shown in the film. Chinese young men fared no better as many were decapitated or buried alive for the "sport" and amusement of the Japanese butchers!

This is the most shameful film in memory, one that even the Nazi propaganda machine would have had a hard time pulling off - yes, Joseph Goebbels would have been proud of it. A TOTAL WASTE OF TWO-AND-A-HALF HOURS! I will have to wash this filth from my mind tomorrow by viewing the 2007 documentary "Nanking." And, finally, a question for all those who have lavished praise for the story, the actors the director and his cinematic "accomplishment": If this story had been written in Germany in 1954 by a famous film-maker and presented to the world as a reality in that country during the years the story covered, would the movie critics' reaction be the same? Would YOUR reaction be the same? Something to think about!

Beautiful

[gbill-74877 · 9/10 · 21 July 2019]

A gentle, touching film made about a decade after the war had ended, and a landmark in Japan's coming to terms with it. A young teacher (Hideko Takemine) arrives to teach a class of first graders on the beautiful island of Shodoshima in 1928, and when we do the mental math, we realize that these kids are going to be coming of age in an era of Japanese aggression and war. With occasional skipping forward with the passage of time, the narrative then tells their stories to 1948.

The cinematography is stunning, with scenery that is made even more beautiful when we see people moving through it, e.g. groups of kids scrambling through fields, or the teacher riding her bike along the shoreline. The children are absolutely adorable, and with great care in the casting (including the use of siblings who were spaced apart in age), they really do seem to age as the movie progresses. Takamine is fantastic, conveying such heartfelt warmth and soulful intelligence. She's 'modern' in the sense that she rides a bike to the surprise of the islanders, and has no issues with teaching material that is considered communist and highly dangerous in the period of ultra-nationalism. At the same time, she's traditional in her kindness and politeness to everyone around her, and she's so loving to her students that she's like a mother to them all, truly caring for them for life.

We first start seeing childhood dreams dashed not by war, but by the need to help out their poor parents after just a rudimentary education. Some of the bright young girls have to set aside their hopes and begin working while still just kids, in what are very touching scenes. In its simple way, the film seems to have feminist undertones, something I also noticed in director Keisuko Kinoshita's work from the same year, The Garden of Women.

More significantly, the film delivers a pacifist message, and it does so by simply showing loss, and the tragedy of a generation that sent its young men off to war. Children singing plays a huge part in this movie, and the war songs they sing while the soldiers are shipped off to great fanfare have lyrics that are horrifying. The expectation is that they are sacrificing themselves willingly. It's amazing how far away the war is - beautiful Shodoshima is not bombed or invaded, so we see none of the physical devastation - but we see something just as powerful, the emotional devastation of losing people to war, people who were kids once, and who were simply swept up into it for reasons almost entirely out of their control. The film's power lies in this indirection. It is the yin counterpart to the traditional yang war films, which usually depict the bravery and horror of battle.

It's a fantastic moment when the teacher instructs her own kids by telling them that she likes ordinary shopkeepers or farmers better than soldiers, and later that despite losing the war, she's happy that it's over so that needless death will stop, even though these are unpopular opinions. There is so much love and warmth in this film, and this is a part of it, simply wanting to live life in peace.

Kinoshita created indelible images with things like Takemine playing with the kids amidst the cherry blossoms, and the tight shots on the faces from a photo they all take when the kids are young. I love how fluid he is with the camera and how much emotion he conveys, seeming to draw on a directorial language that is much richer than others from this time period. The film does get a little melodramatic and included some events that could have been excised, but its main thrust is so humanistic and powerful that I more than forgive it for that.