, based on the novel by Sakae Tsuboi

Sakae Tsuboi

was a Japanese novelist and poet.-Early life:Sakae Tsuboi was born in the village of Sakate in Kagawa Prefecture, the fifth daughter of soy sauce barrel maker, Tokichi Iwai...

, is a 1954 Japanese

Cinema of Japan

The has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world – as of 2009 the fourth largest by number of feature films produced. Movies have been produced in Japan since 1897, when the first foreign cameramen arrived...

 film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 directed by Keisuke Kinoshita

Keisuke Kinoshita

was a Japanese film director.Although lesser known internationally than his fellow filmmakers such as Akira Kurosawa , Kenji Mizoguchi and Yasujirō Ozu , Keisuke Kinoshita was nonetheless a household figure at home beloved by audience and critics alike, especially in the forties through the sixties...

.

Synopsis

The movie follows the career of a schoolteacher named Ōishi (played by Hideko Takamine

Hideko Takamine

was a Japanese actress who began as a child actor and maintained her fame in a career that spanned nine decades.-Life and career:Born in Hakodate, Hokkaidō, Japan, Takamine's first role was in the Shochiku studio's 1929 film Mother , which brought her tremendous popularity as a child actor. Soon...

) in Shōdoshima

Shodoshima

is an island located in the Inland Sea of Japan. The name means literally "Island of Small Beans". There are two towns on the island: Tonoshō and Shōdoshima, comprising the district of Shōzu.The island is famous for its stages of Twenty-Four Eyes...

 during the rise and fall of Japanese ultra-nationalism

Japanese nationalism

encompasses a broad range of ideas and sentiments harbored by the Japanese people over the last two centuries regarding their native country, its cultural nature, political form and historical destiny...

 in the beginning of the Shōwa period

Showa period

The , or Shōwa era, is the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of the Shōwa Emperor, Hirohito, from December 25, 1926 through January 7, 1989.The Shōwa period was longer than the reign of any previous Japanese emperor...

. The narrative begins in 1928 with the teacher's first class of 1st grade students and follows her through 1946.

Release

The film has been released on DVD in the UK as part of the Masters of Cinema

Masters of Cinema

The Masters of Cinema organization began as a website dedicated to the most well-regarded film directors in the world. Founded by a diverse international group of like-minded film enthusiasts: Jan Bielawski, a mathematician; Doug Cummings, a graphic artist and freelance critic; Trond Trondsen, a Ph.D...

 Collection from Eureka! video and in the US as part of the The Criterion Collection

The Criterion Collection

The Criterion Collection is a video-distribution company selling "important classic and contemporary films" to film aficionados. The Criterion series is noted for helping to standardize the letterbox format for home video, bonus features, and special editions...

.

A 1987 color remake was directed by Yoshitaka Asama.

External links