Twenty-Four Eyes

A marvelous film chronicling twenty years in the life of a young schoolteacher and her pupils on a remote Japanese island beginning in 1928. The "24 eyes" are her twelve 6-year-old pupils living in a quiet and peaceful Inland Sea village whose harmony is shattered by the war. The schoolteacher is forced to resign when books she believes are good for the children are rejected as "Red" literature. War sees most of the boys going off to fight and the girls living in poverty. Not a dry eye in the house. Presented in a very simple and touching style, Kinoshita goes all out to show how war affects those that are left behind. Nick Wrigley of Masters of Cinema